It may be hard to believe, but Amazon DSP advertising isn’t just for Amazon-owned channels. Think about the powerhouse that Amazon is in general, and then think about the data behind their channels. That audience data represents behaviors and desires across all channels—and you can use that to create targeted campaigns for any advertising channel. What makes Amazon DSP advertising so vital to your advertising strategy is that it helps you optimize your targeting strategies across the web. That’s a powerful tool. We’re going to share exactly how Amazon DSP works and how you can get started using Amazon’s rich data-resources today.
What Is Amazon DSP?
Amazon DSP is Amazon’s demand-side platform that lets you manage and programmatically buy ads both on and off of Amazon. This tool also gives you access to the audience targeting data that is exclusive to Amazon, helping you reach customers across many platforms.
Check out our Amazon DSP Webinar and learn:
- How DSP is used for targeting your ideal customers
- What kinds of ads work with this demand-side platform
- How to use Amazon DSP ads versus sponsored display ads
- When and why to use this advertising option
And definitely how to incorporate Amazon DSP into your overall advertising strategy.
How Does Amazon DSP Work for
Audience Targeting?
How Does Amazon DSP Work for Audience Targeting?
Amazon uses its audience-identifying algorithm to target and retarget customers who may be interested in your product. For example, when someone looks up your product, the algorithm will remember the customer’s purchasing behavior and show them ads for your product. But that’s just one way Amazon DSP can target your audience. In total, there are six unique targeting options you can use to reach customers:
Behavioral
Re-marketing
Lifestyle
Advertiser Audiences
Audience Lookalike
Contextual
Behavioral
Re-marketing
Lifestyle
Advertiser Audiences
Audience Lookalike
Contextual
- Behavioral: Like in the example above, this option will remember a customer’s buying intent, searches, and clicks from the previous 30 days.
- Contextual: Your audience will be segmented based on what they are currently searching for.
- Lifestyle: If your audience demonstrated search or purchase behaviors that reflect a certain lifestyle, they will see your ads.
- Re-marketing: To re-engage shoppers, your ads will appear if customers have searched for, viewed, and/or purchased your products or products that are similar to yours.
- Advertiser Audiences: Amazon will use your brand’s data to pull certain information, like email lists or webpages with tracking pixels, to target your audience.
- Audience Lookalike: If a person has similar shopping behaviors as your current or previous customers, they will see your ads.
What Kinds of Ads Work with Amazon DSP?
Amazon offers an entire toolkit of advertising platforms so you can better connect with your audience. Amazon DSP ads fall into three different categories: display, video, and audio.
Amazon Display Ads
Display ads are banner ads you see on websites, social media, and other digital media. These ads encourage users to click and navigate to a landing or product page where they can learn more about your product. Most often, customers will see these ads on the side margins of a web page or in their search engine. If the customer links their account across different devices, they can see your ads on all their devices.
Amazon Video Ads
Most Amazon video ads are short, branded videos that give customers a glimpse at what your product has to offer. These videos will play automatically as long as half of the video is in view on the screen.
Amazon video ads will be seen on all Amazon websites, both on desktop and mobile. This applies to both home pages and product detail pages.
Amazon Audio Ads
Amazon audio ads let you reach customers who listen to Amazon Music channels. This helps you maintain your connection with your audience even when they’re not on their screens. Audio ads are still in the beta version, so they are not as widely available.
Your audio ads will play on the free Amazon Music, as well as Alexa-enabled devices, like Amazon Echo and Fire TV.
Amazon DSP vs. Sponsored Display
Amazon Advertising Management
Sponsored Display Ads
• Amazon only
• Pay-per-click model
Demand-Side Platform Ads
All Amazon Properties
+Other Platforms
+Video Format
+Audio Format
Less Effort
Better Targetting
The services Amazon DSP offers may sound similar to sponsored display ads, which is the Amazon advertising solution that distributes ads to customers both on and off of Amazon. The main similarity between the two tools is that they both help you advertise outside of Amazon and are self-service tools.
There are also plenty of key differences between Amazon DSP advertising and display ads. For example, sponsored display ads are PPC model. DSP is a Display or CPM model, meaning that you pay for the number of impressions your ad makes (or how many times it renders on a screen).
Amazon DSP also does more for your advertising than sponsored display. Think of it as an extension of what’s offered with sponsored display ads, since it also encompasses video and audio advertising.
Why Use Amazon DSP?
Amazon DSP lets your business run organized advertising campaigns across more channels for less effort. With its streamlined management of Amazon advertising, you won’t have to worry about falling into any pitfalls that lead to
not-so-profitable advertising strategies.
