Why I Think Sponsored Display Is Overrated for Most Amazon Brands

Sponsored Display can work in specific retargeting and video use cases, but for most brands under $500k/month spend it deserves a smaller role than agencies often recommend.

Article summary

Sponsored Display can work in specific retargeting and video use cases, but for most brands under $500k/month spend it deserves a smaller role than agencies often recommend.

What Sponsored Display actually is

Sponsored Display is the ad product Amazon reps push hardest. It's also the one I run least for clients spending under $500k/month. In some categories I don't run it at all.

Where Sponsored Display genuinely works

Every time I say this at a conference or in a community, I get the same pushback: "But retargeting!" "But audience targeting!" "But Amazon is expanding SD capabilities!" All true. And mostly irrelevant for the accounts that make up 90% of the Amazon advertising market.

Where it falls apart

- Sponsored Display works for retargeting in some categories — but retargeting alone doesn't justify 10–15% of budget - For prospecting, SP and SB outperform SD on nearly every account I manage under $500k/mo spend - Agencies push SD because it looks strategic in pitch decks and increases total managed spend - The audience targeting is too broad for most brands — you're paying for impressions that don't convert - Exception: SD Video in high-visual categories and retargeting on consumables with strong repeat purchase rates

Why agencies love pushing it

Sponsored Display ads target audiences rather than search terms. They show up on product detail pages, across Amazon's network, and on third-party sites. You can target people who viewed your product, viewed similar products, or fall into interest-based audience segments.

What I'd run instead

The pitch sounds great: reach shoppers at every stage of the funnel, retarget people who didn't buy, conquest on competitor listings.

When I'm wrong about this

I'm not anti-SD. I'm anti-default-SD. There are three situations where it earns its spot:

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Retargeting on high-repeat-purchase consumables. If you sell supplements, pet food, coffee, or anything with a 30–60 day repurchase cycle, retargeting viewers and past purchasers with SD can drive genuine incremental repeat sales. The audience is warm, the intent is real, and the economics work.

About the author

2. Sponsored Display Video in high-visual categories. SD Video placements on product detail pages can outperform static SD by 2–3x in categories where video creative makes a meaningful difference — beauty, kitchen gadgets, fitness equipment. The video format is a genuine differentiator that static SD doesn't offer.