The Skai 5: Five Questions with Skai’s Sean Marder on Amazon Sponsored Brands

Amazon Sponsored Brands. Get expert tips on using this important Amazon ad format to gain visibility for your brand and drive sales for your products

The Sponsored Brands ad format is growing in popularity. They appear at the very top of Amazon search results, and advertisers are seizing upon this very valuable real estate to generate recognition for their brands and product portfolios.

To help you master this format, we tapped into the in-depth knowledge of our own Sean Marder, Skai’s Expert Services Senior Manager for Ecommerce. Sean has a deep background in both search advertising and Amazon advertising campaigns. His experience is across a number of consumer verticals, and he offered these answers to key questions on Amazon Sponsored Brands.

Sean Marder, Expert Services Senior Manager for Ecommerce

Why is the Sponsored Brands ad format so important to Amazon advertisers and what are some of the challenges associated with it?

Sponsored Brands ads are important for one big reason: scarcity. There’s only one placement at the top of each Amazon search results page and it’s a highly coveted spot, especially on the first page. This is also its biggest challenge as you only have one chance to win the auction. If you truly want to own a category or brand term, it’s important to own that placement.  

Another challenge in managing your Sponsored Brands placements within the Amazon platform, is that you have to create each campaign at a time. And while the copy is brief, there’s a relatively strict approval process you must adhere to. If you want to scale it’s a manual process and you have to make sure you align your creative with the keywords you’re targeting. All of this can be pretty time-consuming.

Where do Sponsored Brands fit in as part of a holistic Amazon Advertising strategy?

Both Amazon Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products are highly shoppable formats, but Sponsored Brands are a powerful tool for owning specific terms to help you dominate a brand or category. You can use this format to position yourself as a major player in your space and drive traffic directly to your brand’s Amazon store from a logo or image click.

Mine your Sponsored Products search terms, find those that perform best and then mimic duplicate that strategy in your Sponsored Brands to own the SERP.

Prime Day is coming up. What do you think advertisers should be thinking about with regards to Amazon Sponsored Brands?

If you want to own a term on Prime Day—and with the volume that will be there that’s a very good idea—then you’ll want to leverage Sponsored Brands as much as you can prior to Prime Day to find out what works. Test copy, images, different calls to action and text; then when Prime Day rolls around, run the best combinations to take as much advantage of the high traffic as possible. Additionally, Prime Day badges will be visible, so it’ll be important to run products with offers. 

On Amazon, offers are a key sales driver. The lowest price with the highest reviews typically wins. On Prime Day, you want as much visibility for your deals as you can possibly to maximize new customer acquisition.

Why would advertisers choose to run Sponsored Brands on Skai? What benefits might they expect to see?

Skai will help advertisers take Amzon Sponsored Brands from being an anomaly they have to manage in a very manual way, and pull it into the regular workflow of advertising campaign management. You’ll be able to perform actions in bulk—whether it’s creating ads or adding keywords. This gives you the opportunity to be more intentional, rather than a “set it and forget it” approach.

Once your campaigns are up and running, you’ll also be able to see your creative in one place. Reviewing the performance side by side will be key to uncovering insights that will bring new opportunities to light.

What are your top tips for getting started with Amazon Sponsored Brands?

I’d emphasize these three things:

Placement: Placement is everything so pay attention to your placement reports. Prioritize placement by increasing your top of search percentage, particularly for important terms. This may mean you’ll have to increase your bids, but doing so will likely pay off. Just monitor your results and analyze your return accordingly.

Alignment: This might sound fairly basic but it’s a big miss when the Sponsored Brand ad features a product that does not exactly align with the targeted keyword. Make sure the ad you display matches the search intent of the customer. This also includes aligning your Sponsored Brand with your Sponsored Products.

Ownership: Make sure you own your brand. You need to have an always-on strategy with your brand terms because it’s way too easy to conquest on Amazon. That being said, you can also test a conquesting strategy of your own if you see that competitors are not taking this tip to heart with their own campaigns.

Want to learn more?

Interested in learning more about how Skai Ecommerce can help you succeed with Sponsored Brands and other Amazon Advertising opportunities? Contact us for a demo today