A sponsored tile is a paid placement that sits inside a grid or row of tiles a person would otherwise use to navigate: the shortcuts on a browser's new tab page, or the rows of apps and titles on a streaming device's home screen. It resembles its organic neighbours, carries a "Sponsored" label and links to a website, app or title. The format exists because those grids are among the most viewed surfaces in software, and the companies that build browsers and televisions want revenue from them beyond search deals and thin hardware margins.

The term has no single industry definition. Mozilla coined it for Firefox in 2014, and Amazon now sells a product called Sponsored Tiles on Fire TV, Prime Video and Echo Show. IAB Tech Lab's draft television formats file the television version under "menu ads". This article leads with the browser sense, where the name began; the wider category is covered in PPC Land's explainer on home screen advertising.

How a browser tile is served

Firefox's new tab page shows a row of shortcuts, which Mozilla's support documentation describes as starting with general-interest sites and gradually switching to the sites a person visits most, ranked on the device by frequency and recency. In some regions the first two or three shortcuts are sponsored, according to that documentation, last updated for Firefox 157. Mozilla's data documentation says up to two tiles, each a logo and a link. The two sources differ.

The tiles are supplied by a Mozilla service called Contile, which, according to the data documentation, may refresh the advertiser list every 15 minutes. Revenue is earned per click. Mozilla's revenue tables carry the label "AdM", and its bug tracker names adMarketplace, a search syndication firm, as the partner in a Germany experiment run on Firefox 83 to 85 from November 2020.

Privacy engineering is the distinctive part. Firefox reports shown and clicked shortcuts over Oblivious HTTP (OHTTP), which routes encrypted data through a relay so the receiving server cannot see the sender. Mozilla announced on October 12, 2023 that Fastly would operate that relay. As of October 2026, the support page states that sponsors can pay to boost a site's score within the local ranking, so a sponsored shortcut is still drawn from the person's history but appears in the sponsored slots. Mozilla says it does not receive the browsing history itself.

Each sponsored shortcut can be dismissed, and the feature can be switched off in settings on desktop and mobile.

Other browsers run similar units. Microsoft Edge carries sponsored quick links behind a "Show sponsored links" setting, according to a March 2026 Digital Citizen guide. Opera describes its Speed Dials, launched in 2007, as sponsored bookmarks that pass a token to the partner site on a click.

How a television tile is served

Amazon's specification for Fire TV Sponsored Tiles describes a sponsored row showing at least five tiles in the first view and up to 10 as the viewer scrolls right. The tile image is a 1,280 by 720 pixel PNG of up to 440 kilobytes. Selecting a tile opens a details page where the viewer can watch, buy or download the content or app. Pricing is cost-per-click (CPC), so advertisers pay only for selections, not for impressions. The format is listed in 20 marketplaces, from Canada to Singapore.

The Prime Video variant puts a tile in the first five slots of sponsored rows on the Home, Store and Channels tabs. Hovering for one second autoplays a trailer on television and desktop. It is open to Prime Video Channels and transactional video on demand (TVOD) advertisers.

On the sell side are the browser maker or device owner, with Mozilla Ads, Amazon Ads, Roku, Samsung Ads and LG Ad Solutions running inventory. On the buy side, app developers, streaming services and film distributors dominate television tiles, while Mozilla's bug tracker shows retailers such as Amazon among early browser shortcut sponsors. Buying ranges from self-serve consoles to managed service. Mozilla made its New Tab inventory available to programmatic buyers through private marketplace and programmatic guaranteed deals with Index Exchange, announced on October 6, 2025, then added Equativ as a full-stack partner the following month. Mozilla's advertising page lists Sponsored Tiles as a "logo spotlight" beside native ads and IAB banners.

Origins in Firefox, 2014 to 2015

Mozilla presented Directory Tiles at an Interactive Advertising Bureau meeting in February 2014. The plan was to fill the empty grid that new users saw before their history built up, with some of the nine tiles sponsored and clearly labelled. Mozilla's FAQ said only location would be used: "no other user information is collected or considered."

The tiles shipped in Firefox 33.1 in November 2014, extended to existing users as Enhanced Tiles. In May 2015, Mozilla introduced Suggested Tiles, which compared a person's history against lists of sites in interest categories and required at least five matching URLs before inferring an interest. Darren Herman, Mozilla's vice president of content services, told TechCrunch the aim was "to show the world that it is possible to do relevant advertising."

The experiment ended on December 4, 2015. Herman said advertising in Firefox "isn't the right business for us at this time," according to Computerworld, and Denelle Dixon-Thayer, chief legal and business officer, called it "an experiment that worked," according to MediaPost.

By June 2021, Mozilla's support pages described sponsored shortcuts, also called sponsored tiles, as an experiment for a small share of users, with clicks passed through a Mozilla-owned proxy. In October 2024 the company set out a broader advertising strategy after acquiring the privacy-focused ad measurement firm Anonym.

Fire TV and the television version

Amazon began a beta of Fire TV sponsored tiles on Amazon DSP in November 2020, priced per click and targeted by genre or app interest. In November 2023, according to MediaPost, Amazon placed sponsored tiles in Fire TV search results for media and entertainment advertisers, while opening other home screen units to every category.

The format has since moved beyond the television. In November 2025 Amazon extended Sponsored Tiles to Alexa for subscription bundles, and on April 7, 2026 Alexa became an automatic inventory source on Echo Show devices, surfacing tiles when people ask entertainment questions.

