Amazon Ads: launching your marketplace strategy

Why sell on Amazon in 2025?

Amazon is no longer just a place to sell: it is a full advertising ecosystem. With more than 200 million monthly active shoppers and an average conversion rate above that of traditional e-commerce, Amazon is a serious opportunity for anyone selling physical products. But selling on Amazon also means accepting real complexity: catalogue management, ad optimisation, returns handling and, above all, fierce competition on every relevant search.

The businesses that succeed on Amazon are not the ones that accept the default settings. They are the ones that build a multi-channel acquisition strategy combining Sponsored Products , les Sponsored Brands , le Display , and of course the optimisation of the product catalogue itself. That is the joined-up approach we are going to walk through.

Amazon's three advertising pillars: Sponsored Products, Brands and Display

Sponsored Products: the foundation of your strategy

Sponsored Products are the pay-per-click ads on Amazon. When a shopper searches a term, your product can appear at the top of the results carrying a "Sponsored" badge. You only pay when someone clicks.

What makes Sponsored Products valuable is how fast they work. Unlike organic ranking, which takes months, you can drive qualified traffic on day one. The flip side is cost: bids left unmanaged get expensive quickly.

New sellers often set a single bid across every keyword. That is never optimal. A highly competitive term ("smart watch") calls for a different bid from a hyper-specific one ("women's GPS running smart watch").

The rule I apply: bid aggressively on high-volume, high-conversion keywords, and keep bids low on low-competition long tail.

Sponsored Brands: building brand visibility

Sponsored Brands are ads that display your brand logo, a custom headline and up to three of your products. They sit right at the top of the first results page and earn an excellent click-through rate.

Sponsored Brands serve two purposes at once: raising brand visibility and capturing search demand for your own name. If you have an established brand with some recognition, ignoring Sponsored Brands means competitors can buy the clicks on it.

Sponsored Brands take a modest investment, with a generally low minimum budget, and the return can be striking. They attract shoppers with intent and reinforce your brand in the process.

Display: reaching shoppers still considering

Amazon Display, formerly Sponsored Display, works differently. These ads appear away from Amazon: on partner sites, in Google results, or as retargeting on Amazon itself. They show your product to someone who has already engaged with your category but has not picked you yet.

Display is particularly effective for retargeting: showing your product to someone who viewed it and did not buy. It creates a second chance, often at a lower cost than Sponsored Products.

Catalogue optimisation: your durable advantage

Ads work, but they are only part of the equation. A shopper can land on your product through an ad, then leave because the title is badly written, the images are blurred or the description is confusing. That is money burned.

Catalogue optimisation is your durable advantage. It is the only thing on Amazon you genuinely control end to end, without depending on a platform or a shifting algorithm.

The optimised product title

The title is your prime real estate. On Amazon it has to carry the relevant keywords while staying readable and convincing. Recommended format: [Brand] [Product] [Key features] [Variant/Colour].

Example: TechFit GPS Running Smart Watch - 1.4" AMOLED Display - 14-Day Battery - Blush Pink . Every element does a job: brand, category, key benefit, technical specification, battery life (a decisive purchase criterion) and colour.

Images: the single most important element

Amazon images have to tell a story. The first one, the main image, must be clear, professional and show the product on a white background. The following ones should show the product in use, demonstrate its features and answer the usual purchase objections.

A shopper who sees only one or two images doubts more easily. A shopper who sees six to eight strong images trusts. It really is that simple.

The key strategies for Amazon Ads

Keyword research for Amazon

Keyword research on Amazon is not the same exercise as in traditional SEO. You are not chasing absolute volume, you are chasing search volume that is relevant to your product . Use Amazon's own keyword tool, Helium 10 or Jungle Scout to identify:

• Short-tail keywords (2-3 words): high competition, high volume, broad intent
• Mid-tail keywords (4-5 words): moderate competition, excellent purchase intent
• Long-tail keywords (6+ words): low competition, very specific, excellent conversion

The best strategy combines all three. Short-tail keywords give you visibility. Long-tail keywords give you conversion. Mid-tail keywords bridge the two.

Campaign structure

Organise your campaigns logically. A common structure:

• Campaign 1: Branded (your own brand), aggressive bids, generally excellent return
• Campaign 2: Generics High Volume (broad category), mid-range bids, significant volume
• Campaign 3: Competitors (your competitors' names), high bids, audience with intent
• Campaign 4: Long-tail & Modifiers (specific terms), low bids, excellent conversion

This segmentation lets you optimise each keyword group independently and allocate budget sensibly.

A+ content: your conversion rate, doubled

A+ content, formerly Enhanced Brand Content, is a space above the standard description where you can add images, video, comparisons and rich content. Sellers using it often see conversion rates rise by 5 to 10 %.

For a technical product, use side-by-side comparisons: your specifications against competitors'. For an everyday product, show it in use. The point of A+ is to remove purchase friction before the shopper even asks a question.

Budget management and the metrics that matter

Sensible budget allocation

Do not split your budget into four equal shares. Put 50 % on the campaigns that already pay (usually Branded and Long-tail), 30 % on share-taking campaigns (Competitors), and 20 % on exploration (new keywords).

That ratio shifts with maturity. A new seller should explore more. An established one can push harder on taking share.

The metrics to watch daily

• ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sale) : ad spend divided by ad revenue. An ACOS of 25 % means you spend 25 cents to generate one euro of revenue. Lower is better.
• CTR (Click-Through Rate) : the share of people who click your ad. Below 0.5 % is weak. Above 1.5 % is excellent.
• Conversion Rate : the share of clicks that become sales. Below 5 % is weak in most categories. Above 15 % is excellent.
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) : revenue divided by ad spend. A ROAS of 4x means four euros of revenue for one euro spent.

These metrics are only numbers. What actually counts is your net profit . You can run a 30 % ACOS and still make little if your product margins are thin. Conversely, a 50 % ACOS can be profitable when margins are strong.

Client case: Groupe Renaudin, +350 % marketplace revenue

We worked with Groupe Renaudin, a major French textile business, on its Amazon positioning. Their ads were initially lost in a sea of competition, with a 65 % ACOS and no profitability to speak of.

We restructured the campaigns, rebuilt the listings (images, titles, A+ content) and set up daily monitoring of the keywords that performed. In nine months, their ACOS went from 65 % to 22 % and their marketplace revenue rose by 350 %.

The secret? Three things: a solid base (an optimised listing), intelligent budget management, and a daily obsession with the data. Read the full case study .

The mistakes to avoid at all costs

• Not tracking your ad revenue : with no data, you are optimising blind.
• Bidding on every keyword : be selective. Quality beats quantity.
• Ignoring branding : Sponsored Brands cost little and return a lot.
• Neglecting catalogue optimisation : the ad brings the shopper in, the listing is what converts them.
• Betting on a single product : a multi-product strategy is steadier and more profitable.

Conclusion: Amazon Ads as a growth engine

Amazon Ads does not solve every problem, but for a business with healthy product margins and a competitive offer, it is a revenue engine. The key is not to see it as a simple advertising channel but as an ecosystem: catalogue optimisation, ad strategy, budget management and continuous analytics.

The businesses that win on Amazon combine product excellence (images, description, A+ content) with marketing excellence (keyword strategy, intelligent bidding, retargeting). That is the alchemy of marketplace success.

Have a product to sell on Amazon? Start with a Branded campaign this weekend. Wait a week. Read your data. Then adjust.