Amazon has confirmed a hard deadline for retiring its legacy Sponsored Brands Product Collection ad format. Product Collection ads will be fully shut off in January 2027, with a major structural change already underway this month as Amazon pushes advertisers toward its newer, AI-assisted Sponsored Brands Collections format.
For sellers who built their Sponsored Brands strategy around the three-product, logo-and-headline format, this isn’t a distant policy note. It’s a live transition with a firm expiration date, and the first phase has already started.
What’s Changing, in Plain Terms
Amazon is phasing out Product Collection ads in favor of Sponsored Brands Collections, a format that supports significantly more products and two distinct ways to build a campaign:
- Manual Collections — the seller selects 3 to 10 related ASINs directly, using keyword or product targeting.
- Automatic Collections — Amazon’s AI curates the product grouping using keyword targets and real shopper search queries, with keyword targeting only.
Both options replace the old cap of three products per ad. Where Product Collection ads maxed out at three items with a custom logo and headline, Collections ads can now feature up to 10 related products in a single unit.
The Migration Timeline Sellers Need to Track
The rollout is happening in stages, not all at once. Here’s the confirmed sequence:
| Timeline | Change |
| September 2026 | New Product Collection campaigns automatically convert to Manual Collections upon creation. |
| September 2026 | Ad Optimizer stops supporting the creation of new Product Collection ads. |
| January 2027 | Amazon shuts off the Product Collection format entirely. |
| After Shutdown | Product Collection ad creation requests are no longer supported, via the console or the API. |
One detail worth flagging for anyone still running legacy campaigns through the transition window: if a custom image is submitted with a new Product Collection-style campaign during this period, Amazon will accept the upload — but it won’t actually render in the live ad. That’s an easy trap to miss until you’re checking creative performance and wondering why nothing changed.
What Happens to Campaigns You Already Have Running
Existing Product Collection campaigns won’t disappear overnight. They can keep serving impressions and can still be managed right up to the January 2027 cutoff, so there’s no need to rebuild active ads immediately. Amazon has also confirmed that:
- Historical Product Collection reporting will remain available after the transition.
- The same campaign and ad group structure carries over to the new Collections format — no need to rebuild from scratch.
- The Campaigns bulk import template has been updated with fields for the new Collections format; sellers using bulk uploads should grab the updated template before their next import.
- API users will need to move from Product Collection endpoints to the corresponding Manual or Automatic Collection endpoints before the cutoff, though the legacy endpoints continue working until January 2027.
What’s New in the Sponsored Brands Collections Format
Beyond the higher product cap, Collections changes several creative and landing page rules that sellers should build into their ad strategy now:
- Lifestyle images are no longer supported.
- Brand logos are optional rather than required.
- Automatic Collections generate landing pages automatically.
- Manual Collections allow either an auto-generated title or one written by the advertiser.
- Automatic Collections support keyword targeting only; Manual Collections support both keyword and product targeting.
The direction is consistent with where Amazon has been steering its advertising console for the past year: fewer manually-built creative assets, more AI-curated product groupings that scale across larger catalogs without requiring dozens of individual campaigns.
How Sellers Should Prepare
This transition rewards sellers who move early rather than waiting for the hard cutoff. A few practical steps:
- Audit which active campaigns still use the Product Collection format and flag them for migration before January 2027.
- Decide, category by category, whether Manual or Automatic Collections fits better — Manual gives more control over which ASINs appear; Automatic scales faster across larger catalogs.
- If you manage campaigns via the Amazon Ads API, start testing the Manual and Automatic Collection endpoints now, well ahead of the shutdown.
- Download the updated Campaigns bulk import template if you manage listings and ads at scale through bulk files.
- Avoid uploading custom images to new Product Collection-style campaigns during the transition window — they won’t render, and it can mask a bigger problem in your creative testing.
The Bigger Picture
This shift fits a pattern Amazon has been running across its advertising stack for the past year: legacy, manually-built ad formats are being replaced by AI-assisted formats that scale across larger catalogs with less manual creative work. For sellers and the agencies managing their accounts, the practical takeaway is the same one behind every past Amazon deprecation — the format doesn’t disappear without warning, but the sellers who migrate before the deadline keep more control over the transition than the ones who wait for Amazon to convert their campaigns for them.
Frequently Asked Questions
1 . When are Amazon Product Collection ads being deprecated?
Amazon will shut off the legacy Sponsored Brands Product Collection ad format completely in January 2027. Starting September 2026, newly created Product Collection campaigns are automatically converted into Manual Collections, and Ad Optimizer stops supporting new Product Collection ad creation the same month.
2 . What replaces Amazon Product Collection ads?
Sponsored Brands Collections replaces Product Collection ads, offering Manual Collections (seller-selected ASINs, 3–10 products) and Automatic Collections (Amazon AI selects products using keyword targets and shopper search queries).
3 . Will my existing Product Collection campaigns stop running?
No. Existing campaigns can keep serving impressions and can still be managed until the January 2027 shutdown, and historical reporting will remain available afterward.
4 . Do sellers need to rebuild their campaign structure for Sponsored Brands Collections?
No. The same campaign and ad group structure carries over. API users need to switch from Product Collection endpoints to the Manual or Automatic Collection endpoints, and bulk-tool users should use the updated Campaigns bulk import template.
