With Amazon Sponsored Display, Amazon finally provides an advertising solution with which sellers and retailers can simultaneously address customers based on behaviour and interests. In principle, anyone can participate – provided they have already successfully completed the brand registration in the brand registry.
In this article, I will now explain to you what exactly distinguishes Amazon Sponsored Display and how to create a campaign.
What are Sponsored Display Ads?
Amazon defines Sponsored Display as a self-service display advertising solution that is used to address buyers throughout the entire buyer’s journey, both inside and outside of Amazon. Thus, alongside Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products, Sponsored Display Ads are the solution for sellers who want to grow their business and brand on Amazon.
Since Sponsored Display Ads are only one of several advertising programmes on Amazon.co.uk, I would first like to clarify where the differences lie.
The differences with Sponsored Product campaigns
For sellers who are just learning about the various advertising programmes on Amazon for the first time, the differentiators between Sponsored Product and Sponsored Display can be unclear. Therefore, I will outline the four key differences below.
Brand registration with the Brand Registry is required
Sponsored Display Ads is available to professional sellers who have registered a brand with Amazon, as well as agencies with clients selling on Amazon. Your products must fall under Amazon’s eligible categories to be eligible to advertise. All Product Display ad campaigns are now part of Sponsored Display. If a seller has run Product Display ads in the past, they will be made available as a Sponsored Display campaign without requiring any additional action.
Products can be promoted without a Buy Box
The Buy Box is essential for any seller on Amazon. However, only one seller can win the Buy Box at any given time – that is, take the order for a product offered by multiple sellers. However, this does not mean that only one seller can sell the corresponding product, because with Amazon Sponsored Display Ads there is another method to reach potential customers.
As a rule, the top sellers are awarded the Buy Box in 95 % of cases or even more often. This means that all other sellers have to be satisfied with only a small number of buyers. With Sponsored Display Ads, however, the same products can now be offered elsewhere on Amazon or even elsewhere on the web.
Ads can be modified and customised
Although ads are created automatically, the seller has the option to modify the title and logo of the ad. Part of the automatically created ad are: The product image, the price, possible offers, the rating in the form of stars, as well as the „Shop Now“ button.
Sponsored Display Ads are only shown on product detail pages
While other programmes like Sponsored Products allow sellers to advertise products in the relevant categories, Sponsored Display Ads are only displayed on product detail pages. This is one of the reasons why the different advertising programmes on Amazon should be combined. Sponsored Display Ads alone can only cover a part of the possibilities Amazon provides sellers to reach potential customers.
Where do Sponsored Display Ads appear?
Based on the targeting options selected by the seller, ads will appear on desktop devices, as well as mobile devices. Typically, they will appear below the Buy Box, but placement elsewhere on product detail pages and in shopping results is also possible.
In addition, and this feature differentiates sponsored display ads from other advertising programmes, audiences can be targeted on third party websites. For example, potential customers who have seen a competitor’s own product or a similar product can be targeted via ads on Amazon or third-party websites (currently only in the US).
What are the targeting options for Sponsored Display Ads?
Sellers have several targeting options for Sponsored Display Ads. In the following, I would like to explain the three available options in more detail.
Attention: None of these options can be used without an entry in the Amazon brand register!
Product targeting
Perhaps the most important option for targeting Sponsored Display Ads is product targeting. This involves selecting users who have viewed a similar product or a relevant product category. They are then shown ads on relevant product detail pages.
Product targeting is available for sellers and retailers.
Remarketing by views
This selects potential buyers who have viewed one of your products, similar competitor products or a relevant product category within the last 30 days.
This option is available to sellers and merchants.
Targeting by interests
Similar to remarketing by views, targeting by interests allows you to target customers who have shown a certain behaviour in the past that suggests they are interested in a seller’s product. In this way, sellers can present their products to target groups who have not yet specifically searched for the advertised product, but who seem to have a potential interest.
Targeting by interest is reserved for merchants.
Differences between Sponsored Display and Amazon DSP
While there are some similarities between Sponsored Display Ads and Amazon DSP, there are a number of differences, including the following:
- Sponsored Display Ads are billed by cost per click, while Amazon DSP ads are billed per impression.
- DSP is only available from a budget of €10,000.
- While Sponsored Ads is a self-service advertising product, DSP is also offered as a managed service.
- While in Germany Sponsored Display ads can only be placed on Amazon.de, DSP makes it possible to advertise outside of Amazon as well.
- Targeting is also different, as keyword or product-based targeting is not possible with DSP.
Instructions: How do I create a Sponsored Display Ads campaign?
Creating an Amazon Sponsored Display campaign can be broken down into 7 steps.
Step 1:
Open the campaign manager in Seller Central.
Step 2:
Select Create Campaign and Sponsored Display.
Step 3:
Choose the campaign name, budget, start and end date. Note that the name of your campaign will only appear in Seller Central, but will not be visible to the customer. The budget is an average daily budget.
Step 4:
Now you need to select one of the three available targeting options. As mentioned earlier in this post, the third targeting option by interest is only available to merchants.
Step 5:
Select the product you want to promote. Simply enter the exact name or ASIN. If you have selected the product targeting or the remarketing-by-call target group, you can still adjust the display of the advertising material in this step.
Step 6:
Enter your bids on a CPC basis.
Step 7:
Review and submit the campaign you just created.
Tips for creating your Sponsored Display campaign
When creating ad media, you must comply with Amazon’s guidelines. You can find more information on this at https://advertising.amazon.com/de-de/resources/ad-policy/sponsored-display-policies
Whether your campaign is successful will depend primarily on the product to be advertised and your bidding strategy. As a rule, Sponsored Display Ads are placed in three different situations:
- Launch of a product
- Remaining stock should be sold as quickly as possible
- Sales of established products should be increased further
In all these cases it is important to choose the targeting correctly. However, until you have found the right settings, it may take a few test runs and adjustments to the campaign based on the performance data collected.
You want to give this task to someone who has already set up Amazon Sponsored Display campaigns for highly successful sellers? We can help you create and optimise PPC campaigns on Amazon! Contact us now and request a no-obligation consultation!
