Maximum Reach, Maximum Relevance: Mastering Amazon Sponsored Display

E-commerce is booming, and with it the competition on marketplaces like Amazon is growing exponentially. Every day, countless products fight for the top spots in the search results and for shoppers' attention. For sellers, that means: anyone who simply lists their products and hopes for organic traffic will quickly be overtaken by the competition.

To hold your ground in this dynamic environment, a proactive advertising strategy is essential. It is no longer just about being present when a customer searches for a specific term. Instead, you have to meet your potential buyers wherever they currently are on their customer journey — whether they are browsing categories, comparing competitor products or even surfing external websites.

Sponsored Display is an ad format that lets you create visually compelling ad campaigns served both on Amazon and off the platform. Unlike search-based ads such as Sponsored Products, which primarily respond to keywords, delivery here is based on the behavior and interests of your target audience as well as the contextual environment.

These ads appear in prominent placements — for example, on product detail pages, in the search results or on the Amazon homepage. What makes them special, though, is their ability to reach customers beyond the Amazon ecosystem. By being served across thousands of partner websites and apps in the Amazon network, your products stay present with potential buyers even when they are not actively shopping on Amazon.

The true engine behind successful campaigns is precise targeting. Amazon offers two main strategies for this: contextual targeting and audience targeting.

Contextual targeting lets you place your ads on the detail pages of specific products (ASINs) or within relevant product categories. That way, you reach customers at exactly the moment they are considering similar or complementary products.

Audience targeting goes one step further and focuses on user behavior. Here, views remarketing stands out in particular: it lets you deliberately address users who visited your product detail page within the last 30 days but did not make a purchase. Vendors additionally have access to interest targeting to win new customers based on their long-term purchase and browsing interests.

The real strength lies in the flexibility. Thanks to optimized targeting features, Amazon can dynamically expand your targeting to find audiences with a high likelihood of converting. You can lean into this automation, combine it with manual targeting such as targeting specific competitor ASINs, or rely entirely on manual control. This hybrid approach maximizes both reach and relevance.

Tim KraseCTO at HORAiZON

The possibilities go far beyond simply promoting your top products.

According to Amazon, sellers who use Sponsored Display audiences generate up to 82% of their revenue from new customers. Especially for everyday consumer goods (CPG), which are often bought on impulse, the visually prominent display ads are excellent for creating purchase incentives.

One of the biggest levers for increasing revenue lies in winning back interested shoppers who abandoned the purchase process. Views remarketing was developed for exactly this purpose.

Imagine a customer adds your product to the cart but then gets distracted and leaves the page. Without retargeting, this potential sale is probably lost. With a targeted retargeting setup, you can present your ad to this customer again over the following days and weeks on other websites and in apps.

Retargeting isn't a nuisance — it's a service for the undecided customer. The challenge in online retail is the sheer flood of distractions. An effective retargeting setup with Sponsored Display helps overcome this barrier and convert valuable, already-acquired purchase intent after all. It is one of the most cost-efficient methods for boosting the conversion rate.

Thorsten MüllerCEO at HORAiZON & Amazon Ads expert

The theory sounds convincing — but what does the implementation look like in practice? Here are a few concrete scenarios:

Sponsored Display is far more than just an add-on to your keyword-based campaigns. It is a strategic instrument that lets you actively accompany the entire customer lifecycle. From the first product discovery, to a targeted defense against competitors, to winning back customers you thought were lost — the possibilities are diverse and powerful.