What Are Sponsored Placements?

Sponsored placements let you test sponsored product placements on Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Chewy simulations. Instead of mixing all products in the grid, you can promote certain products into special ad slots—like real retail-media networks. This is useful for testing brand lift, measuring sponsored-product impact, or running studies where retail partners pay for promotion.

Each platform supports different placement types and formatting. A single simulation can have all four ad types running at once, and you can measure impressions and clicks for each sponsored product separately.

Platform Differences

Sponsored placements setup varies significantly by retailer. Use this table to understand which placements are available on your platform, and how many products each placement can show.

Flagging Products as Sponsored

After you've created your product list, mark individual products as Banner Ad, Featured, Footer (Amazon only), or Right Column (Amazon only) using checkboxes in the editor, or by setting flags in a CSV/draft import. 

Using the Editor Checkboxes

1. In the editor, find the product you want to promote.
2. Check one or more of the following:
   • Banner Ad — Product appears in the banner row at the top of the grid.
   • Featured — Product appears in the carousel in different places depending on the platform.
   • Footer — Product appears in the "Related Products" section in the detail view (Amazon only).
   • Right Column — Product appears in the sidebar on the detail view (Amazon only).
3. You can flag the same product with multiple placements—for example, Banner Ad and Featured on the same product.

Using CSV or Draft Imports

When uploading products via CSV or draft file, use these exact column headers (with spaces, not underscores): banner, featured, footer, right column, and sponsored. Unknown column headers will cause the import to fail with a "Wrong columns" error and abort—so double-check your headers before uploading.

To flag a product, put any non-empty value in the cell (for example, true or 1). To leave it unflagged, leave the cell empty. 

⚠️ Note: CSV and draft import fully replace your product list. On confirmation, every existing product is deleted and replaced with the file's contents (the N/A option, if present, is preserved). If you only want to change a few products, export your current list first, edit that file, and re-import the whole thing.

Creating Banner Ad Creative

Banner ad settings appear in the editor under the Search API field. This is a question-level setting—one set of creative (advertiser name, description, images) per question, not per product. The settings you configure here apply to all banner products in your simulation.

Opening Banner Ad Settings

1. In the simulation editor, scroll to the Search API section.
2. Click Banner Ad Settings. A modal window opens with fields for each product flagged as a banner ad.
3. Fill in the advertiser name and description (if applicable for your platform).
4. Upload the logo and main product images (if applicable for your platform).
5. Click Save.

Platform-Specific Creative Rules

Amazon uses both images on all devices. The logo (advertiser image) displays on desktop and mobile, and the main product image is also visible. This gives you two separate visual elements—the brand mark and the product shot—in the banner.

Walmart's logo never displays on desktop. The logo appears on mobile only. On desktop, Walmart shows the main product image inline in the banner. This means your two images have different purposes on desktop versus mobile—plan your creative accordingly.

Target uses both image slots as banner images. The name and description fields don't exist on Target. Upload two images: the first shows as the desktop banner, the second as the mobile banner. This lets you optimize creative for each device.

Chewy uses image only. No name or description fields. Upload your banner image and it will display above the grid.

Reading Banner Ad Metrics

After respondents complete your survey, you can pull sponsored placements performance data from the Results page. Each flagged product shows its own metrics separately. For more on the analysis of the Ecommerce product metrics, see Analyzing an Ecommerce Simulation.

Metrics Available

Where to Find Metrics

Open the Results tab. Aggregate banner metrics appear in the Shop Metrics table, under a bolded Banners section row:

• Total banner impressions
• Total banner clicks
• Banner CTR

Per-product banner metrics appear in the Product Metrics section. Click the metric dropdown (labeled "Select or type...") to choose one of six banner metrics:

• Banner impressions
• Banner clicks
• Banner CTR
• Banner click-to-popup
• Banner click-to-cart
• Banner avg view-to-click

Selecting a metric updates the chart and product list to show that metric for each product—one metric at a time.

⚠️ Note: The trait breakdown filter (age, gender, etc.) does not segment banner metrics. The filter appears in the Product Metrics section but is non-functional for ad data. To compare banner performance across traits, export your raw data and filter in a spreadsheet.

Limitations

Products Leave the Grid

When you flag a product as Banner Ad or Featured on Amazon, Walmart, or Target, that product is removed from the main product grid and moved into the banner or carousel. If you have 10 products and flag 4 as Banner Ad or Featured, respondents will see 6 in the main grid and 4 in the carousel.

Right Column Picks a Random Product

If you flag multiple products as Right Column (Amazon only), each time a respondent opens a product detail view, a random product from the Right Column set appears in the sidebar. You cannot control which product shows—only that a product appears. This matters if you're testing a specific product pair or measuring lift on a particular item. If your study design requires a non-random sidebar match, use Footer instead (Amazon) or Bundle products at the question level.

CSV Imports Don't Validate Caps

The editor enforces the platform cap (4 Banner Ads for Amazon/Walmart, 1 for Target). CSV and draft imports don't check the cap—they accept the file silently and store all products. The excess products simply never render. If you're bulk-uploading products, verify in the editor that you've flagged only the number of products that will actually display.

Add-to-Cart Behavior Varies

On Amazon and Walmart, Banner Ad products show the inline "Add to Cart" button. Featured and Footer products on Amazon have no inline button—respondents must click the card to open the detail view, then add to cart from there. Right Column cards also lack inline Add to Cart. This affects conversion funnel shape. Plan your metrics interpretation accordingly.

See Also

• Programming an Ecommerce Simulation
• Customizing Your Ecommerce Simulation
• Analyzing Ecommerce Results
• Ecommerce Overview