Bigeye's LISTED study, which recorded pet best sellers on Amazon.com on October 12, 2026, found that 159 of the 160 top-20 best sellers had more than 1,000 ratings. An Amazon advertising strategy for a pet brand starts before the first ad: read the aisle, earn the reviews, then bid to the repeat order instead of the first sale. Bigeye, the independent Orlando agency for CPG, pet, beauty, and food and beverage brands, works as an Amazon marketing agency for pet food, litter, treat and supplement brands, and this guide comes from what the Bigeye pet marketing team sees across the category.

Key takeaways

• Bigeye found that 159 of the 160 top-20 pet best sellers on Amazon had more than 1,000 ratings, so reviews come before scale.

• Bigeye found that Amazon.com was the seller on 92% to 98% of the top 50 in dry dog food, wet cat food and cat litter, which limits what a brand's own ads can win there.

• Bigeye found that 97% of the top-50 pet best sellers had A+ content and 89% had at least one video. A page without both starts behind.

• Amazon reported $19.6 billion in advertising revenue for Q3 2026, up 11% year over year, and expects ad revenue growth in the high teens in Q4, so holiday auctions will stay crowded.

• Judge pet ads on repeat value. Chewy's Autoship made up 84.6% of Chewy's net sales in its quarter ended August 2, 2026, which shows how pet buyers like to shop.

What is an Amazon advertising strategy for pet brands?

An Amazon advertising strategy for a pet brand is the plan for which ad types to run, on which search terms and aisles, at what budget and in which seasons, so that spend builds reviews, subscriptions and repeat orders. It ties Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Display, DSP and Prime Video to the product page and the stock behind them.

The numbers to plan around

Step 1: Read the aisle before you set a budget

Start by checking who sells the top 50 in your aisle. Bigeye found Amazon.com was the seller on 92% to 98% of the top 50 in dry dog food, wet cat food and cat litter, but on only 10% in dog beds, where 35 brands shared the top 50. Those are two different advertising problems with two different budgets.

In a closed aisle, the best sellers are sold by Amazon itself. A brand selling to Amazon as a vendor doesn't set the price or control the stock on those listings, so an ad can send a shopper to a page the brand can't fix that afternoon. Spend there should protect the brand's own search terms and support the hero products Amazon already carries.

In an open aisle, a newer brand can earn a top-50 slot with a sharper product page and steady Sponsored Products spend. That's where challenger budget works hardest. So set a separate target for each aisle instead of one account-wide ACoS goal, and review them separately every month.

Step 2: Get the page and the reviews ready first

Ads amplify the product page they point at. Bigeye found 97% of top-50 pet best sellers had A+ content and 89% had at least one video, and 159 of 160 top-20 sellers had more than 1,000 ratings. Fix the page and start building reviews before you scale spend, or the clicks leak away.

Amazon gives newer listings two ways up the review ladder. Amazon Vine covers products with fewer than 30 reviews: enrolling up to 2 units costs nothing, 3 to 10 units costs $75 and 11 to 30 costs $200, with no charge if no review comes in within 90 days. Then Amazon's Review Requests ads, in US open beta from late October 2026 ahead of a November launch, are built for products with fewer than 1,000 total ratings and reviews, and those campaigns pause at 1,000.

The order matters. Vine to 30, Review Requests toward 1,000, then put real money into Sponsored Products. The Launching a Product on Amazon guide covers the page work in detail.

Step 3: Run Sponsored Products on category and brand terms

Sponsored Products is where most pet ad budget should start, because it appears in the search results where shoppers compare. Split campaigns into category terms, the brand's own terms and competitor product targets, so each one gets its own budget and you can see which one brings in new customers.

Category terms ("grain free dog food," "clumping cat litter") are expensive and decide whether new buyers find the brand. Brand terms are cheap and protect customers who already know the name. Product targeting puts a listing on a rival's page, which works best when the brand has a clear reason to switch, such as a lighter litter or a smaller bag.

