Harpy Glossary

SB (Sponsored Brands)

Amazon & D2C glossary · Harpy Media

SB (Sponsored Brands) is the advertising format available to brand-registered owners: a headline, the brand logo, and either a collection of products or a video, placed prominently above search results.

What is SB?

It occupies a different position from ordinary product ads — it advertises the brand as well as the product, and it can send shoppers to a storefront or a dedicated landing page rather than only to a single listing. That makes it the format that builds recognition while it sells, which is why brands use it to defend their own name and to acquire customers who have never bought from them.

What it is good at

Three jobs. Defending branded search: when someone searches your brand name, owning the top of that results page stops competitors bidding on it and intercepting your customers. Discovery: the format suits category and non-brand terms where a shopper is still exploring, because a well-made video or a multi-product collection gives them more to engage with than a single listing.

And new-customer acquisition, which is measurable rather than assumed. New-to-brand sales reporting shows what share of orders came from shoppers who had not bought your brand before — the metric that tells you whether the campaign is genuinely buying growth or re-buying existing customers at a premium.

Measuring it honestly

Two numbers keep the format accountable. Return on ad spend tells you whether the campaign pays for itself. The new-to-brand share tells you whether it is doing something ordinary product ads cannot. A campaign with a modest return and a high new-to-brand share may be worth keeping — it is funding future purchases; a high return with almost no new customers is often just buying sales that were already coming.

That is why the format is usually evaluated over a longer window than product campaigns, and why video creative matters so much in it: the first seconds decide whether the shopper engages at all, so a demonstration of the benefit beats a logo animation.

RoAS = Attributed Ad Revenue ÷ Total Ad Spend | New-to-Brand Sales Ratio (%) = (New-to-Brand Orders ÷ Total Orders) × 100Read them together: return tells you if the campaign pays; the new-to-brand share tells you whether it is bringing in customers you did not have.

In practice

A seller runs a Sponsored Brands video against a high-intent phrase, opening with the product solving a real problem in the first seconds. Engagement is strong, shoppers click through into the brand’s store rather than a single listing, and a meaningful share of orders come from customers new to the brand — growth that also lifts the attached products the visitors browse.

⚠️ Watch out. Running the format on a logo and a tagline. A brand runs a generic awareness-style campaign with little product substance, gets weak engagement because there is nothing for the shopper to act on, and concludes the format does not work — when the creative, not the placement, was the problem.

💡 Harpy tip. Use it where it is strongest: your own brand terms, and broad discovery terms where video or a multi-product collection gives the shopper something to explore. Judge it on return and new-to-brand share together, and give it a longer evaluation window than your product campaigns.

How Harpy Media helps

Brand advertising is part of our growth work: branded terms defended, video and collection creative built for discovery, and campaigns judged on the new customers they actually introduce rather than revenue alone.

SB FAQ

What are Sponsored Brands ads?

Brand-registered advertising formats that appear above search results with a headline, logo, and either a product collection or a video — used for brand discovery, defence of branded terms, and new-customer acquisition.

What is a good Sponsored Brands return?

It varies with objective. Brand-defence campaigns usually need a stronger return; discovery campaigns can justify a lower one when they are bringing in new customers, which is why the new-to-brand share belongs in the assessment.

What is new-to-brand?

The portion of orders from customers who have not purchased your brand in the lookback period. It separates genuine acquisition from spending on shoppers who would have bought anyway.

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