Winning at Amazon Ads

Now that Amazon is the third-largest digital ad seller in the U.S., it’s time to treat it as the major player it is, and to learn more about its potential reach and use for sellers of physical products and books.As of June 2018, Amazon has over 300 million users, most of whom visit the site when they’re ready to buy. With about $232 billion in sales in 2018, Amazon is clearly a global leader in e-commerce. And the biggest revenue segment of Amazon in 2018 was retail products.

These figures show Amazon is well populated with price-conscious shoppers who are amenable to hearing about a new deal and very likely to buy close to or at the time of viewing that ad. U.S. advertisers are beginning to catch on, with over $4 billion in estimated ad revenuefrom last year alone.

Amazon recently rebranded all of its advertising products under a single brand of “Amazon Advertising” in an effort to simplify the process of purchasing, creating and managing campaigns. If you’ve confined your CPC campaigns to the major players so far, now’s the time to consider moving beyond Google and Facebook and exploring what Amazon Advertising can do for your brand.

Amazon Ads: Sponsored Products and Brands (2025 Update)

Amazon continues to evolve its advertising platform, offering core solutions like Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands, along with increasingly customized options (we’ll cover those next).

Sponsored Products ads promote individual product listings across Amazon’s marketplace. Built on a familiar cost-per-click (CPC) model, advertisers only pay when someone clicks on their ad. No upfront display cost is required. Instead, advertisers bid for placement—and the more competitive the bid, the more often Amazon will display the ad to shoppers who search using selected keywords.

Sponsored Product Example

Sponsored Brands ads (formerly called “Headline Search Ads”) allow advertisers to spotlight their brand alongside up to three products. These ads also operate under the CPC model and can drive high visibility at the top of Amazon search results, helping establish brand identity and boost discoverability.

Sponsored Brand Example

In essence, Amazon’s search advertising functions similarly to Google Ads. When a user types a keyword into Amazon’s search bar, a mix of organic and paid (sponsored) results appears. Sponsored listings are labeled clearly as “Sponsored” or “Ad,” and they typically show up at the top and bottom of search results pages—prime real estate for brands looking to capture buyer intent.

As of 2025, average Amazon CPC rates hover around $1.15, according to recent marketplace statistics. However, CPC costs vary dramatically based on product category, competition, and keyword specificity. Luckily, advertisers can set daily budgets and campaign limits to maintain control and maximize ROI based on campaign goals.

You might also come across older abbreviations like AMG (Amazon Media Group), AMS (Amazon Marketing Services), and AAP (Amazon Advertising Platform) during your research. These have since been unified under the broader “Amazon Ads” ecosystem.

With Amazon’s ad inventory growing across not just search but also video, streaming TV (Amazon Freevee and Prime Video placements), and audio, brands now have more opportunities than ever to integrate Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands into wider omnichannel campaigns.

Other Types of Amazon Advertising (2025 Update)

Beyond the CPC-based Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands ad options, Amazon offers several other innovative advertising solutions to expand brand reach both on and off its platform.

Display Ads: Amazon’s display ads promote your brand or specific products across Amazon-owned properties (such as Amazon.com and IMDb) as well as third-party websites, apps, and devices. These operate similarly to Google’s Display Network. Importantly, you do not need to be an Amazon seller to use display ads. You can drive traffic either to your Amazon product page, your brand’s storefront, or an external website.

Video Ads: For brands looking to engage audiences visually, Amazon offers video advertising opportunities across Fire TV, Amazon Freevee, IMDb, Twitch, and other Amazon-owned platforms. Video ads are highly flexible—clickable formats can link directly to Amazon product listings or to external landing pages. Brands can either produce their own videos or use Amazon’s managed-service options (note: a minimum investment of $35,000 is typically required for managed service video campaigns).

Custom Advertising Solutions: If you want to think even bigger, Amazon’s custom ad options offer highly tailored experiences. These can include integrated product placements in Amazon Originals, branded content collaborations, large-scale event sponsorships, and more. Custom campaigns are priced according to complexity, usually requiring a substantial minimum spend.

In 2025, Amazon continues to evolve these offerings, helping brands of all sizes find new and exciting ways to reach their target audiences at scale, whether inside or outside the Amazon ecosystem.

Who Can Advertise on Amazon in 2025?

Outside of the specialized products and managed-service options outlined above, most advertisers will need an Amazon seller or vendor account to run standard campaigns. These accounts typically start at around $39.99 per month, plus referral and fulfillment fees depending on the product category.

Products must also be eligible for Amazon’s advertising programs. Categories that remain ineligible include adult-oriented products (such as sexually explicit items) and used or refurbished goods, ensuring compliance with Amazon’s content guidelines.

If you’re selling physical products directly to consumers (rather than B2B), Amazon offers one of the largest ready-to-buy audiences in the world. For brands already active on the platform, setting up and scaling an Amazon ad campaign is relatively straightforward and highly effective.

Crafting a Winning Amazon Ad Strategy in 2025

There’s no need to completely reinvent the CPC advertising wheel when running Amazon Sponsored Product ads. Much of the underlying strategy behind Google Ads (formerly AdWords) still transfers well to the Amazon platform today.

However, because of Amazon’s commerce-focused nature, it’s smart to organize your campaign tightly around your product’s major categories. Build strong, focused ad groups around these categories, ideally keeping them between 15 and 30 keywords per group. Then create highly relevant ads tailored to each group of keywords.

When crafting Amazon Sponsored Product or Sponsored Brand ads, your copy needs to connect immediately with prospects and build urgency. The more specific and precise your language, the better your ad will perform. Amazon shoppers are skilled at comparing products based on detailed features—such as exact dimensions, materials, or weight capacity—so clarity is critical.

Consider bidding on popular brand names, even if you’re not selling those brands directly. For example, if you’re advertising women’s athletic socks, search that phrase and take note of major brands like Saucony or Under Armour. Including competitor brand names in your bidding strategy can capture high-intent shoppers looking for alternatives.

Finally, don’t overlook your negative keyword strategy. Negative keywords weed out irrelevant search matches and help preserve your budget by filtering out unqualified traffic. For instance, if you’re advertising drinking glasses, you should add terms like “eye” and “eyeglasses” as negative keywords to avoid confusion with vision products.