With Amazon DSP, you get all of the tools found in other DSP services with the added benefit of using Amazon’s data. This means gaining access to exclusive audiences and getting to advertise on Amazon-owned platforms like IMDb and Prime Video, along with the rest of the web.
Where Is Amazon DSP Available?
You can use Amazon DSP if you operate out of any of the following countries:
United States of America
United Kingdom
France
Italy
Italy
Spain
Germany
Who Qualifies for Amazon DSP
Amazon DSP is not restricted by whether or not you sell on Amazon, but there are best practices to consider.
For example, if you choose to use Amazon DSP through an Amazon account executive, they require a $35,000 minimum investment. You’ll also be relatively limited in how you can spend that money.
But going through Amazon to access your DSP isn’t your only option. Specialized agencies, like Buy Box Experts, have garnered a lot of attention from both vendors and Amazon with how they approach DSP differently.
With Buy Box Experts on your side, this is what you can expect:
- A lower barrier to entry. Buy Box Experts offers to operate DSP for a minimum of $10,000, provided that you have enough data points to build your audience. Or, if you’re just interested in display ads, that only costs you $5,000.
- Specificity in your targeting. You can customize exactly who you want to reach with your advertising.
- No minimum for line items. Otherwise, Amazon charges you $10,000 per line item.
- Clear communication when designing campaigns. We’re more willing to put in the time and effort required to build out campaigns that work well.
- Inclusion of customer reviews. Showing your 5-star rating in a DSP ad can help its performance. However, you need at least 15 reviews with a 3.5-star rating or higher for this to be effective.
When Should You Use Amazon DSP?
Amazon DSP is great for any company that wants to expand its reach and take advantage of Amazon’s audience. Of course, that encompasses the goals of a lot of companies—who wouldn’t want access to Amazon’s data?
To better illustrate the utility of Amazon DSP, consider the following examples:
New Amazon Sellers
When you first open your Amazon shop, you’re putting yourself up against fierce competition. And you need to find a way to outshine veteran vendors and name-brand products quickly if you want to stay in business. That’s where an aggressive advertising strategy with DSP can help.
After you’ve established a modest base of customers and have a few positive reviews in tow, you can use Amazon DSP to further raise brand awareness. Potential customers will start to notice you both on and off of Amazon with display ads and sponsored product placements. And as you raise awareness, you’ll see your sales increase too.
New Products for Established Sellers
Visibility campaigns are just as crucial for new products as they are for new companies. Just because you’re an established vendor does not mean everyone will flock to you when you put out a new product. Amazon DSP advertising can help you promote your new products to your current customers and people who haven’t even heard of you yet.
Get Started with Amazon DSP
If you’d like to start using Amazon DSP you have two options:
Option 1
Have Amazon manage your DSP with a $35k minimum budget with additional line item minimums.
Option 2
Utilize Amazon DSP in a self-serve capacity with a partner like Buy Box Experts. The minimum budget is $5k and there are no line item minimums.
So, if you want more control of your advertising dollars to target your audiences while spending less overall, Buy Box Experts is the clear path to victory.
Sign up for a free analysis to learn how you can maximize your Amazon advertising DSP opportunities.
Will Amazon DSP Help Lower My ACoS?
Your ACoS will probably decrease significantly when you utilize Amazon DSP. However, you also shouldn’t focus too much on lowering your ACoS—oftentimes, it will cause more harm than good.
For more on ACoS, read our article,
Why Too Much Focus on Your Amazon ACoS is Actually Hurting Your Business.
FAQs
We heard some great questions about Amazon DSP’s effectiveness in attracting customers during our DSP Webinar. To help summarize, we’ve included those questions and our responses in these FAQs.
No. We work from the bottom of the funnel when people are ready to purchase, and then work our way up. A mature DSP campaign will have mid-funnel and retargeting executions for both repeat purchasers and those who have not yet purchased.
No. Self-serve DSP does not have line items or order minimums. We can run test campaigns and set up the audience to make sure you can reach them with maximum impact while still maintaining your budget.
We can run into the open exchanges and our standard inventory supply from Amazon is both Amazon ONO and off-Amazon inventory.
No. Amazon DSP offers all of the same features as other off-site DSP services. However, Amazon DSP is unique because of the data it provides. There is no other way to tap into the data Amazon offers, namely the shopper behavior data you can use to target new customers.
No. The ads you create through Amazon DSP do not have to go back to an Amazon product page—you can even direct customers from Amazon to your website. You don’t even have to be a physical product provider—it could be a service. This is simply an option for brands who want to capitalize on the Amazon DSP audience and data.
