Sponsored Brands Video vs Sponsored Display: Which to Use

Sponsored Brands video vs Sponsored Display is a choice between two jobs. Sponsored Brands video plays a short product video to shoppers searching the keywords and products you target, so it wins demand that already exists. Sponsored Display puts your product on detail pages and in front of audiences, such as people who viewed your product, so it competes on rival product pages and brings back shoppers who left without buying.

Sponsored Brands video vs Sponsored Display at a glance

Sponsored Brands video follows what shoppers search for. Sponsored Display follows the pages they visit and what they did before. Both can carry video, so the choice between these Amazon video ads is about who sees them, not the format.

What is Sponsored Brands video, and where does it appear?

Sponsored Brands video is the video format of Sponsored Brands, shown at the top of search results, within the results and on product detail pages. It starts playing on its own, muted, as it scrolls into view. A click takes the shopper to the product's detail page or to your Brand Store, whichever you choose.

Targeting works like other search ads:

• Keywords in broad, phrase or exact match, with negative exact and negative phrase keywords to keep it off searches you don't want.
• Products and categories, so the video can appear when shoppers look at specific competing or related products.

It is open to vendors and to sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry. We start it on keywords where the product already converts in Sponsored Products, because a video only pays if the detail page closes the sale. The Search Query Performance report in Brand Analytics shows which searches your brand already wins and where it is missing.

What is Sponsored Display, and where does it appear?

Sponsored Display shows your product based on the page a shopper is on or what they did before, not on what they type. Ads appear on product detail pages, search results pages and the Amazon home page, and audience campaigns can also reach shoppers on third-party websites and apps.

Sponsored Display audiences and targeting come in two groups:

• Contextual targeting of specific products or categories. Your ad shows on those detail pages and related placements, which is how you appear on a competitor's page, or on your own page to promote a related product.
• Audiences. Views remarketing reaches shoppers who viewed your products, or similar products, within a lookback window you choose. Purchases remarketing reaches past buyers, which suits products people buy again. Amazon's interest, lifestyle and in-market audiences reach shoppers by what they browse and buy across Amazon, whether or not they know your brand.

You also choose what Amazon optimises for: page visits or conversions, paid per click, or reach, paid per 1,000 viewable impressions. The default creative is built from your product image and listing, and you can add your own image or video. For audiences beyond these, such as ones built from your own customer data, the next step is Amazon DSP; see when to move to Amazon DSP.

Which one should you use for which goal?

Match the ad to the shopper's moment. Searching: Sponsored Brands video. Comparing on a product page, or gone without buying: Sponsored Display.

Click-through rate is clicks ÷ impressions; conversion rate is orders ÷ clicks. Both ads send shoppers to a detail page that has to close the sale, so check price, rating, images and stock there first. We add them once Sponsored Products has shown which keywords and products convert.

What do you need before you start?

• Eligibility. Vendors, or sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry, with products in eligible categories.
• Stock and the Buy Box. Advertise products that are in stock and hold the featured offer, the Buy Box. A click to a page the shopper can't buy from is wasted.
• A video that meets Amazon's specs. The current Sponsored Brands video specs set the length, size and file format; check them in the ad console before you edit.
• Time for review. Amazon reviews ads before they run and can reject them. Read the current creative acceptance policies for your marketplace before you shoot, not after.

Sponsored Brands video best practices

Build for a shopper scrolling with the sound off. Amazon's own guide to the format points the same way: show the product almost immediately, show what it does early, keep the video short and use captions.

1. Put the product on screen in the first frame. The video starts mid-scroll, so the opening has to show what is for sale before anything else.
2. Make it work without sound. It plays muted and Amazon counts unmutes separately, so treat sound as a bonus. Put every claim in on-screen text or captions, in type large enough to read on a phone.
3. One product, one message. Show the product in use, the one reason to choose it, then the product again with your logo. A video that tours a whole range gives no single reason to click.
4. Match the video to the keywords. For example, if you sell a steel water bottle, a video aimed at "water bottle for kids" should show a child using it. Group keywords by theme and give each theme its own video.
5. Keep prices and discounts out. Prices change and the video doesn't, so a price on screen goes out of date, and every re-edit goes back through review.
6. Read the video metrics in order. Amazon reports 5-second views, quartile views, complete views and unmutes. A weak 5-second view rate points at the opening; many views but few clicks point at the message; many clicks but few orders point at the detail page or the price.

