If you’ve ever run ads on Amazon, you’re probably familiar with the different advertising options the platform offers. However, there’s one crucial aspect that some sellers overlook: the various placement options for different types of ads. But why is ad placement on Amazon so important? It’s all about being in the right place at the right time. These unique ad placements help you reach customers at different stages of the buying process, significantly increase your return on advertising spend (ROAS), and catapult your sales success. If you don’t understand the different ad placement options Amazon offers, you’re missing out on a lot of sales. In this article, we’ll explain everything about Amazon ad placements for Sponsored Product (SP), Sponsored Brand (SB), and Sponsored Display (SD) ads and how to optimize them. Let’s get started!
📊 Amazon Sponsored Product Ad Placements
Sponsored Product ads are pay-per-click (PPC) ads that promote individual product listings on Amazon. They are the most commonly used ads on Amazon and increase visibility and sales by showing ads to customers who search using specific keywords. Sponsored Product ads often blend with organic search results and appear next to products that match the search term.
You can find three different ad placement types within the Sponsored Product ads section:
1. Top of Search
2. Rest of Search
3. Product Detail Pages
🔍 Top of Search
The most coveted position for Sponsored Product ads is at the top of the first page of Amazon’s search results. This is the first place a shopper sees after searching for a product. In fact, 49% of consumers aged 27 to 40 purchase the first product listed in Amazon’s SERP, making this placement the most lucrative for Amazon sellers. Sponsored Product ads operate on a cost-per-click model, so the highest bidder for a keyword usually gets this premium placement. However, securing the top placement isn’t easy, especially for high-volume keywords. Even if you bid high for these keywords, only about 5% of your ads might be displayed in this placement.
📉 Rest of Search
Sponsored Product ads are not only displayed at the top of the search page but also alongside organic search results further down the page and on subsequent search result pages. Typically, the lower the bid, the farther from the first page of search results your ads will appear. However, the Rest of Search placement can be effective if used strategically. For example, suppose you have a product that is already ranked organically at the top of Amazon’s SERP. In that case, you can place a Sponsored Product ad in the Rest of Search to increase your product’s visibility and drive more sales.
📋 Product Detail Pages
This is the final placement option for Sponsored Product ads. Amazon typically places similar product ads as product listings under the bullet points section and before and after the A+ content. These are usually product-targeted ads that advertisers use to drive traffic away from their competitors. Product Detail Page placements cost less but are still extremely valuable. For instance, suppose a shopper searched for “Running Shoes” on Amazon and clicked on a product listing. Just before clicking the “Buy” button, they see your product ad with great reviews and ratings but at a $50 lower price. There’s a high chance they will visit your listing and purchase your product.
💡 How to Optimize Sponsored Product Ad Placements
Although you’d want to secure the top-of-search placement based on the CTR and CVR values above, it should depend on your campaign goals. You might want to secure top-of-search placement for your product, but you might find that the ROI is higher with Product Detail Page ads due to the lower CPC.
Whatever the reason, you can easily influence where to place your Sponsored Product ads by using the “Adjust bids by placement” option. This option helps you bid higher on Amazon to secure a specific placement. For example, suppose you’re bidding $1 for the keyword “water bottle” and want your ads to be published at the top of search results. In that case, you can add a 500% placement multiplier for the Top of Search position. This means Amazon will increase the bid from $1 to $6 to secure the first position in search results.
📈 Amazon Sponsored Brand Ad Placements
Sponsored Brand ads are PPC ads designed to increase your brand’s awareness on Amazon. These ads typically appear in Amazon’s search results and include a brand logo, a custom headline, and a few products from the brand’s portfolio. Sponsored Brand ads come in three different formats with various placement options:
1. Product Collection
2. Store Spotlight
3. Video Ads
🛒 Product Collection Ads
Product Collection ads allow you to highlight up to three products on an ad banner, with a link to a custom Amazon storefront or a dedicated landing page featuring only the products in the ads. However, placing a broad category of products on the Product Collection banner rarely works and can even harm your success. Instead, narrow your targeting to specific subcategories of products, like summer or thermal clothing, based on products or keywords to maximize CVR. Product Collection ads are usually displayed at the top of search results and in the footer of Amazon search results.
