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Amazon PPC
Sponsored Display is, according to Chris Rawlings, the most underestimated Amazon ad type going into 2025, and he uses a full campaign-setup walkthrough plus real account data (over $100,000 in Sponsored Display revenue) to argue that sellers should stop sleeping on it.
Sponsored Display campaign setup shares basics with Sponsored Products/Brands: campaign name, portfolio, daily budget, and ad groups (useful later for split-testing creative).
Two optimization strategies exist: CPC ('optimized bids for conversions') and vCPM (cost per viewable thousand impressions), which is oriented toward brand-awareness-style goals.
vCPM is not recommended as a default but is useful for pushing into competitive/hard-to-get placements or for 'brand defense' to dominate your own listings.
A newer 'cost control' bid-cap section exists; Rawlings recommends leaving it unchecked and managing cost through bidding, testing it only on already-successful campaigns.
Ad format choice: default Amazon-generated thumbnail (built from primary image, reviews, coupons, price) versus a custom image or custom video.
Sponsored Display ads appear in more varied listing placements than Sponsored Products: a banner near the top, under the bullet points, and above the reviews.
Landing destination choice is product page (recommended default) versus storefront (only if the store is proven to convert well).
Recommends advertising one product per campaign for cleanliness.
Amazon's four listed targeting categories reduce to three real types: contextual targeting, remarketing, and audiences (in-market plus interest/lifestyle).
Contextual targeting = category targeting or individual product targeting, similar to Sponsored Products/Brands.
Category targeting is reportedly working especially well in 2025 across Sponsored Display, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Products.
Amazon prefills some targeting suggestions; Rawlings recommends clearing ('Xing out') them and manually reselecting to avoid unintentionally advertising to unwanted categories/audiences.
Sponsored Display is the only one of the three major Amazon ad types that cannot target keywords — only categories, products, and audiences.
Remarketing = showing ads to people who viewed or purchased your listing, plus a third variant of showing ads to people who viewed similar/competitor listings.
Remarketing has 'views' vs 'purchases' modes, each paired with a selectable look-back window.
Recommends testing multiple look-back periods (30/60/90/180 days) simultaneously within the same ad group rather than assuming one based on a product's usage cycle.
In-market audiences are dynamic segments based on purchase/shopping activity, not stated interests.
Interest & lifestyle audiences are static interest-based segments; some suggested ones are irrelevant ('wacky'), but browsing categories like 'Shopping Behavior' surfaces useful segments.
Recommends starting new Sponsored Display efforts with contextual targeting (category/product) and remarketing, only trying in-market/interest audiences once campaigns are already performing well.
Recommends not mixing different targeting/audience types in one campaign — keep each type in its own campaign for easier tracking and optimization.
The creative section previews up to 12 different placement formats; most of Rawlings's own Sponsored Display ads run on the default thumbnail rather than custom creative.
Account examples shown: Sponsored Display has generated over $100,000 in revenue on an account just over a year old, with campaign ACOS ranging roughly 10%–36% across different targeting types.
CPC / Optimized Bids for Conversions — One of Sponsored Display's two bid-optimization strategies, where Amazon adjusts bids toward clicks and conversions rather than raw impressions. Apply: Select this by default for most Sponsored Display campaigns since the goal is sales, not brand awareness.
vCPM (Cost Per Viewable Thousand Impressions) — Sponsored Display's second optimization strategy, billing on viewable impressions and oriented toward brand-awareness-style visibility. Apply: Use it to push into hard-to-get competitive placements or for 'brand defense' to dominate your own listings, not as a default choice.
Cost control — A relatively new Sponsored Display feature letting you cap cost directly, separate from bid amount. Apply: Leave it unchecked by default and manage cost via bidding; test it only on already well-performing campaigns.
Contextual targeting — Sponsored Display's targeting mode most similar to Sponsored Products/Brands, covering category or individual product targeting. Apply: Start new Sponsored Display campaigns here before expanding into remarketing or audience targeting.
Category targeting — A contextual targeting option that advertises against an entire product category using Amazon's suggested categories. Apply: Try it as a strong-performing 2025 tactic, clearing Amazon's prefilled category suggestions and manually reselecting only the intended ones.
