Sponsored Products vs Brands vs Display: Which to Use

Sponsored Products promote one product in search results and on product pages, and they drive most direct sales for most sellers. Sponsored Brands show your logo, a headline and several products or a video, usually at the top of search, and they need Brand Registry. Sponsored Display (now part of Amazon's display ads offering) shows ads on and off Amazon to shoppers based on products they've viewed or their interests. Start with Sponsored Products, add Sponsored Brands once you're brand registered and have a few products, then use display for retargeting and defense.

Key takeaways

• Sponsored Products: no Brand Registry needed, cost per click, best for direct sales. Start here.
• Sponsored Brands: Brand Registry required, cost per click or per thousand viewable impressions, best for top-of-search visibility and new-to-brand customers.
• Display ads: product, audience and remarketing targeting on and off Amazon, best for retargeting and defending your pages.
• The three count sales differently, so don't compare their ACoS side by side.
• A common starting budget split is about 70% Sponsored Products, 20% Sponsored Brands, 10% display.

The three ad types at a glance

vCPM means cost per thousand viewable impressions. You pay when the ad is seen, not when it's clicked.

Sponsored Products

Sponsored Products are the ads that look almost like normal listings, labeled "Sponsored". They appear in search results and on product detail pages, on desktop and mobile. Amazon also serves them on some third-party apps and sites.

Who can use them: Anyone with a Professional selling account. Amazon says the product must be eligible to be the Featured Offer, so if you don't hold the Buy Box, your ad may not show. Some categories and conditions, such as adult and used products, are excluded.

Targeting:

• Auto: Amazon chooses the searches and products from your listing. See our guide to auto campaign targeting groups.
• Keyword: You pick keywords in broad, phrase or exact match.
• Product: You target specific ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers) or whole categories, refined by brand, price or rating.

Strengths: They sit right where shoppers are deciding. They usually give the most direct sales per dollar. Sales from ads also count toward your organic ranking, which is why they matter so much in a launch.

Weaknesses: Limited creative. Heavy competition on popular keywords. The 7-day window for sellers means some slower purchases aren't credited.

Sponsored Brands

Sponsored Brands is the banner-style ad with your logo and headline, often at the very top of search results. There are three formats:

• Product collection: Your logo, a headline and several products. Clicks can go to your Brand Store, a simple landing page or a product page.
• Store spotlight: Promotes up to three pages of your Brand Store. Amazon requires the Store to have at least three sub-pages, each with a unique product.
• Video: An auto-playing video in search results. Amazon's guide gives a length of 6 to 45 seconds. Video ads run in their own placement and auction.

Who can use them: Sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry, vendors and agencies.

Targeting: Keywords (broad, phrase, exact), products and categories, or theme targeting, where Amazon picks keywords related to your brand or landing page. Amazon allows one targeting type per campaign.

Strengths: Prime top-of-search space. Your brand name is in front of the shopper even if they buy elsewhere. New-to-brand metrics show orders from customers who haven't bought from your brand on Amazon in the last 12 months, which helps you judge the cost of winning a new customer.

Weaknesses: Needs Brand Registry and at least some creative work. Click-through rates can be lower than Sponsored Products on generic searches. ACoS is often higher, so judge it on new customers and total sales too.

Sponsored Display (display ads)

Amazon now describes Sponsored Display as part of its wider display ads offering. Existing Sponsored Display campaigns keep running in Campaign Manager. To create a new one, go to Campaigns → Create campaign and choose Display. You still pay per click or per thousand viewable impressions, with no minimum spend through the self-service console. (The managed Display, Video and Audio service is separate and Amazon says it typically needs a much larger minimum budget.)

Who can use it: Vendors, and sellers enrolled in Brand Registry. Check your console, since some newer features depend on how you buy.

Targeting:

• Contextual (product) targeting: Show ads on specific ASINs or categories. Use it to appear on competitor pages or to defend your own pages from competitors.
• Audiences: Amazon's in-market, interest, lifestyle and life-event audiences.
• Views remarketing: Reach shoppers who viewed your product (or similar ones) and didn't buy.
• Purchases remarketing: Reach past buyers for repeat purchases or cross-sells.

Strengths: Reach beyond search, including off Amazon. Retargeting brings back shoppers who already know your product. Defensive targeting fills the ad slots on your own pages before competitors do.

Weaknesses: Lower purchase intent than search ads, so ACoS is often higher. View-based attribution on vCPM campaigns can make results look better than they are. Amazon updated view attribution for vCPM display campaigns from 1 January 2026, so compare like-for-like periods before changing budgets.

Why their ACoS isn't comparable

ACoS (advertising cost of sale) is ad spend divided by ad-attributed sales. The three ad types attribute sales differently:

• Sponsored Products (sellers): Sales of the advertised product, plus other products from the same seller, within 7 days of a click.
• Sponsored Brands: Sales of any product from your brand within 14 days of a click.
• Display ads: 14 days, and for vCPM campaigns, views can count as well as clicks.

A longer window and wider product scope both make ACoS look lower. So a Sponsored Brands campaign at 25% isn't necessarily better than a Sponsored Products campaign at 30%. Compare ad types on total sales and TACoS (total advertising cost of sale: ad spend ÷ all sales, ads plus organic). See ACoS vs TACoS for the full picture.

How to split your budget: a worked example

Say you're brand registered, sell five related products at around $25, and have $3,000 a month for ads. Your break-even ACoS is 40% (find yours with the Break-even ACoS & Max Bid Calculator).

A common starting split:

After a month, say the results look like this:

If your total sales (ads plus organic) were $20,000, your TACoS is $3,000 ÷ $20,000 = 15%.

Reading this: Sponsored Products is the efficient workhorse. Sponsored Brands is slightly costlier but brings a high share of new customers, which is often worth it. Display sits right at break-even, which is acceptable if it is mostly retargeting and defense. The next step would be to shift budget toward the Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands campaigns with the best ACoS, and tighten display targeting.

These shares are a starting point, not a rule. A single-product seller without Brand Registry will run 100% Sponsored Products. A brand with a large range and strong Store may push Sponsored Brands higher.

Which ad type for which goal

Common mistakes

• Starting with display before Sponsored Products works. Display amplifies demand. It rarely creates it for an unknown product.
• Judging all three by one ACoS target. Use different targets, or judge on TACoS.
• Sponsored Brands with a weak Brand Store. If the landing page is thin, the click is wasted.
• Running Sponsored Products without the Buy Box. Ads may stop serving when you lose the Featured Offer.
• Ignoring structure. Each ad type needs its own clear campaigns.

Bottom line

Sponsored Products drive direct sales and are where almost every seller should start. Sponsored Brands add top-of-search visibility and new customers once you're brand registered. Display ads retarget and defend, on and off Amazon. Use all three together, give each its own goal, and compare them on total sales and TACoS rather than ACoS alone.

Frequently asked questions

Amazon fees, policies and features change often. Figures here were checked in October 2026; confirm current rates in Seller Central before making pricing or budget decisions. Sotrics is not affiliated with Amazon.