Keep repeat-purchase SKUs in their own campaigns with their own bids, since a subscriber is worth more than a one-time toy buyer. Bigeye's Amazon PPC for pet brands article walks through the campaign structure and the 90-day search term audit. Amazon also says advertisers using its Ads Agent see 8% lower cost per impression and 6% lower cost per acquisition than those that don't (Amazon, Q2 2026 results). Test it on one campaign before handing it the account.

Step 4: Use Sponsored Brands and video in open aisles

In open aisles like dog beds, toys and treats, many shoppers don't have a default brand yet. Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Brands video put a logo, a headline and several products at the top of results, which is how a newer pet brand earns recognition along with the click. Spend it where the aisle can be won.

Video earns its place here. With 89% of top-50 pet best sellers carrying at least one video in LISTED, a listing without one looks unfinished next to its neighbors. A 15 to 30 second clip that shows the product in use (a dog settling into the bed, litter clumping in the tray) does more than a spec list.

Point Sponsored Brands at a Brand Store or a small set of related products, not a single listing. The goal is to make the brand the one a shopper remembers on the next search.

Step 5: Bid to repeat value with Subscribe and Save

Pet food, litter and supplements are bought on a schedule, so the first order is rarely where the profit is. Judge ads on what a subscriber is worth over a year, and turn on Subscribe and Save so the customer an ad wins keeps coming back without paying for another click.

Subscribe and Save needs FBA and Brand Registry. Sellers can offer no extra discount or raise it to 5% or 10%, and Amazon funds an extra 5% when a shopper subscribes to five or more items. Chewy shows how far subscriptions go in pet: Autoship was 84.6% of Chewy's net sales in the quarter ended August 2, 2026 (Chewy, Q2 fiscal 2026).

So set bids from repeat value, not first-order ACoS. A litter brand that keeps a subscriber for a year can afford a higher cost per acquisition on "cat litter" than its first-order numbers suggest. Track subscribers won per campaign and check retention at 90 days.

Step 6: Plan the year around Prime events and the holidays

Amazon's own calendar sets pet demand spikes as much as the seasons do. In 2026, Prime Day ran June 23 to 26 and Prime Big Deal Days ran October 6 and 7. Build reviews and stock in the months before each event, raise budgets the week before, and step them down once the event ends.

Event shoppers buy in bulk and try new brands when the deal is strong. That makes Prime events the best time to win subscribers in food and litter, and the best time for a challenger to test a lower price in an open aisle.

Holidays matter differently by aisle. Toys, treats and beds follow gift season. Food and litter stay steady, so their budgets should hold through December while toy budgets rise. Lock the plan for the next Prime Day by spring, since reviews and inventory take months to build.

Step 7: Add Display, DSP and Prime Video once search pays back

Upper-funnel Amazon ads reach pet owners before they search, but they only pay off when search ads and the product page already convert. Once Sponsored Products is profitable on repeat value, add Sponsored Display to bring back page visitors, then DSP and Prime Video to reach new pet households.

Prime Video's reach is large. Amazon Ads reported an average monthly ad-supported reach of more than 130 million viewers in the US (Amazon Ads, November 2025). For a pet brand, the value is reaching people who just adopted a puppy or a kitten and haven't chosen a food yet.

Measure it with new-to-brand orders and branded search lift, not last click. And clean up the data first, because a messy account makes every upper-funnel decision worse.

"If it's garbage in, it's going to be garbage out. But today, those stakes are even higher with AI, right?"

David Magrini, CEO and founder of the Volute Group, on IN CLEAR FOCUS

Step 8: Hold price and stock across Amazon, Chewy and retail

An ad can't fix a listing that's out of stock or priced above Chewy. Pet shoppers compare across Amazon, Chewy and retailer sites, so check price, stock and subscription offers in every channel before raising Amazon bids, and pause spend on any SKU that can't ship this week.

