Something’s changing in how advertisers are budgeting for Sponsored Brands. In o
By Melissa Burdick · September 12, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Something’s changing in how advertisers are budgeting for Sponsored Brands. In our Q2 Benchmark Report, it shows up most clearly at the category level.
In Electronics, Sponsored Brands now accounts for 17.85% of ad spend. In Grocery & Gourmet, 17.05%. In Beauty & Personal Care, 14.17%. Several categories we track are now at or near 15% share for a format that, a few years ago, most advertisers treated as an add-on to their main Sponsored Products budget.
The categories leading this shift tend to share something: they're crowded, and the products inside them often look similar enough on a search results page that a brand story is the actual differentiator, not the spec sheet.
The returns back up the shift. Sponsored Brands posted 26.5% conversion rate growth year over year, closing its ROAS gap with Sponsored Products to just $0.14. In categories where a story sells the product, the format built to tell that story is starting to perform like the one built to close the sale.
That's the part to pay attention to: this isn't brand spend earning its keep by proxy. It's brand spend converting like performance spend. If your team still splits the budget as if those are two different jobs, this is evidence the split could be costing you.
See more category-by-category data in our Mid-Year Benchmark Report. Link in comments.