Amazon Display ads bidding strategies work differently from Sponsored Products, and the difference
trips up almost everyone who moves across. Sponsored Display does not bid on keywords. It bids on
audiences and on products, and you choose an optimization goal that tells Amazon what a good outcome
looks like.
The most common mistake is judging Display by the same ACoS you use for Sponsored Products. Display
frequently reaches people earlier in the decision, and some of it is deliberately not a
last-click channel. Holding it to a last-click standard means switching off the part that was working
upstream.
If you have not read our guide to
Amazon bid types and strategies, that covers the
Sponsored Products mechanics. This page covers what changes with Display.
The two targeting types, because bidding follows from them
You cannot choose a sensible bid without knowing which of these you are running, and in our experience many sellers do not know which they enabled.
Product targeting. Your ad appears on or near specific ASINs and categories, which means you are choosing the context rather than the person: a competitor’s detail page, a complementary product somebody is already looking at, or your own range so browsers see the rest of what you sell. Behaves most like Sponsored Products and is the easier one to
judge, because intent is visible from the page the shopper is on.
Audience targeting. Your ad follows people based on behavior: shoppers who viewed your product,
viewed similar products, purchased in a category, or match a lifestyle or interest segment. Behaves
nothing like Sponsored Products, because the shopper may not be looking at anything relevant when they
see it.
The practical implication: product targeting can carry a tighter efficiency target. Audience targeting
usually cannot, and I’d set separate expectations rather than one account-wide number.
The optimization goals
Sponsored Display asks what you want optimized. The choice changes how Amazon spends your bid, and in our experience it is picked carelessly.
Optimize for conversions. Amazon pursues purchases, and I’d treat this as the default. The tightest, most Sponsored-Products-like
setting, and the right default for product targeting and for remarketing to people who already viewed
your listing.
Optimize for page visits. Amazon pursues clicks through to your detail page. Useful when you want
traffic to a listing you know converts, and during a launch where you need sessions to accumulate data.
Expect a worse ACoS and a better cost per click, which is the trade you chose.
Optimize for reach or impressions. Amazon pursues exposure. Genuinely a brand-awareness setting, and
it should not be judged on ACoS at all. If you cannot say what you would measure instead, do not run
it.
The single most useful discipline here: decide the measure before the campaign, not after. In our
experience the accounts that waste money on Display are the ones that chose a reach goal and then judged
it on sales.
Amazon Display ads bidding strategies by stage
The settings only make sense against where a product is in its life, so here is the mapping I’d use.
Launch, weeks 1 to 6. Views remarketing on conversions, plus product targeting on your own catalog so
shoppers browsing one of your listings see the rest of the range. Skip audience targeting entirely at this
stage: there is not enough behavioral data attached to your product for it to work, and a launch budget
spread across audiences buys impressions rather than learning.
Establishing, months 2 to 6. Add product targeting against complementary ASINs, then against
competitor ASINs once you know your conversion rate well enough to bid from it. Keep bids below the
Sponsored Products equivalent. This is where Display starts earning rather than educating.
Mature, month 6 onward. Audience targeting becomes worth testing, on a budget you are willing to
judge over a quarter rather than over two weeks. Reach campaigns only if brand awareness is a stated goal
with its own measure.
Defensive, any time. Product targeting on your own ASINs, so competitors buying placements on your
detail pages have to outbid you rather than walking in. Cheap, and in our experience routinely neglected
until somebody notices a rival advertising on their best listing.
Reading Display data without fooling yourself
Three habits, because the attribution here is genuinely harder than in search.
Separate the two attribution views. Click-attributed sales and total sales including view-through will
differ, sometimes considerably. Neither is dishonest and quoting only the flattering one is. I’d report
both internally and decide on the click figure.
Judge audience campaigns over 4 to 8 weeks, not weekly, and in our experience even that is optimistic on a small budget. The data accumulates too slowly for a weekly
read and reacting weekly produces noise-chasing.
Compare Display against Display. Comparing an audience campaign to a Sponsored Products exact-match
campaign is comparing two different jobs, and the exact campaign wins every time on last-click without
that meaning anything useful.
Views remarketing, which is the strongest use
If you run one Display campaign, run this.
Views remarketing targets people who looked at your product and did not buy. They have demonstrated intent. They know the product exists. The ad is a reminder rather than an introduction, and when I have set this up on accounts that had never run Display, it produced the first genuinely profitable Display campaign they had seen.
