In this article you will find an explanation of how to set up Store Spotlight Sponsored Brands:
Store Spotlight Sponsored Brands allow you to promote store sub-pages of your Brand Store with Sponsored Brands. You can feature store sub-pages in your creative, helping shoppers to more easily discover different product categories within your store. You can showcase up to three store sub-pages.
Go to https://ad-optimizer.metoda.com/
For the onboarding of Sponsord Brands, click "Campaigns". This leads you to the campaigns section.
You can either:
- Case 1: add SB campaigns for new products manually by clicking “New campaign” or
- Case 2: import several new campaigns at once using “Import” and our onboarding template (the Excel template can be downloaded by clicking "Import", "Download example Excel")
In both cases, you need to fill in all mandatory information
| Information | Mandatory/ Optional | Description |
|---|---|---|
Portfolio name | Mandatory | The portfolio where you want to run the campaign in. |
| Campaign Name | Optional | Name of the SB campaign. The name must start with "m_". If no name is defined, Ad Optimizer will automatically generate a unique campaign name. It can be adapted after campaign creation. |
Headline | Mandatory | Max. 50 characters, the headline needs to be "appropriate" (avoid stating being "best" or "test champion"). Please refer to Amazon guidelines for more detailed information. |
ASINs | Mandatory | ASINs you want to display in the SB (usually 3 ASINs will be displayed in the ad). |
Brand name | Mandatory | Will be stated at the top of the SB, often differs from entity name |
Logo image | Mandatory | If you are creating a campaign via “IMPORT”, you only need the image ID. Make sure to upload the image/logo in our Image Library beforehand and use that exact ID. The ID can also be found in the example import sheet, on the assets (logos) tab. |
Brand store Link (Main page) | Mandatory | Must be a valid URL to the main page of an existing Amazon brand store. Cannot be updated. |
Store page link | Mandatory | Must be a valid URL to an existing Amazon brand store sub-page. Cannot be updated. |
Store page display name | Mandatory | Up to 50 characters. |
TACoS | Mandatory | Target ACoS you want to achieve with your campaigns; only full percentage values are possible |
| Targeting Type** | Mandatory | You can choose between keyword (manual), product targeting & category targeting. |
Start | Mandatory | Start date of the campaigns |
End | Optional | Leave blank for unlimited campaign duration; fill in for setting an end date of the campaign |
Metoda campaign category | Optional | You can set one category tag (useful for filtering in our reports, e.g "Tableware" or "Hairdryer") |
Metoda campaign tags | Optional | You can set multiple product tags (useful for filtering in our report solution e.g. "New product launch", "Special offers January") |
Negative Keywords (exact and phrase match)* | Optional | Use for blacklisting in order to make sure that your ad will not be displayed for irrelevant search terms. Limited to 1000 keywords/campaign, and each one of them may not exceed 4 words. They need to be separated by a semicolon (";"). Use exact match in case you want to exclude the exact search term. Use phrase match in case you want to exclude all search terms that include the negative keyword. |
| Negative brands | Optional | Use for blacklisting of certain brands in category targeting campaigns. |
Positive Keywords (broad, phrase and exact match)* | Optional | Additional possibility to upload important keywords manually (white listing). Limited to 1000 keywords/campaign, and each one of them may not exceed 4 words. They need to be separated by a semicolon (";") Use broad match for lose targeting, meaning the keyword needs to be included in the consumer's search term. Use phrase match for more precise targeting, meaning that the exact order of the keywords needs to be included in the consumer's search term. Use exact match for highly precise targeting, meaning that the consumer needs to search exactly what you have defined as a keyword. |
| Positive Products | Optional | Additional possibility to upload important product detail pages which you would like to target with your ad. |
| Target harvesting | Optional | Enable or disable the automated target harvesting in Ad Optimizer. (By default enabled) |
*According to our best practice, the keywords will be integrated with phrase as match type. The ads can be shown according to the phrase and close variations of it. This allows us to reach a lot of customers, while still keeping the targeting of shoppers precise. The same is true for negative keywords --> the campaign will not be displayed on all search terms that include the given negative keyword.
