Bigeye's LISTED study, which recorded 800 Amazon pet best seller listings on October 12, 2026, found that Amazon.com itself was the seller on 92% to 98% of the top 50 in dry dog food, wet cat food and cat litter. Pet food marketing works best when the plan starts from where the bag is actually bought, then earns the reviews, the product page and the repeat order before it buys reach. Bigeye, the Orlando agency for consumer brands, works as a pet marketing agency for pet food, treat, litter and supplement brands, and this guide comes from what its pet team sees across Amazon, Chewy and retail.

Key takeaways

• 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, so a new food brand is buying clicks against Amazon's own listings in those aisles.

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

• Pet care is moving online. NIQ reported online pet care sales up 14.1% over the past year while in-store sales fell 1.4%.

• Pet food is a repeat purchase. Chewy reported that Autoship customers drove 84.6% of its net sales in the quarter ended August 2, 2026.

• Plan around the second bag. A pet food budget judged on first-order return will cut the campaigns that build subscribers.

What is pet food marketing?

Pet food marketing is the plan a dog or cat food brand uses to win a place in the bowl and keep it: where the product is sold, how its product pages and packaging answer an owner's questions, which retail media and paid channels bring new buyers, and how the brand earns the repeat order that pays for all of it.

The numbers to plan around

Step 1: Map where your food is actually bought

Start with the channel map before the media plan. NIQ reported that online pet care sales grew 14.1% over the past year while in-store sales fell 1.4%, and stores now hold 52% of pet care sales. For most pet food brands, Amazon, Chewy and the retailer sites now decide more of the plan than the store shelf does.

That doesn't mean stores stop mattering. Half the category still sells there, and grocery, mass and pet specialty shelves are where many owners first meet a brand. But the share is moving every quarter, and a plan built on last year's split will put too much money behind trade promotions and too little behind the product pages where the online half of the category gets decided.

So list every place your food sells, the share of sales each one drives today and who controls price and stock there. That last column matters more in pet food than in most categories, because on Amazon the answer is often Amazon.

Step 2: Read the aisle before you budget for Amazon

Check who sells the top 50 in your aisle before you set an Amazon number. Bigeye's LISTED study found Amazon.com was the seller on 92% to 98% of the top 50 in dry dog food, wet cat food and cat litter. In those aisles, a new brand pays top prices for clicks against listings Amazon itself prices and stocks.

The big names hold the shelf, too. Bigeye's LISTED study found Fancy Feast and Friskies alone held 30 of the top 50 spots in wet cat food. A challenger food brand that launches straight into that aisle with a broad keyword budget is mostly paying to stand next to them.

The better question is where a top 50 slot is winnable: a specific diet, a format, a life stage or a topper that sits in a less crowded aisle. Bigeye's Amazon advertising strategy for pet brands covers how to plan the budget aisle by aisle.

Step 3: Earn the reviews before you buy the clicks

Get past the ratings bar before you scale paid media. Bigeye's LISTED study found 159 of the 160 top-20 pet best sellers on Amazon had more than 1,000 ratings. Owners scroll past a food with a few dozen reviews, however good the ad is.

For a food brand, that means the first months of a launch belong to review programs, sampling into the right homes and a product page that answers the questions owners ask in reviews (ingredients, how the pet took to it, stool and coat changes, bag size and price per day). Paid media works much harder once that page has social proof.

Bigeye's guide to launching a product on Amazon walks through Vine and Amazon's Review Requests for newer pet listings.

Step 4: Build product pages that answer the bowl question

Every owner reading a food listing is asking one thing: will my pet eat this, and will it agree with them? Bigeye's LISTED study found 97% of the top-50 pet best sellers had A+ content and 89% had at least one video. Those modules are the entry fee, so the work is in what they say.

Lead with the pet eating the food, the kibble or texture at real size, the feeding guide, the ingredient story in plain words and a comparison chart across your range. Show the transition plan for switching foods, because that's where owners hesitate.

"Anytime you can show the product in use, that happens to be one of the top types of images"

Daniela Bolzmann, founder and CEO of Mindful Goods, on IN CLEAR FOCUS

The same pages do the work on Chewy and Walmart. Bigeye's guides to Amazon A+ content and Chewy product page optimization cover module by module what to build.

Step 5: Plan the budget around the repeat order

Set pet food media goals on repeat value, because the category runs on subscriptions. Chewy reported that Autoship customers drove 84.6% of its net sales in the quarter ended August 2, 2026, up from 83.0% a year earlier. A food that wins the bowl gets reordered every few weeks for years.

That changes how a campaign should be judged. A first order at break even, or at a small loss, can be the best money a food brand spends if the buyer subscribes. Bigeye's LISTED study found at least 46% of the top 50 in wet cat food were available on Subscribe and Save, so subscription is standard on Amazon too.

Track cost per new subscriber and the share of first orders that turn into a second, by product. Raise bids only where the second and third orders show up in the data.

