Key takeaways: Brand defense has two fronts: your brand name in search, and your own detail pages. Both are cheap to hold and expensive to lose. Build a dedicated exact-match campaign for brand terms with low bids and a high top-of-search modifier, a product-targeting campaign on your own ASINs, and a Sponsored Brands ad that fills the top row. Judge defense on impression share and branded conversion, not on ACoS.
Brand defense campaigns exist to make sure that when a shopper searches for your brand, or lands on your detail page, the ads they see are yours. Without them, competitors bid on your brand name and appear above your organic result, and their products fill the carousel on your own page. Defense is usually the cheapest spend in an account, because your brand terms convert well and the bids needed to win are low. It is also the spend that gets cut first by people who read its low ACoS as evidence that it was never needed.
The two fronts
Search. A shopper types your brand name, or your brand name plus a product. Your organic listing is likely already at the top. But the sponsored slots above it are open to anyone, and a competitor with a similar product and a lower price can take them. Bidding on your own brand is permitted and normal; bidding on a competitor's brand name is also permitted, which is why they do it to you.
Detail page. Your product page carries sponsored placements: a carousel of sponsored products, Sponsored Display units and sometimes a Sponsored Brands video. Left undefended, those slots show competitors to a shopper who has already chosen your page.
Defending both is a structure question, not a bidding one.
The defense structure
| Campaign | Ad type | Targets | Bid posture | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand exact | Sponsored Products | Brand name, brand + product, common misspellings | Low base bid, high top-of-search modifier, fixed bids | Own the first row on brand searches |
| Own-ASIN targeting | Sponsored Products | Your own ASINs, product targeting | Low bid | Fill your own carousel with your own range |
| Brand Sponsored Brands | Sponsored Brands | Brand exact terms | Moderate | Take the headline slot, send to the Store |
| Own-page Display | Sponsored Display | Product targeting on own ASINs | Low | Occupy Display slots on your pages |
The brand exact campaign is the core. It holds only brand terms, so its bid and modifier can be set for that job alone. Fixed bids suit it: you want a predictable position, not Amazon's judgment about conversion likelihood. Brand terms should be negated as phrase matches in every non-brand campaign so they cannot leak into campaigns with higher generic bids.
Own-ASIN product targeting does something a shopper rarely notices but the numbers show: it keeps your carousel full of your own variations and complementary products, so a shopper who wants a different size or color moves within your range rather than to a competitor's.
The Sponsored Brands ad on brand terms takes the largest slot on the page and, with a Store landing page, turns a brand search into a browse across the range. The Store has to be worth landing on; a single-tile default page sends the shopper back.
What defense should cost
Very little relative to its sales. Brand terms convert at rates no generic term matches, and the bids needed to hold the placement are usually a fraction of generic bids. When a defense campaign shows an ACoS in the single digits or low teens, that is normal and expected.
The temptation is to read that low ACoS as proof that the shopper would have bought anyway. Some would. But the placement a competitor takes when you leave it is not neutral; it offers an alternative at the moment of highest intent. The test is not the ACoS of the campaign; it is what happens to branded conversion and Brand Analytics click share when the competitor takes the slot.
Knowing whether it is working
Read this flowchart as text
- Monthly defense review
- Brand Analytics: click share and conversion share on brand terms
- Your ASINs hold the top three click-share positions?
- Impression share on brand exact campaign high?
- Hold. Trim bids 5–10% and watch share next month
- Raise modifier or budget. Check for budget cap
- Identify the competitor ASIN taking share
- Winning on price, rating or a real feature?
- Hold position, do not match. Test a coupon on the brand term
- Listing response: images, A+, reviews. Defense alone cannot fix it
Brand Analytics is the report that matters here. The Search Query Performance dashboard and the top search terms report show, for your brand terms, which ASINs are taking clicks and conversions. If your own ASINs hold the top positions, defense is doing its job and the bids can be trimmed gradually to find the floor. If a competitor ASIN is climbing, the question is why. A competitor winning on price alone can often be held off with position and a coupon. A competitor winning on rating or a feature is a listing problem that ads cannot solve, and the response is covered in A Competitor Is Undercutting You on Amazon: What to Do.
Defense against conquesting
When a competitor targets your brand terms and your ASINs, you can see it in the sponsored slots on your own page and in your Brand Analytics share. What you cannot do is stop them; conquesting is allowed. What you can do is make the slots more expensive for them by holding them yourself, make your page harder to conquest by fixing the gaps they exploit, and return the favor on their pages where your product compares well. That last part is covered in Amazon Product Targeting: Competitor Conquesting That Pays, and the combined defend-and-take-share approach is E6 · Defending your brand and taking share.
Mistakes we see
Brand terms mixed into generic campaigns. The brand term inherits a generic bid several times higher than it needs and inflates the campaign's apparent performance.
Cutting defense to save money. The saving is small, the ACoS elsewhere looks worse without the brand sales, and the competitor takes the slot within days.
No misspellings or variants. Shoppers misspell brand names. Exact match covers close variants and plurals but not every spelling; check the search term report for the ones you missed.
Defending a Store that does not convert. The Sponsored Brands headline sends traffic to the Store. If the Store is a logo and one tile, that traffic bounces.
Frequently asked questions
Should I bid on my own brand name on Amazon?
Yes. The sponsored slots above your organic result are open to competitors, and brand searches are the highest-intent traffic you have. The bids needed to hold the position are usually low, and the campaign is often the most efficient in the account.
Can I stop competitors advertising on my brand name?
No. Bidding on a competitor's brand term is allowed on Amazon, and Brand Registry does not prevent it. What you can do is hold the placements yourself, so the slots are occupied and more expensive for them to win.
What ACoS should a brand defense campaign have?
Low, often in the single digits or low teens, because brand terms convert well. Do not judge the campaign on ACoS; judge it on your click and conversion share of brand terms in Brand Analytics and on whether competitors appear above you on your own name.
Do I need Brand Registry for brand defense?
For Sponsored Products brand exact and own-ASIN targeting, no. For Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display and access to Brand Analytics, which is how you measure whether defense is working, yes. Brand Registry is worth enrolling before you build the full structure.