** There are three Targeting Types for Sponsored Brands:
- Keyword: we include suitable keywords from our database and optimize them automatically. Additionally, well-working keywords from the auto campaigns will be added continuously.
- Product: Select ASINs on whose product pages the SBs should be displayed.
- Category: With category targeting feature, you can target your own product categories and brands on Amazon.
Case 1: Generation of new campaigns using "New campaign" leads you to the following screen
There are 5 major steps you need to complete one by one to set up your campaign. Once you filled in all mandatory fields, you will be directed to the Launchpad, where you can make some last adjustments before creating the campaign(s).
Step 1: Campaign selection
Select Sponsored Brands (Ad format: Store spotlight).
Step 2: Campaign settings
- Define the start date (end date optionally)
- Select the right portfolio (use the drop-down list to select an existing portfolio or create a new portfolio via "+ New portfolio")
- Set a TACOS
- optional - Choose a metoda campaign category (the existing categories are displayed in the selection list after entering. Select one of them or create a new category)
- optional - Choose one or several metoda campaign tags
Step 3: Items to advertise
Enter the Brand store link (Main page)
Step 4: Targeting
Keyword, product and category targeting can be selected. It is also possible to select multiple targeting methods.
Step 4.1: Keyword
Click on "Customize" to add positive or negative keywords.
"Allow metoda target harvesting" - Please make sure that you have added manual targets, if you deactivate "metoda target harvesting". Otherwise, the campaign will be "incomplete" and cannot be shown.
- Important note: If you disable automatic target harvesting after creation, the targets already added by the system will remain. However, no new targets will be added by our target harvesting logic.
Positive Keyword Broad: Displayed if the keyword is included somewhere in the search term.Phrase: Displayed if it has the same order in the search term. Exact: Displayed if the keyword has an exact match with the search term. | Negative Keyword Phrase: Any search term containing the word you’ve added as a negative phrase will be blockedExact: Only exactly matching search terms are blocked. |
Step 5: Creative
Add the Brand name.
Select a headline (max. 50 characters) and a logo.
- Upload a logo if it is not included in the asset library.
- Logo specs:
- Logo specs:
Store Pages
Add the links to the store page, the display name (which will be shown as headline of the section in the creative) and one ASIN from each store sub page.
When everything is set, click on "Create" and the campaign will be created.
It is always possible to go back to the individual steps and change something there. 
If everything has worked, the following message will appear. Then refresh the page to see the created campaigns in AdOptimizer.
If something didn't work, you can download an Excel with the error report.
IMPORTANT NOTE: setting a budget period is the necessary requirement for your campaigns to be displayed. Only if a budget period for the selected portfolio exists, will your campaigns be running.
- Set a budget: make sure to set a budget in Ad Optimizer (ideally within separated/dedicated portfolios, e.g. "m_sb"). The Ad Optimizer will take over the budget management. Setting a budget period in the respective portfolio is the necessary requirement for your campaigns to be delivering. Otherwise, the campaign does not have any budget to be spent and will be paused accordingly.
Case 2: Generation of new campaigns using "Import"
Step 1: Download the Excel template and fill in all mandatory information.
Open the "SB (store spotlight)" spreadsheet.
The Excel template has instructions on how to fill in the cells.
- Campaign name: The automatically generated campaign name has the following structure: m_sp_ASIN_targeting-type
- TACOS: Target ACoS is 15% by default
Step 2: Save the Excel and drag it into the "Import campaigns" screen.
Download error report if it fails
In case something is not filled in properly, you will receive error messages in an Excel report, indicating in which row adjustments are necessary (Column U). Common mistakes: e.g. not all mandatory fields were filled, start date in the past, wrong formatting of the cells. Please read the instructions in the template carefully and follow the guidelines. Do not add or delete any columns or change the order of the columns!
Attention: Amazon limits the number of campaigns per entity to 10,000 campaigns → workaround for vendors: generate separate entities under your organization.