November 10, 2022

5 FAQs with our Director of DSP

Navigating Amazon’s Demand-Side Platform (DSP) can often seem like a complex map full of twists and turns. Thankfully, we have experts on our team with the DSP road map to guide our clients along the way.

If you want a full detailed rundown of what Amazon DSP is and how it works, be sure to checkout our other articles, What is Amazon DSP and Amazon DSP vs. Google/Meta.

Here are five of the most commonly asked Amazon DSP questions, answered by Tony Miller, the Director of DSP at Ad Advance.

Frequently Asked Question #1

Do I have to be an Amazon Seller to utilize Amazon DSP?

Nope! This is one of the biggest misconceptions with Amazon’s DSP. Amazon DSP allows you to create link-in and link-out campaigns. If you don’t sell on Amazon, you can create campaigns that direct audiences to your website. If you do sell on Amazon, your campaigns send customers to your brand’s product detail pages on Amazon or another Amazon destination.

If you’re a non-endemic brand, meaning you don’t sell on Amazon, Amazon’s DSP could offer you a large competitive advantage. Because shoppers come to Amazon to make a purchase, the data collected is highly relevant and closely connected to their consumer shopping habits. The audience targeting capabilities of Amazon unmatched and near limitless.

If you didn’t know you could harness Amazon’s first-party insights until now, your competition probably doesn’t either!

Frequently Asked Question #2

What KPIs are most impactful?

The first step in setting your brand up for DSP success is understanding that your Key Performance Indicator (KPI) needs to align with your strategy. ROAS isn’t going to be your stand-alone KPI.

Since each stage of the funnel aims for a different objective, performance needs to be gauged by a measurement that fits.

ROAS is a great indicator of performance for lower funnel strategies where you are trying get that sale across the conversion finish line, but ROAS won’t be as helpful when reviewing your higher funnel strategies. It’s unlikely you will see a ton of conversions when introducing your brand to a new, “cold” audience. Here, impressions, clicks, and detail page view rates will be great gauges for increasing awareness.

Here’s a quick look at KPIs by Objective:

  • Awareness: Impressions, Clicks, Detail Page Views

  • Consideration: Impressions, Detail Page Views, Add to Carts

  • Conversion: Sales, ROAS, Add to Carts

Frequently Asked Question #3

How does Amazon DSP compare to Sponsored Display?

The key benefit of Sponsored Display is its accessibility and simplicity for most sellers. Amazon continues to add more and more features and capabilities to Sponsored Display campaigns, most recently they rolled out Sponsored Display video and accessibility to non-endemic sellers. Amazon DSP ads, however, still offer considerably more options. A few notable standouts:

  • Audience stacking: With DSP, we can stack audiences.

  • Additional audiences: DSP has other audience building options, like pixel retargeting and hashed audiences.

  • Lookback windows: We can slice and dice retargeting campaigns based on when shoppers interacted with the product.

  • Custom creatives: DSP offers the ability to upload entirely customized ads that speak to the targeted audience.

You can see a full breakdown in our What is Amazon DSP article.  

Frequently Asked Question #4

What are the spend “requirements”?

No spend requirements here. While many agencies have a spend minimum of $10,000+, we like to get started where the brand is comfortable, review performance, and scale from there. We always want to work in the best interest of our clients and this model has worked for us.

Frequently Asked Question #5

Where are my ads shown? Are there any unique placements I can only get through DSP?

This is another one of the huge benefits of accessing Amazon’s DSP. Ads appear in placements no other platform can offer, such as Amazon.com and Amazon Owned and Operated sites, like IMDB.com and Twitch. Also, open exchanges provide placements on popular news, weather, and sports sites.