Amazon Advertising Defensive Campaigns Explained - Protect Your Listings

Published on November 21, 2025

About this video

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Learn about defensive campaigns in Amazon advertising and why they are essential for protecting your product listings. In this video, I explain what defensive campaigns are, where they appear on Amazon product pages, and how they help prevent competitors from stealing your customers.

Defensive campaigns use Amazon product targeting campaigns, sponsored brands, and sponsored display ads to secure prime advertising positions on your own product listings. When you advertise your own products on your own listings, you prevent competitors from showing their products to customers who are already viewing your items.

I walk through specific ad placement positions including the sponsored product slots below product details, sponsored brand placements, and sponsored display ads that appear after the buy box. These strategic positions ensure that customers stay on your listings instead of clicking away to competitor products.

The video covers how to set up sponsored product campaigns with your products targeting your own products, even though this might sound counterintuitive at first. I explain why this strategy is necessary - if you don't protect these positions, competitors will take them, especially those with similar products, lower pricing, or comparable review counts.

While defensive campaigns can become expensive when competition is aggressive in bidding on your listings, protecting your brand presence is often worth the investment. You'll need to make decisions about how much to invest in protecting your listings versus letting competitors take these valuable positions.

This Amazon PPC strategy is particularly important for Amazon advertising campaigns, Amazon sponsored products, and overall Amazon PPC optimization. Whether you're working with an Amazon advertising agency or managing your own Amazon ads campaign, defensive campaigns should be part of your Amazon PPC advertising strategy.

Contents: 00:00 What Are Defensive Campaigns in Amazon Advertising 00:28 Where Defensive Ads Appear on Product Pages 01:07 Product Targeting for Defensive Campaigns 01:24 Why Advertise Your Products on Your Own Listings 02:31 Cost Considerations for Defensive Campaigns 03:13 Final Recommendations for Defensive Campaigns

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Transcript

All right. So, when running ads on Amazon, you might be hearing something like defensive campaigns, defensive campaigns. You know, you keep probably hearing that from your Amazon advertising team. Uh, so I want to briefly explain you what it is and what are they talking about. It can be pretty effective. It can be really important to protect your listings. So, I'll try to be as concise as possible. So by the end of these two minutes you will know what is your advertising team talking about. So here's an example of listing and when we say defensive campaigns it means this position over here. So this one is sponsored right below the product details and bullet points. In this um fancy example we don't have bullet points but you know it would be a little bit lower but somewhere around here. So you have product targeting campaigns which can be used as a defensive one when they appear on product pages not on search results and they typically appear here. Additionally sponsor brand defensive campaigns can be uh also placed here and then right after uh the buy box you will see sponsor display ad. It's it's a really good position you know to protect your listing. So if you advertise your own products on your own listings, your products will be available over here. So nobody would would even have an opportunity to click away on your competitor products. Okay? In this example, they're not really the same, you know, but for most of the category, most of the products, these can be like 80% similar. And if your competitors have lower pricing than you are and similar number of reviews, you know, you may be losing some some portion of the sales. So how do you accomplish that? You accomplish that by creating sponsor product campaigns with your products targeting your own products. You know, your ads appear on on your products. It may sound counterintuitive like why you would you advertise on your product but if you don't do that somebody else will be sure you know at least you know somebody with not that relevant product but maybe you know similar product or maybe a complimentary product to your one uh to yours. So then furthermore these are also sponsored. This is also where your products can appear. So along all the competitors. So it can be that you don't take any position here or you can take most of these positions depending on how you structure the campaigns. And then after the A+ content down below you will probably see a few few other ones you know but that's the point. So it really is important to protect your listings. Now, yes, sometimes it can get quite expensive if your competition is aggressive in bidding and uh showing up on your listings, you know, but that's life, you know, when at some point you will have to make a decision. Will you continue pushing and protecting your brand or you just or is it just not worth it? So, that's the defensive campaigns. I strongly recommend that you have them. And yeah, let me know how it works for your account and see you on Monday with the next video. Bye-bye, guys.

Frequently asked questions

What are defensive campaigns in Amazon advertising and why do they matter?

Defensive campaigns are sponsored ads that target your own product listings so competitors cannot occupy those ad placements. Without them, rivals running product targeting campaigns can place their ads directly on your detail pages, below your bullet points, after your buy box, and alongside your A+ content, giving shoppers a way to click away before purchasing. If a competitor has similar pricing or a comparable review count, those placements can cost you a meaningful portion of sales.

Which ad types are used for defensive campaigns and where do they appear?

Three ad types cover the main defensive positions on a product detail page. Sponsored Products with product targeting appear below the bullet points and product details section. Sponsored Brands can occupy a placement further down the page. Sponsored Display ads appear right after the buy box, one of the highest-visibility spots for capturing a shopper who is already close to purchasing. Running all three together gives you the best chance of filling those slots with your own products instead of a competitor's.

Is it worth running defensive campaigns even though you are advertising on your own listings?

Yes, because if you do not occupy those placements, a competitor will. The logic of paying to advertise on your own listing feels counterintuitive, but the alternative is letting rivals intercept customers who are already on your page and close to converting. The main trade-off is cost: if competitors bid aggressively on your ASINs the expense can rise quickly, so each seller needs to weigh the value of protecting that traffic against the ad spend required to hold those positions.