How do you measure Sponsored Brands video and Sponsored Display?

Both credit a sale for 14 days after the ad and both report new-to-brand results, so they compare cleanly with each other. They don't compare cleanly with a seller's Sponsored Products results, which credit 7 days.

• New-to-brand (NTB). An order is new-to-brand when the shopper hasn't bought from your brand on Amazon in the past year. NTB order share = NTB orders ÷ total orders. A low ACoS with a low NTB share means the ad mostly sold to people who already buy from you. For reference, on the accounts we manage, new-to-brand order share is 69.1% (₹28.6 Cr new-to-brand sales).
• Cost per new-to-brand order = ad spend ÷ NTB orders. It shows what a new customer costs, which ACoS doesn't.
• Clicks and views. Sponsored Display reports a click-only sales figure next to a total that can include sales from shoppers who saw the ad without clicking. Check which one you are reading before you compare it with click-based numbers.
• Remarketing overstates its own effect. It follows shoppers who were already considering your product, so some of its sales would have happened anyway, and Amazon's standard reports can't say how many. To test it, pause remarketing on a few products for one 14-day window and compare their total sales with similar products where it kept running.

Watch TACoS (ad spend ÷ total sales) as well: if these ads bring in new customers, total sales should grow with the spend, so TACoS holds or falls. Our TACoS vs ACoS guide explains how to read it.

How should you split budget between them?

Fund each ad for its job, then move money on cost per new-to-brand order and ACoS once the 14-day window has closed.

1. Set the ceiling first. Work out break-even ACoS for each product (profit per unit before ads ÷ price); our Amazon profit calculator does it after fees and GST.
2. Test both on the same products, each with its own fixed budget, and read results only for days whose 14-day window has closed.
3. Know each ad's limit. Sponsored Brands video can spend only what searches for your keywords allow, and remarketing only what your pool of recent viewers allows. If a campaign can't spend its budget at a competitive bid, the pool is the limit and more budget won't help.
4. Move money by goal. For growth, shift budget toward the lower cost per new-to-brand order while ACoS stays under break-even. For profit, keep remarketing at the level your pause test supports.

Worked example (illustrative figures, not client data). Say a brand tests both for a month on the same three products, and its break-even ACoS is 30%.

On ACoS alone, remarketing looks better. On cost per new customer, the video is cheaper: ₹417 against ₹667. Both sit under the 30% break-even, so the video is the one to scale for growth, while remarketing stays at the level the pause test justifies.

ScaleSKUs pulls Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display results, new-to-brand orders included, from the Amazon Ads API, so you can ask for this comparison in plain words instead of downloading two reports. Nothing changes on Amazon without your approval.

Frequently asked questions

Is Sponsored Brands video better than Sponsored Display?

Neither is better in general, because they do different jobs. Sponsored Brands video reaches shoppers while they search; Sponsored Display reaches them on product pages or after they leave. If you can fund only one, start where your demand is: video for products shoppers search for by category, remarketing for products with many detail-page views and few orders.

Do I need Brand Registry for Sponsored Brands video and Sponsored Display?

Sellers do: both are open to sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry. Vendors are eligible too, and in both cases the products must be in eligible categories.

How long should a Sponsored Brands video be?

Short enough to make one point. Amazon's guide for the format recommends putting the product on screen almost immediately and showing what it does within the first few seconds. Amazon's video specs set the allowed length and file format, so check them in the ad console before you edit.

Why does Sponsored Display remarketing show such a low ACoS?

It shows ads to shoppers who already viewed your product, and some of them would have bought anyway, yet the report credits every attributed sale to the ad. Judge remarketing on new-to-brand share and on a pause test as well as on ACoS.