What are Sponsored Products?
Sponsored Products is Amazon’s most widely used advertising format — a cost-per-click (CPC) campaign type that promotes individual product listings in search results, on product detail pages, and throughout Amazon’s shopping experience. When a shopper clicks a Sponsored Products ad, they are taken directly to the advertised product’s listing page.
Why It Matters
Sponsored Products is the primary growth engine for most Amazon sellers. It is the most direct way to drive immediate traffic to a product listing, accelerate new product launches, defend market position against competitors, and test keyword performance data. Mastering Sponsored Products is foundational to Amazon advertising strategy.
How It Works
Sponsored Products campaigns work through an auction model: sellers bid on keywords (manual targeting) or allow Amazon to automatically target relevant searches (automatic targeting). When a shopper’s search matches a targeted keyword, eligible ads compete in a real-time auction. The winner appears in sponsored placement, and the seller is charged their CPC bid only when the shopper clicks. Campaign structure best practice: Automatic campaigns for discovery, Broad match campaigns for scale, Exact match campaigns for precision and efficiency.
Real-World Example
A seller of silicone baking mats runs a Sponsored Products campaign targeting exact match keywords: ‘silicone baking mat,’ ‘silicone baking sheet,’ and ‘non-stick baking mat.’ These three keywords drive 65% of the campaign’s total sales at an ACOS of 16%, well within profitable range. The remaining broad-match keywords provide discovery at 24% ACOS — accepted during the growth phase.