Why the format matters

For Mozilla the reason is concentration. In 2012, 97.9% of its revenue came from search deals, according to TechCrunch, and its chief financial officer testified in May 2025 as the remedies phase of the US search case threatened those payments. Tiles are one of the few inventory sources a browser fully controls.

For marketers, a tile is a low-creative placement, a logo or still image and a click, suited to app installs and title launches. Sitting at the start of a session, it competes directly with the organic choices around it, which is why measurement firms such as Looper Insights now price paid, editorial and algorithmic home screen placements separately.

Criticisms and open disputes

User consent remains the oldest objection. In May 2014, Jonathan Nightingale, then a Firefox vice president, promised that the browser would not become "a mess of logos sold to the highest bidder; without user control, without user benefit," according to TechCrunch. Sponsored shortcuts are on by default where offered, and switching them off requires a trip to settings.

Ranking integrity is a newer concern. Letting sponsors boost a score presented as a reflection of personal history blurs recommendation and advertising, even with a label.

Self-preferencing affects television. Roku fills unsold home screen space with promotions for partners and its own services, and its chief executive Anthony Wood said 25% of Roku Channel viewing comes from its tile, as PPC Land reported when Fox agreed to buy Roku on June 15, 2026.

Disclosure rules apply unevenly. The US Federal Trade Commission's Enforcement Policy Statement on Deceptively Formatted Advertisements, issued on December 22, 2015, treats an ad as deceptive if its format misleads people about its commercial nature. The UK CAP Code requires marketing to be obviously identifiable as such. The EU Digital Services Act's Article 26 requires online platforms to label ads and name the advertiser, though whether a browser start page or a television launcher counts as an online platform is not settled in published guidance; that reading is PPC Land's inference.

Measurement is self-reported. Neither Mozilla nor Amazon publishes independent audits of tile performance.

Not the same as

  • Home screen advertising is the wider category of launcher ads, including full-screen video takeovers and large hero banners such as the Fire TV Feature Rotator, which behave more like a hero image than a tile.
  • Sponsored Products are Amazon's keyword-bid retail listings in shopping results, not navigation shortcuts.
  • Amazon Sponsored TV, launched in October 2023, is a self-service streaming video product, not a tile format.
  • Firefox Suggest sponsored suggestions appear in the address bar as a person types, a separate Mozilla unit introduced in 2021.

Recent developments

Home screen tiles are moving into programmatic pipes. IAB Tech Lab's December 2025 draft of CTV formats defines menu ads as "headline banners or tiles within navigational menus on home screens", with comments due by January 31, 2026. Samsung opened its home screens to The Trade Desk and DV360 on June 10, 2026, and LG Ad Solutions put its home screen slots on Best Buy's retail media network on October 7, 2026. On the browser side, Mozilla's new chief executive Anthony Enzor-DeMeo promised transparent monetisation less dependent on search when he took over in December 2025. Both feed a CTV market still short of shared standards.

Timeline

  • 2007 - Opera launches Speed Dial, later carrying sponsored dials.
  • February 2014 - Mozilla presents Directory Tiles at an IAB meeting.
  • November 2014 - Sponsored tiles ship in Firefox 33.1, with Enhanced Tiles for existing users.
  • May 21, 2015 - Mozilla introduces Suggested Tiles based on interest categories.
  • December 4, 2015 - Mozilla ends the Tiles advertising programme.
  • December 22, 2015 - The FTC issues its policy statement on deceptively formatted advertisements.
  • November 2020 - Amazon starts a CPC beta of Fire TV sponsored tiles on Amazon DSP.
  • November 2020 - Firefox 83 runs a sponsored top sites experiment in Germany with adMarketplace.
  • June 2021 - Mozilla documents sponsored shortcuts as a limited experiment.
  • October 12, 2023 - Mozilla names Fastly as operator of its OHTTP relay.
  • November 2, 2023 - Amazon adds sponsored tiles to Fire TV search results for entertainment advertisers.
  • October 3, 2024 - Mozilla announces its expansion into privacy-preserving advertising.
  • October 6, 2025 - Mozilla selects Index Exchange for New Tab programmatic deals.
  • November 2025 - Amazon extends Sponsored Tiles to Alexa; Mozilla adds Equativ.
  • December 11, 2025 - IAB Tech Lab publishes draft CTV formats including menu ads.
  • April 7, 2026 - Sponsored Tiles reach Alexa+ on Echo Show.
  • June 10, 2026 - Samsung opens home screens to programmatic buying.
  • June 15, 2026 - Fox agrees to acquire Roku.
  • October 7, 2026 - LG home screen inventory becomes available through Best Buy Ads.

Summary

Who. Browser makers including Mozilla, Microsoft and Opera, and device and platform owners including Amazon, Roku, Samsung and LG, sell the placements. App developers, streaming services, film distributors and retailers buy them, directly, through self-service consoles or through programmatic partners such as Index Exchange and Equativ.

What. A paid tile placed among the shortcuts of a browser new tab page or the rows of a streaming home screen, labelled as sponsored and usually priced per click.

When. Mozilla introduced sponsored tiles in 2014 and dropped them in December 2015, then revived them as sponsored shortcuts around 2020 and 2021. Amazon began selling Fire TV sponsored tiles in November 2020 and has since extended them to Prime Video, Alexa and Echo Show.

Where. Firefox, Edge and Opera start pages on desktop and mobile; Fire TV, Prime Video and Echo Show screens; and smart TV launchers that IAB Tech Lab's draft groups under menu ads.

Why. Navigation grids are seen at the start of nearly every session, and their owners want income beyond search deals and hardware. The same position explains the disputes over default settings, sponsored boosts in personal rankings and platforms promoting their own services.