What is Sponsored Display?

Sponsored Display is Amazon's self-service display advertising for products sold on Amazon. Instead of bidding on search terms, you reach shoppers through the products and categories they are looking at, or through audiences built from shopping behaviour, and the ads can run on Amazon and on other sites and apps.

A name change to know first

Amazon has folded Sponsored Display into a wider offering it now calls display ads. Its Sponsored Display page (checked 2026-10-03) says existing Sponsored Display campaigns keep running uninterrupted, that they are found under Display, Video, and Audio campaigns in its Amazon Ads Agent console, and that new display campaigns are created there. Campaign histories, reports and the Amazon Ads API still carry the Sponsored Display name, which is why this entry keeps it. The mechanics below are the ones Amazon describes for self-service display ads.

Definition

A Sponsored Display ad promotes your products to a set of shoppers you define, or next to a set of products you name. Amazon builds the creative from your detail page, with the product image, title, star rating, Prime badge and price, and you can add your own logo, headline and image. According to Amazon's display ads guide (checked 2026-10-03), the ad refreshes when the detail page changes, stops serving when the product can no longer be bought, and is not charged for while it is not serving for that reason. It is available to vendors and to professional sellers enrolled in Brand Registry.

Targeting

There are no keywords, so there is no search term report. Amazon's reporting for Sponsored Display includes campaigns, ad groups, targeting, advertised products and purchased products (report types, checked 2026-10-03).

Billing and bid optimisation

There are two cost types: per click (CPC), or per thousand viewable impressions (vCPM). You also choose what Amazon should optimise the bid towards: viewable impressions, page visits or conversions. Amazon's API guide notes that a vCPM campaign must optimise for reach, meaning viewable impressions (audiences API guide, checked 2026-10-03).

How Sponsored Display sales are counted

Amazon credits display conversions over a lookback that is generally 14 days, can credit other products from the same brand, and on vCPM campaigns also counts purchases after a viewable impression with no click. A conversion is credited to one ad interaction at most across all campaigns, and clicks rank above views (ad campaign attribution, checked 2026-10-03). The attribution window entry explains why the most recent days always read worse than they will end up.

The formulas

ACoS                  = Spend ÷ Attributed sales
Effective CPC on vCPM = vCPM ÷ (1,000 × Click-through rate)
Max vCPM              = 1,000 × Click-through rate × Conversion rate × Average order value × Target ACoS

The third line turns your own margin into the most a thousand viewable impressions can be worth to you. Start the target from your break-even, which the break-even ACoS calculator works out from your price, fees and landed cost.

Worked example

Example inputs, not benchmarks. A views remarketing campaign billed per click, over a period that ended more than 14 days ago:

• Spend $300, 250 clicks, 30 attributed orders at $40 each, so $1,200 of attributed sales.
• Each unit leaves a $16 contribution margin on a $40 price, so break-even ACoS is 16 ÷ 40 = 40%.

Then:

• Cost per click: 300 ÷ 250 = $1.20
• ACoS: 300 ÷ 1,200 = 25%
• Contribution after advertising: 30 × $16 − $300 = $180

Now price a vCPM campaign for the same products. Suppose its viewable impressions click through at 0.25%, those clicks convert at 10% at the same $40 order value, and your target ACoS is 30%:

• Clicks per thousand viewable impressions: 1,000 × 0.0025 = 2.5
• Orders per thousand: 2.5 × 0.10 = 0.25
• Sales per thousand: 0.25 × $40 = $10
• Maximum vCPM at a 30% target: $10 × 0.30 = $3.00

Bid above $3.00 and every thousand impressions costs more than your target allows, unless purchases after a view are covering the gap. Those are the sales you can verify least, so treat that as a reason for caution rather than a licence to bid higher.

Using it to make decisions

• Ask what the ad caused. Views remarketing reaches shoppers who already found your product, so some attributed orders would have happened anyway. Watch total sales and TACoS alongside campaign ACoS, using the TACoS calculator. If a remarketing campaign's attributed sales rise while total sales do not, it is claiming credit rather than creating demand.
• Keep CPC and vCPM apart. A blended ACoS across both cost types mixes click-attributed sales with sales after a view.
• Use contextual targeting where your product wins the comparison. On a rival's product page the shopper compares price, rating and the main image directly.
• Fix the listing first. The ad is built from the detail page, so a weak image or a price rise flows straight into every impression.

Common mistakes

1. Trusting purchases after a view as much as purchases after a click. Read the click-only figures alongside the totals.
2. Taking a target from a generic display benchmark. Derive it from your own margin, as above.
3. Judging it on a 7-day habit. A campaign on a 14-day window looks worse than it is until the window closes.
4. Expecting a search term report. There are no search terms to report.
5. Ranking it against Sponsored Products on ACoS alone. The window, the brand halo and the view-through credit all differ.

How it relates to adjacent ad types

Sponsored Products answers a search. Sponsored Brands puts the brand at the top of a search. Sponsored Display follows the shopper after the search, onto product pages and off Amazon. Amazon DSP is Amazon's programmatic buying platform, and Amazon Ads Agent now brings sponsored ads and DSP workflows into one workspace. On ACoS and TACoS, Sponsored Display is read like the other sponsored ads, but on its own 14-day window.

How Shurq helps

Shurq's ad manager lists Sponsored Display campaigns alongside Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands, with ad type and cost type filters and a Cost Type column, so CPC and vCPM campaigns are not averaged together by accident. Its advertised products view reads Sponsored Display sales on the 14-day column and Sponsored Products sales on the 7-day column, so each row is measured on its own window. The optimisation preview handles vCPM bids in their own lane rather than running them through cost-per-click logic, and holds every proposal for your approval. Audience bid adjustments are offered only where Amazon supports them, on Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands, because in Sponsored Display an audience is a target you bid on directly. The Amazon bid optimisation guide explains the method.

Sources

All checked 2026-10-03:

• Amazon Ads: Sponsored Display
• Amazon Ads: Display ads
• Everything you need to know about display ads
• Sponsored Display audiences, Amazon Ads API
• Ad campaign attribution
• Sponsored ads report types, Amazon Ads API