Sponsored Max is a new advertising format introduced by Lazada Ads. It’s designed to stay competitive in the e-commerce space while helping sellers drive more sales. This new format comes with several improvements and advantages over previous versions.
What Is Sponsored Max in Lazada Ads?
Understanding Sponsored Max in Lazada Ads
Sponsored Max is a new on-platform ad format from Lazada Ads, building upon the earlier Sponsored Discovery. It focuses on maximizing ad performance using Lazada’s AI system, with the goal of increasing sales. You don’t need to manually set keywords or placements—just set your daily budget and either a target ROAS or CPC.
Note: As of March 2025, Sponsored Max is still in beta and only available to selected stores. At Digital Break Time, we’ve tested it—and overall, we think it’s quite promising.
Two Main Types of Sponsored Max Ads
Lazada offers two types of Sponsored Max Ads:
1. Sponsored Max Store – Promote Your Entire Store
This is similar to Auto Ads in Sponsored Discovery. It allows you to promote all products in your store at once. You can exclude products you don’t want to advertise. Setup options include:
• Daily budget
• Enable or disable Smart Creative
• Campaign start and end dates
• Choose which products to include
• Bidding options: Target ROAS / Max CPC / Auto Bidding
We recommend using Target ROAS for bidding. In our tests, this method delivered noticeably better results than Auto Ads from Sponsored Discovery.
2. Sponsored Max Product – Promote Individual Products
This option lets you advertise specific products directly. Think of it like Shopee’s GMV Max ads. You can set a minimum daily budget per product (at least 35 THB). The main bidding option available is Target ROAS, though this might vary depending on your campaign setup.
• Select which products to promote
• Set your desired Target ROAS
• Daily budget (only adjustable twice per day)
• Campaign duration
How to Set Up Sponsored Max Ads
1. Log in to Lazada Seller Center
2. Go to Sponsored Solution > On-platform Solution on the left menu
3. Click the top tab for Sponsored Max (available to selected sellers only, since it’s in Beta)
4. Choose to create either Sponsored Max Store or Sponsored Max Product ads
The setup process is quite similar to Sponsored Discovery. If you’ve used Lazada Ads before, it’ll feel familiar.
Key Benefits of Sponsored Max
• Higher ROAS than Sponsored Discovery (if Target ROAS is set effectively): Based on our tests over one week, Sponsored Max can deliver up to 20% higher ROAS. Of course, this may vary depending on products, timing, and strategy.
• Focus budget on specific products: You can now assign individual daily budgets per product, giving more control than older campaign-based setups.
• More bidding flexibility: Sponsored Max Store offers three bidding options—Target ROAS, Max CPC, and Auto Bidding.
• Run both Sponsored Max Store and Product together: You can combine both formats for optimal performance—one to promote the whole store, and another to push key products with separate budgets.
Drawbacks of Sponsored Max
• Daily budget cannot be reduced mid-day: If your ad spends most or all of your daily budget, you won’t be able to reduce it until the next day. The best time to adjust budget is around midnight. In comparison, Shopee and TikTok allow more flexibility.
• Limited to 2 daily budget adjustments per product: For Sponsored Max Product, you can only change the budget twice a day. If needed, you’ll have to pause the ad and resume the next day.
• Dashboard data isn’t real-time (Beta limitation): Sales may occur without being immediately reflected. Use the Data Insight > Sponsored Max tab for more accurate reporting.
• Can’t run Sponsored Discovery and Sponsored Max at the same time (except Mega Sales Accelerator): Once Sponsored Max is activated, the regular Sponsored Discovery option becomes disabled.
• Budget mismanagement risk for sellers with many products: Managing multiple SKUs with separate daily budgets can be overwhelming, especially if Target ROAS is set improperly.
Is Sponsored Max Better Than Sponsored Discovery?
Sponsored Max breaks down ads by product (similar to Shopee’s GMV Max), giving sellers more control per item. It’s clearly designed to compete with Shopee and TikTok’s performance-based ad formats.
If you sell a high number of products, budgeting can become time-consuming and complex. Those with fewer products will have an easier time managing Sponsored Max.
Conclusion: Should You Try Sponsored Max?
Ultimately, advertising success depends on your strategy and budget. We recommend testing Sponsored Max for at least one month, then comparing performance—ROAS, GMV, and budget efficiency—against Sponsored Discovery. Every product category performs differently, so experiment and optimize based on your results.
Get in touch with Digital Break Time for expert Digital Marketing services.
Follow Digital Break Time
Facebook, X, Line Official Account, Instagram, Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcast
Originally in Thai. Translated to English with the help of ChatGPT.