🏬 Store Spotlight Ads
Store Spotlight ads are similar to Product Collection ads, except they feature the entire store instead of individual products. They direct traffic to the brand’s Amazon storefront, where you don’t have competitors stealing your customers. That’s why Amazon’s study showed that using Store Spotlight ads improves conversion rates by 57.8%. Store Spotlight ads are also displayed at the top and footer of Amazon search results.
🎥 Video Ads
Sponsored Brand Video ads are enhanced versions of Sponsored Product ads. Like Sponsored Product ads, these ads advertise a single product and link directly to the product listing page. However, they feature an engaging product video that improves CTR by 100% compared to static Sponsored Brands ads. In fact, Amazon’s studies have shown that the RoAS of video ads is about 28-43% higher than that of Sponsored Brands Product Collection ads. Typically, Sponsored Brand Video ads appear within search results.
🎯 Amazon Sponsored Display Ad Placements
Amazon Sponsored Display ads are Amazon’s self-service display advertising solution that enables brands to reach and retarget shoppers on and off Amazon with automatically generated, product-focused ads. Amazon Sponsored Display ads offer three types of targeting options:
1. Contextual targeting: shows ads to the audience currently visiting products and categories similar to your product.
2. Audience: allows you to reach a relevant audience throughout their shopping journey on and off Amazon.
Audience Interests: shows your products to a relevant audience using predefined audience segments.
View Remarketing: retargets customers who have already visited your ad.
Purchase Remarketing: retargets customers who previously purchased products similar to yours.
Depending on the targeting option chosen, Sponsored Display ads can be shown on:
– Amazon product detail pages and SERP on desktop, mobile, and apps.
– Third-party websites and apps like Twitch (US only).
📊 Amazon DSP Ad Placements
Amazon DSP is a media buying platform that enables advertisers to programmatically buy display, video, and audio ads to reach shoppers on and off Amazon. Amazon DSP offers sellers multiple placement options, including:
– On Amazon: homepage, Amazon live page, product detail page, all reviews page, SERP result, deals page, and thank you page.
– Amazon-owned websites: Audible, Buy Office Mojo, Goodreads, IMDb, ShopBop, Twitch.tv, Zappos, etc.
– Amazon-owned apps: Amazon Shopping, Amazon Music, Amazon Prime Video, Kindle, Audible, IMDb, Twitch
– Amazon devices: Amazon Echo, Fire TV, Fire tablet, Kindle, etc.
– Others: various websites and apps affiliated with the Amazon network.
🔍 Which Advertising Option is Best for Your Business?
Now that you’ve learned about the different ad placements. But the question remains: “Which type of ad should you choose for your business?” Studies have shown that the average conversion rate for Amazon Sponsored Product ads is 6% higher than that of Sponsored Brand ads and 7% higher than Sponsored Display ads. However, a lower conversion rate doesn’t always mean poorly performing ads. The types of ads that work for you depend on your business goals and objectives.
For example, if your goal is to attract New-to-Brand (NTB) shoppers, split your ad budget between Sponsored Product and Sponsored Brand ads to increase brand awareness and generate more sales. On the other hand, if you want existing customers to keep buying, use Sponsored Display ads to retarget them and drive them towards conversion. Ultimately, the overall performance of your ad will depend on how well you optimize the entire advertising funnel.
Constant optimization of the entire sales funnel ensures a gradual reduction in ACoS and an increase in revenue over time.
💭 Final Thoughts
Amazon offers a variety of ad placements for Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brand, and Sponsored Display. The key to success lies in selecting the right type of advertising and placement at the appropriate stage of the shopper’s journey. However, we know it’s much easier said than done.
