Amazon DSP vs. Sponsored Display Ads: Choose the Right Option for Your Business
In today’s competitive e-commerce landscape, leveraging effective advertising strategies is crucial for businesses to gain visibility, increase brand awareness, and stay ahead of the competition.
Amazon, being the leading online marketplace, provides two prominent display advertising options to help sellers achieve these goals:
Sponsored Display ads and Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform).
While both ad types offer unique benefits, understanding their differences is key to choosing the right option for your business.
In this article, we will delve into the disparities between Amazon DSP and Sponsored Display ads, empowering you to make an informed decision to optimize your advertising strategy.
What are Amazon Sponsored Display Ads?
Amazon Sponsored Display ads are a self-service display advertising solution that enables businesses to reach customers on and off Amazon.
These ads allow brand-registered sellers to retarget customers who have previously viewed their listings within the past 30 days.
With Sponsored Display ads, you can also target similar products or categories and customize targeting based on customers’ interests and previous shopping behaviors.
These ads appear on various platforms, including Amazon product detail pages, customer review pages, and third-party websites and apps such as Twitch, ESPN, and BuzzFeed.
Pros and Cons of Sponsored Display Ads:
Pros:
- No minimum budget requirements
- Easy setup and management within the Advertising Console
- Support for newer or lower-volume products
Cons:
- Limited retargeting audience options
- Lack of negative audience targeting
- Limited creative customization and reporting options
- Inability to target competitors’ listings directly
What is Amazon DSP?
Amazon DSP is a powerful media buying tool that allows sellers to purchase various ads, including display, video, audio, and in-app ads, both on and off Amazon’s platform.
It provides brands with extensive reach across various platforms and offers different ad formats to cater to diverse advertising needs.
With Amazon DSP, brands can target specific audiences based on demographics, lifestyle, purchase intent, remarketing, lookalike audiences, and more.
DSP ads can be displayed on Amazon’s search results, product recommendations, and product details pages, as well as on Amazon-owned websites like Zappos and IMDB.
The ability to advertise to pixel audiences and drive traffic to external websites are additional benefits of Amazon DSP.
Pros and Cons of Amazon DSP:
Pros:
- Custom audiences and creative control
- Ability to advertise to a pixel audience
- Multiple optimization levers
- Ability to track specific ASINs
Cons:
- Higher budget investment required
- Complex setup and management
- May not support products with lower traffic volumes
- Requires using a separate console for campaign management
Amazon DSP vs. Sponsored Display Ads: Understanding the Key Differences
When it comes to advertising on Amazon, two powerful options stand out: Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) and Sponsored Display ads.
While both provide opportunities to reach a broader audience, there are notable differences between the two. In this article, we’ll explore the distinctions to help you make an informed decision for your advertising strategy.
Brand Eligibility:
- Sponsored Display: These ads appear on and off Amazon, but all traffic leads back to your Amazon listings.
- DSP: It allows you to send traffic to Amazon listings as well as external Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) websites. DSP is ideal for non-Amazon sellers looking to tap into Amazon’s vast audience.
Cost Variance:
- Sponsored Display: Utilizes a pay-per-click (PPC) model, where you pay based on the number of clicks received on your ads.
- DSP: Operates on a cost-per-mille (CPM) model, where you pay for every 1,000 impressions. The cost structure can be selected based on your specific goals and objectives.
Minimum Investment:
- Sponsored Display: Offers a low barrier to entry with a minimum spend of $1 per day.
- DSP: Requires a higher investment, with a minimum monthly spend of $10,000 for self-service or $50,000 for managed service. This ensures access to enhanced reporting and advanced audience insights.
Creative Control:
- Sponsored Display: Generates automated banner ads that include product images, pricing, deals, star ratings, and a “shop now” button. Only headline copy and brand logo can be customized.
- DSP: Provides extensive creative control, allowing you to design custom ads or utilize Amazon’s creative templates for display or video ads. You can also choose ad placements on third-party websites, apps, streaming services, Fire TV, Kindle, and more.
Targeting Custom Audience:
- Sponsored Display: Offers targeting based on interests, shopping behavior, and specific products or categories.
- DSP: Provides more granular and diverse targeting options, including demographics, lifestyle, purchase intent, remarketing, and lookalike audiences. Custom audiences can be created using Amazon’s data.
Brand Protection:
- Sponsored Display: Does not provide brand protection features.
- DSP: Offers brand protection tools to ensure ads are shown in relevant places. It monitors bids, site reviews, traffic quality, and viewability to block unwanted placements, safeguarding your brand reputation.
Learning Curve:
- Sponsored Display: Configuring ads is relatively straightforward using the Amazon Advertising Console, which offers automated bidding and targeting features for campaign optimization.
- DSP: Requires more advanced configuration and skills. The DSP interface may have a learning curve, and understanding programmatic advertising concepts is essential for effective campaign management.
Final Thoughts
Understanding the differences between Amazon DSP and Sponsored Display ads is crucial for optimizing your advertising strategy on Amazon. Each option offers unique advantages and limitations, and the right choice depends on your brand’s goals and target audience. By carefully considering these factors and leveraging the strengths of each advertising option, you can effectively reach customers, increase brand visibility, and stay ahead of the competition.
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