Amazon Sponsored Products: The Complete Guide

Sponsored Products are available for professional sellers, vendors, book vendors, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) authors, and agencies. Products must be in eligible categories and win the Featured Offer (the “Buy Box”) to be eligible to advertise. Available in 20+ marketplaces across North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific, South America, and Africa.

There are no monthly or upfront fees. Sponsored Products use a cost-per-click (CPC) model, so you pay only when a shopper clicks your ad. You bid the maximum you are willing to pay per click, and you set a daily budget for each campaign. Your daily budget is spread across the calendar month (a $50 daily budget can spend up to ~$1,550/month).

New sellers can also earn up to $1,000 in ad credits when they launch and spend on Sponsored Products within 30 days of their first campaign (select marketplaces, terms apply).

When you create a campaign, you enter a bid for each keyword or product you want to target. A bid is the maximum you are willing to pay per click. Auctions use a second-price rule, so you pay $0.01 above the second-highest bid, not your full max. Bids can be raised or lowered anytime as data rolls in. Amazon also offers “dynamic bids” that auto-adjust in real time based on the likelihood of conversion.

Keyword targeting shows your ad when shoppers search a keyword you are bidding on. Best when you know the search terms customers use. Product targeting shows your ad on specific competitor or complementary product detail pages. Best when you want to steal share from a specific competitor or appear on adjacent category pages. Most mature sellers run both, split across separate campaigns for cleaner reporting.

Sponsored Products video is a newer creative format where your ad appears as a long-form interactive video (instead of a static image) in search results. Campaigns with video have seen an average +9% uplift in click-through rate (CTR) compared to static-only campaigns. It’s the same CPC model, same placements, just a different creative treatment. Recommended for products where seeing the item in motion (e.g., apparel, kitchen gadgets, fitness equipment) drives more clicks than a still image.

Sponsored Products promotes one product listing at a time and sends clicks directly to the product detail page. Sponsored Brands (a separate ad format) promotes multiple products under a branded banner at the top of search results and sends clicks to your Amazon Store or a custom landing page. Sponsored Products drive conversion; Sponsored Brands drive brand awareness and multi-SKU discovery. Most brands run both.

Yes, and they compound. Influencer content builds awareness and generates upper-funnel demand. When those shoppers later go to Amazon to search, your Sponsored Products campaigns capture the intent. Combine with Amazon Attribution tags on the influencer’s link to trace the whole path from Reel to sale. Platforms like ainfluencer make it easy to spin up creator campaigns that feed your Sponsored Products funnel.

Adult products, used products, refurbished products, and products in closed categories are not eligible. Full details are in the Amazon creative acceptance policies for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products.

Amazon provides in-console reports on clicks, spend, impressions, ACOS (advertising cost of sales), ROAS, and attributed sales. For a fuller view that includes off-Amazon traffic, layer in marketing attribution tools and combine with Amazon Attribution for a closed-loop view of paid ads + influencer + organic traffic.