Product targeting — Contextual targeting aimed at specific individual listings — your own or competitors' — similar to Sponsored Products/Brands product targeting. Apply: Use it to advertise on a particular competitor's listing (e.g., competitors with a lower star rating) or on your own product's listing.
Remarketing — Targeting shoppers by past behavior: viewed or purchased your listing, or viewed a listing similar to yours, selectable via a 'views'/'purchases' dropdown. Apply: Test remarketing to viewers of similar/competitor products alongside remarketing to your own listing's viewers, since the former sometimes outperforms the latter.
Look-back period testing — The configurable time window (e.g., 30/60/90/180 days) defining how recently a shopper must have viewed or purchased to qualify for a remarketing audience. Apply: Add several look-back periods as separate targets in the same ad group and compare their performance in the targeting tab rather than assuming the intuitive period will win.
In-market audiences — Dynamic Sponsored Display audience segments built from shoppers' purchase and shopping activity rather than stated interests. Apply: Try these as an expansion tactic only after contextual targeting and remarketing campaigns are already performing well.
Interest & lifestyle audiences — Static, interest-based Sponsored Display audience segments (e.g., grain-free dog food Shoppers, luxury Shoppers) found by browsing categories like 'Shopping Behavior.'. Apply: Browse for genuinely relevant segments (ignoring irrelevant suggested ones) and test them once campaigns are already crushing it, keeping each audience type in its own separate campaign.
Custom creative vs. default thumbnail — The choice between Amazon auto-generating the ad image/headline from listing data across up to 12 placement formats, or uploading a custom image/video and headline. Apply: Start with the default thumbnail — what most of Rawlings's own Sponsored Display ads use — and test custom images only when you have creative that highlights a differentiating feature.
Remarketing to shoppers who viewed products similar to yours (not your own listing) can outperform remarketing to people who viewed your own advertised product — described by Rawlings as 'weird.'
The best-performing look-back period often defies intuition: a product with a 60-day usage cycle might actually perform best with a 90- or 180-day look-back rather than the intuitive 60-day one.
Category targeting's strong 2025 performance is described as a trend spanning all three major Amazon ad types, not unique to Sponsored Display.
Failing to clear Amazon's prefilled targeting suggestions can silently result in advertising to categories/audiences you never intended to select.
Product targeting specifically against lower-rated competitor listings is highlighted as a standout sub-tactic, cited at a 10% ACOS in Rawlings's own account.
Because Sponsored Display cannot target keywords at all, it forces an entirely different targeting logic (categories, products, audiences) compared to Sponsored Products/Brands, which Rawlings frames as part of what makes it 'special.'
«sponsor display is the most underestimated form of Amazon advertising especially this year in 2025 when it's really ripping»
— 00:04
«sponsor displays like the bass player in the band nobody notices him standing in the back until he suddenly rips out on the front of the stage and starts ripping tasty lines»
— 00:09
«I'm Chris Rawlings I run a portfolio that does over 6 million a month on Amazon and I'm one of the top Spenders of Amazon ads on the platform»
— 00:30
«Brand awareness which I'm not a big fan of the concept of brand awareness doesn't pay my bills»
— 01:51
«it's not a brand awareness type of platform it's a direct solution type of platform people are looking for Solutions right now»
— 02:02
«I'll tell you right now we are seeing category targeting working really well this year»
— 04:37
«I recommend Xing those out so that you can select your own and make sure you do that cuz if you don't do that and you add a few you're actually advertising to different audiences that you didn't even mean to or didn't even select»
— 06:02
«sponsor display is the only ad type out of the three major ad types where you can't Target keywords it's only about targeting categories audiences and products»
— 06:24
«that that's working well for us right now is remarketing to similar to adverti products sometimes it works better than remarketing to the advertised products themselves which is weird»
— 07:29
«a lot of times the look back period that works best isn't the one that you think would have worked best»
— 08:20
«sponsor display this year is working better than ever and it seems to be taking up a greater and greater slice of the overall ad revenue generated by Amazon ads»
— 14:34
«don't sleep on sponsor display»
— 14:43
Reception
Viewers overwhelmingly praise the tutorial as helpful and ask engaged follow-up questions, with only minor neutral clarifications and isolated performance complaints.
This is a dense, practical operator-style walkthrough of Sponsored Display setup and targeting, using real account data as proof for its central claim that the ad type is underrated and increasingly effective in 2025.
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