A full funnel of ads for a brand will include an array of Amazon ads types, each serving a unique purpose within an advertising strategy. Amazon offers four major ad types — Sponsored Products (SP), Sponsored Brands (SB), Sponsored Display (SD), and Amazon’s own Demand-Side Platform (DSP). 

Sponsored Products are the foundational advertising type on Amazon. They match customer searches with product detail pages and attract audiences who are researching or ready to buy. Sponsored Brands are a little farther up the advertising funnel. They are good for brand awareness during search. Sponsored Display is further still up the advertising funnel and represents an opportunity for a brand to dip its toe into display ads. Finally, Amazon DSP sits at the top of the funnel and is useful for building brand awareness both on and off Amazon, as well as for retargeting.

It can be confusing to keep track of which ad type is which, with differences that are sometimes subtle. To help you better understand how these four Amazon ads types work together in the Amazon ad funnel, and which ad types you need to run, we compare each of these ad types across five major characteristics — pricing, placement, targeting type, link options, and minimum budget.

Amazon Advertising Formats: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and Demand-Side Platform

Sponsored Products are a cost-per-click (CPC) ad type. You’ll pay every time a customer clicks on the ad. They run on a second-price auction where the winner of the auction pays one cent higher than the second-highest bid price. Sponsored Products appear in Amazon search engine results pages (SERPs) as well as product detail pages, and results are served based on keyword or ASIN targeting. Sponsored Products ads link directly to the PDP (product detail page). The minimum budget is $1 daily.

Sponsored Brands are also CPC and also a second-price auction. Sponsored Brands ads appear in Amazon SERPs at the top and bottom of search results. As with Sponsored Products, results are served based on keyword or ASIN targeting. Sponsored Brands can link to an Amazon store, product list page, or PDP. The minimum budget is $1 daily and brand registry is a prerequisite.

Sponsored Display is Amazon’s self-serve display ad type that lives within the same management platform as SP and SB ads. It also operates on a CPC pricing model. These ads can appear both on and off Amazon. Instead of keyword or ASIN-based targeting they have a rudimentary ability to target based on audience type. The minimum budget is $1 daily. 

Demand-Side Platform is a CPM (cost per mille) ad type, which means your business pays a cost per thousand impressions. These ads appear on Amazon as well as on many other sites across the web. Instead of keyword- or ASIN-based targeting they use audience-based targeting. These display ads can link to an Amazon store, PDP, or non-Amazon page. The minimum budget for Amazon-managed DSP is $35,000 across two months, although self-service DSP management allows for flexibility, and this budget flexibility extends to Teikametrics clients who wish to have Teikametrics manage their DSP ads. 

→ Thinking about how adding Amazon DSP to your advertising funnel could benefit your business? Read how NatureWise boosted Amazon advertising ROI by 4x while expanding to DSP with Teikametrics.

 

Comparison chart of Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and Demand-Side Platform

*DSP minimum is flexible for self-service or Teikametrics customers

Effectively Implementing Each of the Ad Types

Each of these four Amazon ads types requires their own dedicated tactics for efficient campaign structuring and management. You’ll need to set appropriate and meaningful goals for ad campaigns, structure ads according to those goals, and handle bidding according to the value of keywords for your products.

Teikametrics can help every step of the way, and at every point in the funnel. From software to intelligently automating Sponsored Products campaign creation, all the way to strategic management of Amazon DSP ads, we’re here to help you learn to implement and optimize the right ads to grow your business. Also explore the different post about what is Amazon Live!