Optimize for conversions, keep the bid moderate, and expect this to be the best performing Display
campaign you have. It is also the one most sellers never set up, which I’ve never fully understood given
how cheap it is to test.
Two refinements, both of which I’d apply from the start. Exclude recent purchasers where the product is not consumable, since advertising to
somebody who just bought is waste. And keep the lookback window sensible: too short and you miss
considered purchases, too long and you pay to reach people who moved on.
Setting the bid
Different arithmetic from Sponsored Products, and worth doing rather than guessing.
Start below your Sponsored Products bid for the same product. Display traffic converts less reliably
because intent is weaker, so the same bid buys a worse outcome.
Work from break-even the same way, but apply a lower expected conversion rate. If a keyword converts
at 10% and supports $0.80, the same product on audience targeting converting at 4% supports roughly
$0.32. Using the Sponsored Products bid on audience targeting is the commonest way to lose money here.
Then decide whether you are buying profit or reach, and if it is reach, set a budget you are willing
to treat as a marketing cost rather than a performance one.
I’d start deliberately low and raise it. Display is easier to overspend on than Sponsored Products,
because the inventory is effectively unlimited and nothing constrains delivery the way a keyword’s search
volume does.
What to expect, honestly
Calibration, because Display disappoints people who expected Sponsored Products behavior. In our experience the disappointment is about expectations rather than performance.
Higher ACoS on most campaigns, particularly audience ones. Structural rather than a failure, and I’d set the expectation with whoever reads the report before the first invoice arrives.
More impressions, fewer clicks, and a lower click-through rate than search placements. Normal, and I’d not read it as a creative problem.
Attribution that flatters and frustrates. View-through attribution credits Display for sales where the
ad was seen but not clicked, which is defensible and makes direct comparison with Sponsored Products
awkward. Look at both the click-attributed and total figures, and know which one you are quoting.
A slower read. Display needs longer to produce reliable data than search, which means weekly optimization is not diligence but noise-chasing. I’d review every 2 weeks at most, and monthly on audience campaigns.
When to skip Display entirely
Worth saying, since not every account should run it.
If Sponsored Products is not yet working, fix that first. Display amplifies. It does not rescue, and in my experience running it as a rescue attempt just spends faster.
If your listing converts poorly, sending more traffic to it is buying the same failure at a new price, and in my experience that is the most expensive mistake on this page.
Our guide to
Amazon Brand Analytics covers
diagnosing which funnel stage loses the sale.
If your budget is small. Display spread thin does nothing. Concentrate it on views remarketing, or skip it. I’d not run 6 underfunded Display campaigns to look thorough.
If you cannot tolerate an ambiguous read. Some Display value is genuinely hard to attribute, and if
that will result in it being switched off in month two, the money is better spent elsewhere.
If you would rather have the whole advertising mix managed against margin, that sits inside our
Amazon PPC service. We are an Amazon Ads
partner and an Amazon SPN Verified Partner.
FAQ
How does Sponsored Display bidding differ from Sponsored Products?
Sponsored Display does not bid on keywords. It bids on audiences and on products, and you select an
optimization goal, conversions, page visits, or reach, that tells Amazon what outcome to pursue. Intent is
usually weaker, so the same bid buys a worse result.
Which Sponsored Display optimization goal should I use?
Conversions for product targeting and for views remarketing, which is the strongest use. Page visits when
you want traffic to a listing that already converts, such as during a launch. Reach only if you can state
what you will measure instead of ACoS.
What is views remarketing on Amazon?
Targeting shoppers who viewed your product and did not buy. They have demonstrated intent and already know
the product, so it is usually the best performing Display campaign available, and the one most sellers
never set up.
What bid should I set for Amazon Display ads?
Below your Sponsored Products bid for the same product. Work from break-even but apply a lower expected
conversion rate: a product supporting $0.80 per click at a 10% conversion rate supports roughly $0.32 at
4%.
Why is my Amazon Display ACoS so high?
Usually because Display reaches shoppers with weaker intent than search does, which is structural rather
than a fault. Audience targeting in particular should not be held to a Sponsored Products efficiency
target.
Should every seller run Sponsored Display?
No. Fix Sponsored Products first, since Display amplifies rather than rescues. Skip it if your listing
converts poorly, if your budget is too small to concentrate, or if an ambiguous attribution read will get
it switched off prematurely.
Last updated: August 31, 2026. Amazon’s Sponsored Display targeting options, optimization goals,
attribution models, and audience segments change over time and differ by marketplace and eligibility. The
Amazon Ads console carries the current options for your account.
