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How to Get Started with Amazon Sponsored Display PPC Ads – 2025 Guide

Here’s how to take advantage of Amazon’s closely guarded first-party data to put your product (and brand) in the spotlight.

  • September 5, 2025
  • /
  • CANOPY Management
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Table of Contents

  1. The Evolution of Amazon Display Advertising in 2025
  2. What Amazon Sponsored Display Does Differently
  3. Why Sponsored Display Ads Are a Powerful Marketing Tool
  4. Major 2025 Updates and Features
  5. Who Can Use Sponsored Display Ads
  6. Getting Started With Amazon Sponsored Display Ads
  7. Understanding Targeting Options
  8. Contextual Targeting (Product Targeting)
  9. Audience Targeting Strategies
  10. AI-Powered Optimization Features
  11. Campaign Types and Bidding Strategies
  12. Where Sponsored Display Ads Appear
  13. Advanced Strategies for 2025
  14. Amazon DSP: The Next Level
  15. How Canopy Management Can Help
  16. Frequently Asked Questions

The Evolution of Amazon Display Advertising in 2025

The platform continues expanding rapidly: Amazon hosts 9.7 million sellers worldwide (though only 1.9 million are actively selling), with hundreds of new sellers joining daily. This creates both opportunity and competition.

That’s why a well-built Amazon PPC ad has become the best way to set yourself apart and make sure your product is seen. One big way to do that is to take advantage of Amazon’s closely guarded first-party data and use audience targeting with your Amazon ad to keep your product (and brand) in the front of your prospective customers’ minds.

2025 Reality: Sponsored Display has evolved from a simple retargeting tool to a sophisticated, AI-powered advertising platform that reaches customers across Amazon’s ecosystem and beyond.

Experienced Amazon sellers know how effective it is to use Sponsored Product and Sponsored Brand ads to ensure that your Amazon product shows up prominently in search results. They’re also a great way to establish brand recognition. But they can have their limitations – particularly when shoppers leave the product page on Amazon.

Important Note: If you’re just getting started selling on Amazon, consider reviewing our guides on Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands before diving into this more advanced advertising option.

What Amazon Sponsored Display Does Differently

Yes, it occasionally feels uncomfortable to be “followed” across platforms. Still, that kind of pusuit from advertisers often results in a shopper purchasing something that they otherwise wouldn’t have considered.

One big difference between Sponsored Display ads and the rest of Amazon’s advertising models is that the program doesn’t only target keywords. A Display ad primarily targets shoppers based on their interests and behavior patterns.

While a customer is shopping, Amazon’s sophisticated data systems are collecting information on their behavior and habits. Later, the Sponsored Display ad shows similar results (ads) to the same customer across various Amazon pages, competitor listings, as well as third-party websites and apps.

Key Differentiators in 2025:

Amazon Sponsored Display ads require higher levels of eCommerce know-how compared to basic PPC campaigns. The advanced targeting and optimization features make them particularly powerful for experienced sellers.

If you’re just getting started selling on Amazon, it might be a good idea to take a look at the first PPC Quick Start Guide, featuring Sponsored Products, or second, on Sponsored Brands before diving into this guide. Both of those previous PPC Quick Start Guides include an intro on PPC basics as well as a section on PPC vocabulary. 

Image credit: Amazon

Why Sponsored Display Ads Are a Powerful Marketing Tool

Enhanced Visibility and Reach

Amazon Sponsored Display Ads give your products significant visibility boost both on and off the Amazon platform. These ads can appear in various key locations such as product detail pages, customer reviews, shopping results, and across thousands of third-party websites and apps. This wider reach enables you to connect with potential customers throughout their shopping journey, increasing brand exposure and awareness.

Highly Targeted Audience Engagement

Sponsored Display Ads leverage Amazon’s wealth of shopping and contextual data to help you reach highly relevant audiences. Unlike keyword-based ads, these ads focus on customers’ shopping habits, interests, and demographics. You can retarget customers who have viewed your listings in the last 30 days or reach shoppers exploring similar products and categories. This precise targeting enhances ad effectiveness, leading to higher conversion rates.

Sustained Sales Impact and Campaign Synergy

Sponsored Display Ads not only generate immediate sales but also have long-lasting benefits, with the potential to drive sustained customer engagement over time. When combined with other Amazon ad formats, such as Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands, the synergistic effect can significantly boost overall advertising performance, making these ads even more effective when used as part of a comprehensive strategy.

Competitive Opportunity

Market Research Insight: Industry data suggests that a significant portion of Amazon sellers have not yet adopted Sponsored Display advertising, creating potential opportunities for early adopters. This lower adoption rate compared to Sponsored Products may result in:

However, competition levels vary significantly by product category and marketplace, so results depend on your specific niche and execution strategy.

