If you're an Amazon Vendor or Brand Registered seller , you have access to many powerful advertising tools to help expand your business on Amazon. One such tool is Sponsored Display Ads.

Sponsored Display ads allow you to reach relevant audiences on and off Amazon. As a result, your ads will not only appear on various Amazon pages, but also be visible to customers on third-party websites and apps.

Let's take a deeper look at what Sponsored Display ads are, how they work, and how to set them up.

What are Sponsored Display ads?

We all know how effective Sponsored Product Ads can be for posting products – getting your products to the first page of search results can be very lucrative. But Sponsored Display's non-Amazon advertising capabilities are a whole different ball game.

Launched in 2019, Sponsored Display is the newest type of Amazon PPC ad and is growing in popularity among sellers. In 2022, 29% of third-party sellers use Sponsored Display ads, spending 3% of Amazon’s advertising revenue on such ads.

The main difference between Sponsored Display ads and Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands is that the program doesn't target keywords. Instead, it targets customers based on audience interests and shopping behavior, and whether they've viewed your product's detail page.

As Amazon defines it, " Display Advertising is a self-service display advertising solution that helps you grow your business and brand on Amazon by engaging shoppers throughout the buying process on and off Amazon."

Essentially, Amazon records the products that potential customers view on its website and shows those products to customers again on various Amazon pages, competitor listings, and third-party websites and apps.

If you're an Amazon shopper, you've probably seen Sponsored Display ads in action — they're ghosts of Amazon products you're considering buying, magically appearing on the fringes of the sites and apps you use to shop, gaining your news, or find recipes.

Click the ad, and boom – you're redirected to the product listing and re-engaged in the buying journey.

This technique enables brands to impress potential customers. With Sponsored Display, Brand Registered sellers can:

Retarget customers who have viewed their listing in the past 30 days

Target similar products or categories

Target customers based on their interests and previous shopping behavior (vendors only)

With Sponsored Display ads, you can remind potential customers of your products, even after they've left Amazon. According to Amazon , sellers using Sponsored Display audiences see up to 82% of their sales come from new brand customers.

How do Sponsored Display ads work?

Like other Amazon advertising tools, Sponsored Display is a PPC (pay-per-click) program. You bid with other sellers for ad placement, which is visibility for potential customers. There are no minimum investment requirements; just like Sponsored Product Ads, you'll set your bids and daily budget.

Sponsored Display ads offer three types of targeting options: Product Targeting, View Remarketing, and Audience Interest.

Product Targeted Ads

Product targeting allows you to reach customers who are browsing your product or similar products and categories. You can target potential customers of top competitors in your niche by showing your products as ads on their listings.

If you know your competitor's listing is getting a lot of traffic, you can create a coupon or put a price just below theirs and turn on product-targeted display ads. This way, you can entice customers to choose your listing over similar products.

You can also target your visitors to listings of complementary products. For example, if you sell Xbox One accessories, you can target your visitors to listings for Xbox One consoles or Xbox games.

Eligibility: Product targeting options are available for vendors and third-party sellers registered in Amazon Brand Registry.

Audience: View Remarketing

View remarketing allows sellers to retarget customers who have previously viewed their listings. Re-engaging with customers who have been viewing your product or similar products in your category is more likely to convert than targeting "cold" traffic through Sponsored Products.

Viewing remarketing ad types will retarget audiences who have viewed your product detail pages, or reach audiences who have viewed detail pages for similar products and categories.

Your ad will appear to customers who have viewed your product listing on Amazon in the past 30 days but have not yet purchased your product.

Eligibility: Product targeting options are available for vendors and third-party sellers registered in Amazon Brand Registry.

Audience: Interest

This unique targeting option can increase your brand awareness by introducing your products to new audiences who say they may be interested in them.

In other words, Amazon will show your ad to shoppers who have viewed products related to a specific interest.

Eligibility: This targeting option is only available for suppliers.

Where do Sponsored Display ads appear?

First, let me clarify the difference between Sponsored Display, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Product ads with the example of brand and product ads.

Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products ads appear at the top of the first page of Amazon keyword search results in this order.

Sponsored Display ads, on the other hand, may appear on Amazon (product detail pages or shopping results on desktop, mobile, and apps) or third-party websites and apps (US only), depending on your targeting option selection.

Below is an example of a display ad that uses product targeting or audience retargeting – it appears right below the product description in the competitor listing.

How to Set Up Sponsored Display Ads

Setting up your display ad is easy. You don't need a large budget or the ability to design your own ad creative – all you need to do is become a brand registered seller and with just a few clicks, your ad will be up and running.

In Seller Central, go to the "Ads" tab, then click "Campaign Manager," then "Create Campaign."

Next, click "Sponsored Display" under "Choose your campaign type."

The next few steps are very similar to setting up a Sponsored Products campaign. After entering the campaign name, enter the date range, daily budget, ad group name, and bid optimization strategy.

Next, choose the product and positioning strategy you want to promote. You can choose between Audience and Product Targeting. In this example, I'll choose "Audience" to show you how specific you can get with this strategy.

Your audience options include Amazon Audiences, Views Remarketing, and Purchase Remarketing. In this example, I'll choose View Remarketing, but make sure you review every audience option Amazon offers. Click the Custom Audiences link in this section to learn about each type of audience.

Here are the details you can get with Views Remarketing.

The last section gives you the option to customize your ad creative or let Amazon set it up for you. You can add your own brand logo and choose a title to entice customers to click on your listing.

Finally, you can choose where you want your ad to appear on Amazon. Amazon will also give you examples of ad placements.

Are Sponsored Display ads worth it?

It's up to you! The important thing to remember about selling on Amazon is that you need to test different strategies to see what works best for your product and business.

According to our 2022 Amazon Advertising report , Sponsored Display ads have a lower return on ad spend (RoAS) compared to Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands .

But remember, having another advertising strategy in your arsenal is a great way to stay ahead of the competition, especially if you're able to retarget potential customers.

If you're registered with Amazon Brand Registry or are an Amazon vendor, test Sponsored Display ads and see how they perform.

Have you run these types of ads before or have other questions about Sponsored Display ads? Let us know in the comments below!

More cross-border information public account: cross-border video cici