Step 6: Put Chewy in the plan as its own retailer

Treat Chewy as a separate buy with its own team, page work and budget line. Chewy reported net sales of $3.33 billion in the quarter ended August 2, 2026, up 7.3%, and every shopper on Chewy is buying for a pet. That makes it a strong place to build subscribers for a food brand.

Chewy's own data on buyers, its Sponsored Products and its offsite media let a brand find owners who already buy the category, and Autoship gives those campaigns a clear repeat signal to bid against. Bigeye's guide to Chewy advertising covers access, formats and measurement.

Then plan Chewy and Amazon as one pet budget, so the same buyer isn't bid on twice and each retailer gets the products it sells best.

Step 7: Spend brand money where the owner chooses a format

Brand building in pet food works hardest at the moment an owner switches formats: kibble to fresh, a topper on top of dry, a new life stage, a new diet after a vet visit. Freshpet reported Q3 2026 net sales of $317.8 million, up 10.0%, which shows how much growth sits in a format change.

Those moments are where video, paid social and search earn their keep, because the owner is open to a new brand. Spend upper funnel money on the format story and the proof that pets eat it, then point it at the product page and retailer where the owner can subscribe.

Keep the packaging and the product page saying the same thing as the ads. An owner who sees a fresh food promise in a video and a wall of claims on the bag will scroll on.

Step 8: Measure new buyers and retention

Report pet food marketing on three numbers: new-to-brand buyers, the share who order a second time, and cost per retained buyer by channel. Those three show whether media is building a customer base or just buying the same loyal owners again at a higher price.

Use the new-to-brand metrics Amazon and Chewy provide, run a holdout test on your largest retailer each quarter and compare cost per retained buyer across Amazon, Chewy, Walmart and your own site. Cut the channel that buys first orders cheaply but never brings the second.

Which channel does which job

What it looks like in practice

For Pet Supermarket, a pet specialty retailer, Bigeye ran social strategy, content and Meta paid social built on consumer insight from Bigeye's National Pet Owners Study. Facebook engagements rose 125% and Facebook reach hit 1.27 million, up 55%. The lesson for food brands is the same one: plans built on what owners actually say about buying for their pets earn more attention than plans built on category habits.

Bigeye's read

Most pet food brands judge their media on the first order, and that's the wrong number. A food that wins the bowl gets bought every few weeks, so the first bag is the cost of acquiring a subscriber. It doesn't have to pay for itself on the spot.

A brand that can't afford to lose a little on the first bag isn't ready to scale paid media yet. Bigeye would fix the product page, earn the reviews and prove the second order first, then buy reach.

How Bigeye helps

Bigeye plans pet food marketing as one budget across Amazon, Chewy, Walmart and the brand's own site, from product pages and reviews to retail media and video, through its pet marketing agency and retail media teams. Bigeye manages campaigns across 50+ retail media networks. Talk to Bigeye about your pet food plan.

Frequently asked questions

How do you market a pet food brand?

Start with where the food sells and who controls price there, then build product pages that show pets eating it, earn reviews, and plan media around subscribers. Bigeye's LISTED study found Amazon itself sold 92% to 98% of the top 50 in dry dog food, so pick aisles a new brand can win.

Where should a pet food brand spend its marketing budget?

On the product pages and reviews first, then on retail media at Amazon and Chewy, then on video and paid social that win owners switching formats. Track cost per new subscriber by channel and move money toward the retailers where buyers place a second order. Stores still matter for discovery and trial.

How many reviews does a pet food product need on Amazon?

Bigeye's LISTED study found 159 of the 160 top-20 pet best sellers on Amazon had more than 1,000 ratings. A new food won't start there, but it should run review programs before scaling ads, because owners compare ratings counts before they compare prices or ingredients.

Should a pet food brand sell on Chewy or Amazon first?

It depends on the aisle. Where Amazon itself sells most of the top 50, Chewy can be the easier place to build subscribers, since Autoship drove 84.6% of Chewy's net sales in its latest reported quarter. Most food brands end up running both from one budget.

How do you measure pet food marketing?

Measure new-to-brand buyers, the share who reorder and cost per retained buyer by channel. First-order return understates pet food campaigns because the value comes from repeat bags. Run a holdout test each quarter on your largest retailer to confirm the media is adding buyers who wouldn't have come anyway.

Start the conversation

Bigeye's pet marketing agency team plans Amazon, Chewy and retail media for pet food brands. If you're setting next year's pet food marketing budget, start the conversation.

Sources: Bigeye LISTED, Vol. 07 (recorded Oct 12, 2026); APPA (Mar 26, 2026); APPA industry trends and stats (2026); NIQ (Aug 27, 2026); Chewy Q2 fiscal 2026 results (Sep 9, 2026); Freshpet Q3 2026 results (Nov 4, 2026); Bigeye Pet Supermarket case study; IN CLEAR FOCUS podcast with Daniela Bolzmann (Sep 2026).