Amazon is too big to treat as a side channel. NIQ reports Amazon.com's buyer share of US pet care at 59.1%, up 5.6 points (NIQ Pet Industry Outlook 2026). But many of the same shoppers also have a Chewy Autoship running, so a price gap shows up fast in reviews and lost subscriptions.

Keep one price and promotion calendar across Chewy, Amazon and Walmart Connect, and plan the retailer ads together, as the retail media strategy playbook lays out.

Which Amazon ad type does which job

What it looks like in practice

Cat's Pride is a lightweight cat litter brand with national distribution across Walmart, Target and Amazon. Bigeye built campaign concepts to cut through category clutter and deliver shelf impact during a period of retail expansion, the same aisle where LISTED found Amazon selling most of the top 50.

For Florida Crystals, Bigeye ran full-funnel media across social, digital and retail media networks, and the regional brand grew into a national contender with triple-digit growth. Retail media worked there as one part of a single plan, which is how Amazon ads should work for a pet brand too.

Bigeye's read

In aisles where Amazon is the seller on nearly every best seller, a challenger pet brand should spend most of its first year of Amazon ad budget somewhere else. Dry dog food, wet cat food and cat litter look like the prize because they're the biggest aisles. But when Amazon sells 92% to 98% of the top 50, a new brand pays top prices for clicks against listings it can't match on price, stock or reviews.

The better path is an open aisle or a sharper product (a treat, a topper, a supplement) where a top-50 slot is winnable, plus Vine and Review Requests until the ratings count stops being a reason to scroll past. Win there, get subscribers, then come back to the big aisle with the reviews to compete.

FAQ

How much should a pet brand spend on Amazon ads?

There's no single number. Set the budget by aisle and by repeat value: what a subscriber is worth over a year, minus product and fulfillment costs, gives the most you can pay to win one. Start with Sponsored Products in one or two aisles, prove the payback, then add budget and ad types.

Should a new pet brand advertise before it has reviews?

Lightly, and mainly to build reviews. Bigeye's LISTED study found 159 of the 160 top-20 pet best sellers on Amazon had more than 1,000 ratings, so a listing with a handful struggles to convert paid clicks. Use Vine for the first 30 reviews and Review Requests ads after that.

Is Sponsored Products or DSP better for pet brands?

Sponsored Products comes first for almost every pet brand, because it reaches shoppers who are already searching and converts on the spot. DSP and Prime Video reach pet owners earlier, but they only pay back once the product page, reviews and search campaigns already work. Add them second, and measure them on new-to-brand orders.

Does Subscribe and Save change how you advertise?

Yes. It turns a one-time order into a subscription, so an ad that wins a subscriber is worth far more than its first-order sales show. Turn it on for food, litter and supplements, bid from twelve-month value, and track how many subscribers each campaign brings in and how many stay past 90 days.

How does Amazon being the seller change a pet brand's ads?

When Amazon is the seller, the brand doesn't control price or stock on that listing. Bigeye's LISTED study found Amazon.com sold 92% to 98% of the top 50 in dry dog food, wet cat food and cat litter, so brands there should protect their own terms and spend growth budget in open aisles.

Start the conversation

Planning Amazon ads for 2027? Bigeye's Amazon marketing agency team builds pet brand plans aisle by aisle, from reviews to Prime Video. Start the conversation.

Sources: Bigeye LISTED, Vol. 07 (recorded Oct 12, 2026); Amazon Q3 2026 results (Oct 29, 2026); Amazon Q2 2026 results (Jul 30, 2026); EMARKETER (Jun 29, 2026); APPA (Mar 26, 2026); NIQ Pet Industry Outlook 2026 (Mar 2026); Chewy Q2 fiscal 2026 results (Sep 9, 2026); Amazon Ads Review Requests (Sep 29, 2026); Amazon Ads unBoxed 2025 recap (Nov 11, 2025); Amazon Prime Day and Prime Big Deal Days announcements (Jun 1 and Sep 14, 2026); Amazon Vine and Subscribe and Save program pages (read Oct 27, 2026); IN CLEAR FOCUS, David Magrini (Oct 27, 2026).