A week ago, we posted a snippet on our LinkedIn profile about how to use the Sponsored Display format when choosing contextual targeting, and we mentioned that it deserved a full post, so here we are, to tell you not only about this specific topic but also about the world of possibilities that this incredible Sponsored Ads format offers.
We start with a brief explanation of the Sponsored Display format. It’s a Sponsored Ads format “brought” from the DSP platform and helps Amazon sellers impact potential buyers in all stages of the purchase funnel.
Recommendations for using the format with contextual targeting
The Sponsored Display format has a wide range of usage possibilities that makes it very powerful depending on the objective we are pursuing at the time of its use.
Firstly, it helps increase brand loyalty by impacting consumers with your products on the detail pages of your competitors’ products. This way, you reach a consumer who intends to buy a product like yours and may find another offer interesting, potentially leading to a purchase.
If your goal is cross-selling, you can drive traffic to the detail pages of complementary products from your own product listings. For example, if you sell a hydrating day face cream, when protecting the listing, fill the Sponsored Display spaces with complementary products such as a night face cream, a serum, or a facial cleanser to complete the routine.
When aiming to acquire a new buyer for your brand, the Sponsored Display format allows you to appear on specific product detail pages (i.e., you can decide which specific product you want to appear) as well as in specific categories. If you choose to appear in related categories or specific categories of your products, you will also work on brand awareness and thus gain potential new users for your brand or, as Amazon says, NTB (New to Brand) consumers.
What benefits can we obtain when using the contextual targeting of the Sponsored Display format?
Firstly, we recommend using this format along with the other two available in Sponsored Ads: Sponsored Product and Sponsored Brand. Integrating all three formats into advertising strategies will be key to achieving the desired results. Additionally, knowing how to distribute the budget among the three based on the objectives, product type, and strategy established on Amazon.
There are 4 main benefits to using contextual targeting in Sponsored Display:
- It reaches a large volume of audiences not only within Amazon (Marketplace) but also outside of Amazon with the aim of attracting that consumer by redirecting them to our products.
- It impacts potential buyers when they are viewing content or products related to ours.
- It reaches the audience when they explore on Amazon, on websites, and on their favorite mobile applications.
- Thanks to Amazon’s machine learning, it will automatically find more opportunities to impact our products, to be applied in our campaigns.
The potential of Sponsored Display Audiences
The format allows reaching many audience types in addition to covering, as mentioned above, all stages of the sales funnel, from the consideration phase to the loyalty phase.
When planning the strategy, it is relevant to define what we are looking for since we have different use cases depending on it:
- If your goal is to impact the user in their consideration phase when launching a product, this format allows reaching audiences of products/categories where the product will start its sales journey. It’s important to note that in this case, your measurement KPI will be DPV (Detail Page View) since you’re aiming to generate traffic to the detail page. In this consideration phase, keep in mind that the user has not interacted with your brand yet, so the fact that they are on your detail page is a success.
- What do we do if we want to generate traffic from new customers to the brand? Thanks to this format, we can expand the reach to new audiences and placements outside of Amazon. In this case, the measurement KPI for actions will be NTB (New to Brand).
- If you find that you have made all possible efforts in your category, don’t despair because you can always step out of it and look for your consumer elsewhere. Use the Sponsored Display format and target both products and categories based on your brand insights.
Sponsored Display Placements
It is a format that offers a good number of possibilities in terms of defining where we want our ad to appear. As we mentioned, ads are automatically shown in placements that help optimize our performance and which, in summary, are as follows:
- On the Amazon home page.
- On product detail pages.
- On Twitch and other Amazon-owned platforms.
- Outside of Amazon, both in applications and on third-party sites.
Latest Sponsored Display format updates
Finally, let’s summarize the latest updates regarding the format. You all know that Amazon is continuously optimizing and releasing new functionalities in its advertising formats, as well as new measurement parameters that are relevant for the continuous improvement of campaign performance. We summarize the latest updates related to the format in question.
We start with the novelty that we now have Sponsored Display video. It already supports video ads that allow you to display your product in a more visual and impactful way. And the best part is that it is available both to impact within Amazon and outside, and it can now be used in all countries where Amazon operates.
Amazon Marketing Stream, the automatic messaging system that sends hourly metrics of active Amazon Ads campaigns and information about changes in those campaigns through the Amazon Ads API, now includes Sponsored Display measurement KPIs. From traffic data to conversion (including metrics such as NTB or “view-based attribution” of campaigns to vCPM), to budget distribution data.
And finally, the option within the platform called Strategy Optimization. It helps simplify campaign management by allowing us to set performance parameters, regardless of budget or client size, and it helps us with Amazon’s First Party Data and machine learning capabilities.
In conclusion, we affirm that Sponsored Display is not only an advertising tool but also a key to unlock the growth and visibility of our products. Taking advantage of all its functionalities, all the opportunities it offers, and including it in our advertising strategy will be key to taking your sales to the next level on Amazon.
