With Amazon Sponsored Display, Amazon is finally providing an advertising solution that allows sellers and retailers to target customers based on their behavior and interests. In principle, anyone can take part - provided you have the Trademark registration in the Brand Registry already successfully completed.
In this article, I will explain what exactly characterizes Amazon Sponsored Display and how to create a campaign.
What are Sponsored Display Ads?
Amazon describes a sponsored display as a Self-service display advertising solutionwhich is used to address buyers throughout the entire buyer's journey, both inside and outside of Amazon. Thus Sponsored Display Ads alongside Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products, is the solution for sellers who want to expand their business and brand on Amazon.
Since Sponsored Display Ads is only one of several advertising programs on Amazon.de, I would first like to clarify where the differences lie.
The differences to sponsored product campaigns
For sellers who are just getting to grips with the various advertising programs on Amazon for the first time, the distinguishing features between Sponsored Product and Sponsored Display can be unclear. Therefore, I will outline the four most important differences below.
Trademark 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 customers who sell on Amazon. Your products must fall under Amazon's eligible categories in order to be allowed to advertise. All Product display ad campaigns are now part of Sponsored Display. If a seller has placed Product Display ads in the past, these are made available as a Sponsored Display campaign without the need for an additional action.
Products can be advertised without a Buy Box
The Buy Box is essential for every seller on Amazon. However, only one seller can use the Buy Box at any one time. Buy Box win - i.e. take the order for a product offered by several sellers. However, this does not mean that only one seller can sell the product in question, as Amazon Sponsored Display Ads offer another method of reaching potential customers.
As a rule, the top sellers win the Buy Box in 95 % 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.
Displays can be modified and individualized
Although advertising material is created automatically, the seller has the option of changing 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 "Buy now" button.
Sponsored Display Ads are only shown on product detail pages
While other programs such as Sponsored Products allow sellers to advertise products in the relevant categories, Sponsored Display Ads are only shown on product detail pages. This is one of the reasons why the different advertising programs on Amazon should be combined. Sponsored Display Ads alone can only cover part of the possibilities that Amazon offers sellers to reach potential customers.
Where do sponsored display ads appear?
Based on the targeting options selected by the seller, ads are displayed on desktop and mobile devices. They usually appear under the Buy Box, but other placements are also possible on product detail pages and in the shopping results.
In addition, and this feature distinguishes Sponsored display ads In addition to other advertising programs, target groups can be addressed on third-party websites. For example, potential customers who have seen one of our own products or a similar product from a competitor can be targeted via advertisements on Amazon or third-party websites (currently only in the USA).
What targeting options do Sponsored Display Ads have?
Sellers have various targeting options for Sponsored Display Ads. I would like to explain the three available options in more detail below.
Attention: None of these options can be used without an entry in the Amazon trademark 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 after calls
Potential buyers who have viewed one of your products, similar competitor products or a relevant product category within the last 30 days are selected.
This option is made available to sellers and dealers.
Targeting according to interests
Similar to remarketing by views, targeting by interests can be used to address customers who have shown a certain behavior in the past, which suggests that there is an interest in the 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 whose potential interest seems obvious.
Targeting by interests is reserved for retailers.
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 according to 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 sponsored display ads can only be placed on Amazon.de in Germany, DSP also allows you to advertise outside Amazon.
- 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?
The creation of an Amazon Sponsored Display campaign can be divided into 7 steps.
Step 1:
Open the Campaign manager in the Seller Central.
Step 2:
Choose Create campaign and Sponsored Display.
Step 3:
Select the Campaign namesthat Budgetand the Start and end date. Please note that the name of your campaign only appears in Seller Central, but is not visible to the customer. The budget is an average daily budget.
Step 4:
Now one of the three available Targeting options can be selected. As already mentioned in this article, the third targeting option by interests is only available to retailers.
Step 5:
Select the product you want to advertise. Simply enter the exact name or the ASIN in. If you have selected product targeting or remarketing by call target group, you can still customize the display of the advertising material in this step.
Step 6:
Give your Bids on a CPC basis.
Step 7:
Check the campaign you have just created and submit it.
Tips for creating your Sponsored Display campaign
The Amazon guidelines must be adhered to when creating advertising material. You can find this on https://advertising.amazon.com/de-de/resources/ad-policy/sponsored-display-policies further information.
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 primarily placed in three different situations:
- Market launch of a product
- Remaining stock should be sold as quickly as possible
- Sales figures for proven products are to be further increased
In all these cases, it is important to choose the right targeting. However, until you have found the right settings, a few test runs and adjustments to the campaign based on the collected performance data may be necessary.
Would you like to assign this task to someone who has already set up Amazon Sponsored Display campaigns for highly successful sellers? We can help with the creation and optimization of PPC campaigns help on Amazon! Get in touch with us now and claim a non-binding consultation on!
