Branded vs. Non-Branded Amazon PPC: What 5 Months of Real Campaign Data Shows
Five months of daily Sponsored Products data shows why branded and non-branded campaigns need different budgets, bids, and success metrics.
Article summary
Five months of daily Sponsored Products data shows why branded and non-branded campaigns need different budgets, bids, and success metrics.
Key Takeaways
I do not usually publish real campaign data. Most agencies do not. It is easier to write "best practices" from general knowledge and avoid putting actual numbers on the line.
About the Author
This post is different. I pulled five months of daily Sponsored Products data from a managed account, split between branded and non-branded campaigns. No hypotheticals. No "typical ranges." Just the numbers, what they mean, and what I would change based on what they show.
The dataset
If you are running Amazon PPC and have never split your reporting this way, this post will probably change how you look at your account.
What the branded data tells us
Key Takeaways Branded campaigns ran at 21x-90x ROAS. Non-branded ran at 9x-77x. Averaging them into one number is meaningless. Branded CTR was 3-8x higher than non-branded. Expected, but the size of the gap matters for budget allocation. Cost per purchase was $3-$9 branded vs. $5-$18 non-branded. Branded is cheaper per sale, but many branded sales would happen organically without the ad. Non-branded CTR dropped sharply on high-impression days. That is a targeting signal, not a reason to cut growth spend. Most accounts I audit overspend on branded by 20-40% and underspend on proven non-branded expansion.
What the non-branded data tells us
About the Author Miia Prystupa Amazon PPC Consultant & Marketplace Advertising Director 7+ years hands-on experience managing Amazon PPC across EU and US marketplaces Direct experience with Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, Amazon Marketing Cloud, and DSP Lite Managed and audited multi-million-dollar annual Amazon ad spend portfolios Former in-house Amazon Ads manager, now advising brands and agencies on scalable PPC systems Last updated: May 2026
The budget allocation problem
The data comes from Sponsored Products campaigns from a single managed account, January through May 2026. I separated daily performance into two portfolio types:
The five patterns I watch
- BR (Branded): campaigns targeting the brand's own name and brand plus product variations - NB (Non-Branded): campaigns targeting category terms, competitor terms, and generic search queries
What I would change on this account
Total data: five months of daily records across both portfolios. Here is the summary:
Frequently Asked Questions
Metric Branded Non-branded What it means ROAS range 21x-90x 9x-77x Branded looks stronger, but much of it is demand capture CTR range 1.2%-4.5% 0.4%-1.0% Brand-aware shoppers click at a much higher rate Cost per purchase $3-$9 $5-$18 Non-branded acquisition costs more, but creates new demand Daily impressions 214-1,514 1,746-39,827 Non-branded carries the reach Daily spend $9-$63 $30-$247 Growth spend lives outside branded terms Purchases per day 7-13 6-17 Similar purchase volume, very different economics
The bottom line
If your monthly report shows one blended ACOS number for the whole account, you are looking at a meaningless average of these two different realities.