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Major 2025 Updates and Features

AI-Powered Creative Generation

New in 2025: Sponsored Display advertisers can now access AI-generated images within the Ads Console, putting creative innovation directly into advertisers’ hands without requiring external design resources.

Advanced Custom Audiences

Amazon has introduced “Custom Audiences” functionality that allows advertisers to create tailored audience segments using Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) data. This enables:

Enhanced Video Capabilities

Cost Control Features

Similar to Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display now offers AI-powered cost controls that:

Expanded Marketplace Availability

Sponsored Display is now available across all major Amazon marketplaces, including recent expansions to Ireland, and enhanced support in Japan, India, and Australia.

Who Can Use Sponsored Display Ads

Availability Requirements:

Important: Amazon Brand Registry enrollment is mandatory for most Sponsored Display features, making this a premium advertising tool that’s not accessible to all sellers. This exclusivity ensures that brands leveraging Sponsored Display gain an edge in brand positioning and customer engagement.

2025 Enhancement: New Business-to-Business targeting options allow advertisers to exclusively target Amazon Business customers, opening new opportunities for B2B sellers.

Getting Started With Amazon Sponsored Display Ads

To create your first Sponsored Display campaign:

Step 1: Campaign Setup

  1. Sign in to your Amazon Advertising Console
  2. Click “Create Campaign” from the Campaign Manager
  3. Select “Sponsored Display” as your ad type
  4. Choose your campaign name and duration

Step 2: Campaign Goal Selection

Choose from optimization strategies:

Step 3: Targeting Strategy

Select your primary targeting approach:

Step 4: Creative and Budget Setup

Pro Tip: Start with a modest budget and let Amazon’s AI optimization learn your audience preferences before scaling up.

Understanding Targeting Options

There are two main targeting approaches available with Amazon Sponsored Display ads: Contextual Targeting and Audience Targeting. You don’t have to pick one or the other – both help you reach relevant audiences and can be used together strategically.

Strategic Combination Approach

This multi-pronged approach allows you to capture customers at different stages of their buying journey and maximize your advertising impact.

Contextual Targeting (Product Targeting)

Formerly known as Product Targeting

Amazon Sponsored Display Contextual advertising allows you to reach users actively browsing products similar to yours based on predefined characteristics. These characteristics include:

How Contextual Targeting Works

Your ads appear on detail pages, shopping results pages, and customer review sections for products that match your targeting criteria. This placement strategy puts your products directly in front of customers who are actively considering similar items.

Optimization Strategies

Premium Placement Advantage: Unlike Sponsored Products that appear at the bottom of competitor listings, Sponsored Display ads appear in ultra-premium locations – above the fold, beneath bullet points, or underneath the Buy Box.

Audience Targeting Strategies

Sponsored Display audiences use Amazon shopping signals to help advertisers engage shoppers across the purchase journey—both on and off Amazon. You can build campaigns targeting different audience types:

Core Audience Types

1. In-Market Audiences These are shoppers who are actively researching in your category. You can reach audiences in the same category as your advertised products to drive consideration, or explore entirely new segments to drive product awareness.

2. Lifestyle Audiences Built from aggregated shopping and viewing behaviors across Amazon’s ecosystem, including:

3. Interest-Based Audiences Target prospective customers based on what they frequently browse and buy, driving awareness with shoppers who have demonstrated relevant interests.

4. Life Events Audiences Target customers during important life moments such as:

Custom Remarketing Options

AI-Powered Optimization Features

Automated Creative Optimization

Smart Bidding and Budget Management

Important Note: While AI tools are increasingly sophisticated, they require strategic oversight and don’t replace the need for campaign monitoring and optimization.

Enhanced Audience Intelligence

Campaign Types and Bidding Strategies

CPC (Cost-Per-Click) Campaigns

Best for: Direct response and sales generation

vCPM (Viewable Cost Per Mille) Campaigns

Best for: Brand awareness and reach

Important Note: vCPM campaigns may attribute sales to impressions even when customers would have found your product organically, so careful analysis of incremental impact is important.

Bidding Strategy Options

Optimize for Page Visits

Optimize for Conversions

Optimize for Reach (vCPM only)

Where Sponsored Display Ads Appear

On Amazon Placements

Off-Amazon Placements

Premium Amazon Properties

Retail Awareness Advantage: Amazon automatically pauses your ads if advertised products go out of stock or are no longer the Featured Offer, protecting your ad spend and maintaining campaign efficiency.

two amazon brand entrepreneurs looking at a whiteboard in a modern office showing how to combine Amazon SEO and Amazon PPC to make a lot of money.

