AEO study guide
AEO · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Amazon Ads Certified - Sponsored Ads Accreditation (often shortened to Amazon Ads Accreditation or AEO) is a professional credential for people who plan, buy, and optimize Amazon's self-service advertising products. It is aimed at account managers, PPC specialists, brand and marketplace teams, and agency practitioners who work daily inside Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display. The AEO study guide has 7 sections and about 2,149 words.
01Amazon Advertising Fundamentals and the Retail Ecosystem
Amazon advertising sits inside a retail environment, not a pure media auction. Ads are triggered by shopper intent signals - search queries, product detail page views, and browsing behavior - so performance depends on listing quality, price, availability, and reviews as much as on bid.
327 words, about 2 min02Sponsored Products Strategy and Optimization
Sponsored Products is the workhorse format: keyword- and product-targeted ads for individual ASINs that appear in search results and on product detail pages. Structure campaigns for control - separate automatic and manual campaigns, separate prospecting from harvesting, and consider single-theme ad groups (one product or tight product set) so bids and negatives can be managed precisely.
319 words, about 2 min03Sponsored Brands Strategy and Optimization
Sponsored Brands places a brand headline, logo, and multiple products (or a video) in prominent search positions, linking to a brand store or landing page. It requires Brand Registry and is a brand-building and discovery format rather than a single-ASIN sales driver.
308 words, about 2 min04Sponsored Display Strategy and Optimization
Sponsored Display reaches shoppers on and off Amazon using audience targeting (in-market, lifestyle, remarketing/views) and product targeting (specific ASINs, categories, or themed sets). It is available to sellers with Brand Registry for most audience features and to vendors, and it can run on Amazon detail pages, the homepage, and third-party sites through Amazon's demand-side capabilities.
293 words, about 1 min05Targeting, Keywords, and Bidding
Targeting is where intent meets control. On the keyword side, understand match types: exact (tightest control), phrase (order-bound with close variants), and broad (widest reach including related terms).
301 words, about 2 min06Campaign Measurement, Reporting, and Analytics
Measurement turns spend into decisions. Candidates must know the core metrics and how they relate: impressions, clicks, click-through rate (CTR = clicks ÷ impressions), cost-per-click (CPC = spend ÷ clicks), conversion rate (CVR = orders ÷ clicks), cost per acquisition (CPA = spend ÷ orders), ACOS (spend ÷ ad sales), ROAS (ad sales ÷ spend, the inverse of ACOS), and total ACOS (TACOS = total ad spend ÷ total sales).
299 words, about 1 min07Budgeting, Efficiency, and Return on Spend
Budgeting connects campaign mechanics to business goals. Start from a target ACOS or ROAS derived from margin: if a product has a 40% gross margin, an ACOS at or below roughly 40% can be profitable before overhead, though many advertisers set a tighter target to leave room for fees and returns.
302 words, about 2 min