seller
- What changed
- Self-service display ads, formerly Sponsored Display
- When
- Updated October 2026
- Who it affects
- Brand-registered sellers and vendors
- What to do
- Start with views remarketing optimized for conversions
Key takeaways
- Sponsored Display is now called display ads and sits in Amazon Ads Agent; existing campaigns keep running.
- Target products and categories, Amazon audiences, or past viewers and buyers, paying by CPC or vCPM.
- Add display after search ads are profitable, starting with views remarketing for conversions.
How Sponsored Display changed
Optimized targeting for conversion campaigns
View attribution change for vCPM campaigns
Amazon Ads Agent announced at unBoxed
DVA+ rollout begins, display included
What is Amazon Sponsored Display now?
Sponsored Display launched as a self-service way for sellers and vendors to buy display placements without a programmatic setup. Amazon's product page now says it is known as display ads, and that existing Sponsored Display campaigns continue to run uninterrupted. On September 29, 2026, at unBoxed, Amazon introduced Amazon Ads Agent as the name for its unified buying platform and said Sponsored Display is combined with Sponsored TV and programmatic campaigns into DVA+, a single display, video and audio buying experience that Amazon said would begin rolling out in late October.
In practice, nothing you built breaks. New campaigns are created under Campaigns, Create Campaign, then Display in the Display, Video and Audio section. Our roundup of Amazon advertising news tracks the rollout.
Who can use Sponsored Display?
Amazon's display ads guide lists vendors and professional sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry. There is no minimum spend. Amazon lists availability in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, India, Japan and Australia. Products should be in stock and winning the featured offer, because ads that point to a product nobody can buy waste spend. If you are not registered yet, see our Amazon Brand Registry guide.
Sponsored Display targeting options
Display ads have two families of targeting. Contextual targeting places ads next to chosen products or categories, refined by price, brand and Prime eligibility, and is the former product targeting. Audience targeting reaches people by behavior, using Amazon's own shopping and streaming signals. Amazon also offers optimized targeting for conversion campaigns, which lets Amazon choose audiences and contexts while you keep manual options.
- Contextual: competitor or complementary product pages and categories
- Views remarketing: shoppers who viewed your or similar products and did not buy
- Purchases remarketing: past buyers, for repeat purchase and cross-sell
- Amazon audiences: interests, life events, lifestyle and in-market
- Optimized targeting: Amazon picks audiences for conversion goals
Where Sponsored Display ads appear
On Amazon, contextual ads show on product detail pages, beside customer reviews, on shopping results pages and under the featured offer. Audience ads can also run on the Amazon home page. Off Amazon, Amazon lists Twitch, Prime Video and other Amazon-owned sites, plus third-party apps and websites. Creative can be generated automatically from your listing, with product image, title, rating, price and Prime badge, or customized with your logo, headline, a lifestyle image or video.
How much does Sponsored Display cost?
You choose the cost type. Cost per click charges only when someone clicks. vCPM charges per 1,000 viewable impressions, which suits awareness goals. Amazon's guide lists default bids of $1 for CPC and $5 for vCPM, and suggests a daily budget of $40 to $60 for small and mid-sized businesses. Spend on a single day can exceed the daily budget, but the monthly average will not. The real cost depends on your audience size and competition, so treat defaults as a starting point. Our guide to how much Amazon advertising costs covers budgeting across ad types.
- CPC: pay per click, good for conversion goals
- vCPM: pay per 1,000 viewable impressions, good for reach
- No minimum spend
- Bid optimization: conversions, page visits or viewable impressions
Cost types compared
| CPC | vCPM | |
|---|---|---|
| You pay for | Clicks | 1,000 viewable impressions |
| Default bid | $1 | $5 |
| Best for | Conversions | Reach and awareness |
When to use Sponsored Display
Sponsored Display is a second step, not a first one. Sponsored Products capture shoppers who are already searching; display reaches people before or after that moment. It works best once search ads are profitable and the listing converts. Good uses are remarketing to detail page viewers who did not buy, defending your own product pages from competitor ads, placing your product on rival pages where your price and rating compare well, and reminding past buyers of consumables to reorder. For how it fits with search ads and DSP, see Amazon DSP vs sponsored ads.
| Remarketing | Contextual | |
|---|---|---|
| Reaches past product viewers | ||
| Places ads on rival product pages | ||
| Reaches past buyers for reorders | ||
| Best first campaign |
Both can bill by CPC or vCPM
How to set up a Sponsored Display campaign, step by step
Amazon recommends optimizing for conversions for a first campaign and advertising at least 10 products where you can.
- In Amazon Ads Agent, go to Campaigns, Create Campaign, then Display
- Name the campaign and set no end date for always-on activity
- Set a daily budget and choose optimize for conversions
- Pick products that are in stock with strong ratings
- Choose views remarketing or contextual targeting to start
- Use the automatic creative, then test a custom headline and image
- Wait at least two weeks before judging results
Which Sponsored Display metrics matter?
Amazon reports impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC or vCPM, spend, sales, ACoS, ROAS and new-to-brand metrics. Amazon notes it can take 7 to 14 days for sales to be attributed to a click or view, so early ACoS looks worse than final ACoS. Read results by goal: remarketing should show strong ROAS, while audience and contextual campaigns aimed at new shoppers should be judged on new-to-brand sales and total sales lift. Be careful comparing campaigns billed on vCPM, because view-based attribution counts sales differently from clicks. Our guide to Amazon advertising metrics defines each one, and Amazon Marketing Cloud shows how display affects search.
Sponsored Display mistakes to avoid
Most wasted display spend comes from the same habits.
- Launching display before search ads are profitable
- Broad audiences on vCPM with a conversion goal
- Judging results before the attribution window closes
- Advertising products with weak ratings on competitor pages
- Rebuilding working campaigns because of the rename
Where PPC Spider helps
PPC Spider adds display only where it can be measured against the same margin-based targets as search. SpiderOS watches bids, budgets and stock across ad types. See our Amazon PPC management service, or request a free Amazon audit to check whether your account is ready for display.
Sources
- Amazon Ads: Everything you need to know about display ads (advertising.amazon.com/library/guides/display-ads-guide)
- Amazon Ads: Sponsored Display is now known as display ads (advertising.amazon.com/solutions/products/sponsored-display)
- Amazon Ads: Introducing Amazon Ads Agent (advertising.amazon.com/en-us/library/news/amazon-ads-agent/)
- beBOLD Digital: Amazon Sponsored Display is now display ads, 2026 guide for sellers (bebolddigital.com/news/amazon-display-ad-changes-in-2026)
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