Advanced Strategies for 2025

Multi-Funnel Campaign Architecture

Create campaigns targeting different stages of the customer journey:

1. Awareness Stage

2. Consideration Stage

3. Conversion Stage

Cross-Campaign Synergy

Coordinate Sponsored Display with other ad types for comprehensive coverage:

When executed strategically, this multi-channel approach can significantly improve overall advertising performance, though results vary by category, budget allocation, and campaign execution.

Amazon DSP: The Next Level

By starting your Amazon advertising experience with Sponsored Products, then building skills with Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display, you’ve positioned yourself perfectly for the next step: Amazon Demand Side Platform (DSP) advertising.

DSP Advantages Over Sponsored Display

2025 DSP Enhancements

Pro Tip: Master Sponsored Display campaigns before advancing to DSP, as the targeting and optimization principles build upon each other.

How Canopy Management Can Help

Amazon has been at the forefront of the eCommerce world for over two decades, providing a platform for millions of businesses to sell their products. With the rise of eCommerce, Amazon has become the go-to destination for shoppers across the world, making it a valuable advertising platform for businesses looking to reach new customers.

Back in the early days of Amazon, Amazon PPC was just one way of launching a product. Now it’s almost impossible to find success without it. Yes, there are some that do, but they’re the exception, not the rule.

The 2025 Challenge: Sponsored Display advertising has become significantly more sophisticated, with AI optimization, custom audiences, cross-platform targeting, and advanced attribution modeling. Professional management is more valuable than ever.

To give yourself a head start, do what many of Amazon’s top sellers have done and reach out to the Amazon experts at Canopy Management.

Canopy Management is a full-service marketing agency for Amazon, Walmart, and TikTok sellers. Our team consists of multi-million dollar, omni-channel entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and award-winning experts. 

When you consider the many ways that Canopy Management can help you grow your business, you’ll see why selling on Amazon is much easier “under the Canopy”:

Our Comprehensive Services:

Specialized Display Advertising Expertise:

Our partners achieve an average 84% profit increase through strategic advertising management and optimization.

Ready to Start Growing Your Amazon Brand?

Canopy’s Partners Achieve an Average 84% Profit Increase!

Find out more

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between Sponsored Display and Sponsored Products?

Sponsored Products:

Sponsored Display:

Do I need Amazon Brand Registry to use Sponsored Display?

Yes, Amazon Brand Registry enrollment is mandatory for Sponsored Display advertising. This requirement ensures that only verified brand owners can access these premium advertising features, creating a competitive advantage for registered brands.

How much should I budget for Sponsored Display campaigns?

Budget Allocation Guidelines:

The average CPC for Sponsored Display typically ranges from $0.80-$1.60 in 2025, though costs vary significantly by category and targeting strategy.

What targeting strategy should I use first?

For New Advertisers:

  1. Start with Audience Targeting: Use “In-Market” audiences for your product category
  2. Add Views Remarketing: Target people who viewed your products but didn’t buy
  3. Expand to Contextual: Target competitor products and categories
  4. Advanced: Implement Custom Audiences using AMC data

Pro Tip: Run multiple targeting strategies simultaneously but in separate campaigns for clearer performance analysis.

How do I know if my Sponsored Display campaigns are working?

Key Performance Indicators:

Attribution Considerations:

Can Sponsored Display help with organic rankings?

Yes, but indirectly. Sponsored Display contributes to organic performance by:

The combination of increased sales and brand recognition creates positive signals for Amazon’s organic ranking algorithm.

Should I use CPC or vCPM campaigns?

Choose CPC when:

Choose vCPM when:

Many successful advertisers use both: vCPM for top-of-funnel awareness and CPC for bottom-funnel conversions.

How does Sponsored Display work with my other Amazon ads?

Sponsored Display works synergistically with other Amazon ad types:

With Sponsored Products:

With Sponsored Brands:

Coordinated Strategy Benefits:

Performance Measurement Strategy: Key Metrics by Campaign Goal:

Attribution Analysis:

What creative assets do I need for Sponsored Display?

Image Requirements:

Video Requirements (Optional but Recommended):

2025 Enhancement: AI-generated images are now available directly in the Ads Console, reducing the need for external creative development.

How long should I run Sponsored Display campaigns before making changes?

Optimization Timeline:

AI Learning Period: Amazon’s machine learning algorithms typically need 2-3 weeks to optimize effectively, so avoid major changes during this period.

Can I use Sponsored Display if I don’t sell on Amazon?

Yes! In 2025, Sponsored Display is available to all businesses, whether they sell on Amazon or not. This includes:

Requirements for non-Amazon businesses:

This expansion makes Sponsored Display a powerful tool for reaching Amazon’s massive audience regardless of your business model.

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