Sponsored Display Retargeting: How to Win Back Amazon Shoppers

Sponsored Display retargeting shows ads to shoppers who viewed or bought your products (or similar products) and then left. You set it up with the 'views remarketing' or 'purchases remarketing' audiences, pick a lookback window, and bid on a cost-per-click or viewable impression basis. For many brands it is the most efficient Sponsored Display campaign.

Below: how each audience works, which lookback windows to test, a setup walkthrough, and how to avoid paying for sales you would have gotten anyway.

The retargeting audiences

Exact audience names and lookback options change over time, so check the campaign builder. The logic stays the same: shorter windows reach fresher, higher-intent shoppers; longer windows add reach at lower intent.

Choosing a lookback window

Match the window to how long shoppers take to decide:

• Impulse and low-price products (under about $20): 7 to 14 days. Shoppers decide quickly; older viewers have usually bought elsewhere.
• Considered purchases ($50 to $200+): 30 days, test 60. Shoppers compare longer.
• Consumables: purchases remarketing at a window slightly longer than the typical usage cycle. A 30-day supply suggests targeting buyers from 25 to 45 days ago if the console allows that precision, or a 30 to 60 day window otherwise.

Test windows in separate campaigns so you can compare them. Put the window in the campaign name, as described in Amazon campaign naming conventions.

Setup walkthrough

1. Create a Sponsored Display campaign. Choose audience targeting.
2. Pick a bid optimization. For performance, choose conversions with CPC billing.
3. Add the products you want to advertise. Group products with similar prices and margins.
4. Choose views remarketing, then 'advertised products' and a lookback (start with 30 days for most products).
5. Set a bid. Retargeting audiences are small, so bids near or slightly above the suggested bid are common.
6. Use auto-generated creative first; add a logo and headline if available.
7. Set a daily budget large enough not to cap out by midday.

Worked example: comparing windows

A brand selling a $45 ergonomic seat cushion runs three views remarketing campaigns for 30 days, all at a $0.90 bid:

The 7-day window is the most efficient but small. The 30-day window adds reach at a still-acceptable ACoS if the target is 35 to 40%. The 90-day window is wasteful at this bid. A sensible plan: keep 7-day at a higher bid, keep 30-day, and pause or sharply cut the bid on 90-day. Note that the 30-day audience includes the 7-day shoppers, so some overlap exists between campaigns.

Is retargeting incremental?

Retargeting reaches shoppers who already showed interest. Some would have come back and bought anyway, but the 14-day attribution window will still credit the ad. That makes retargeting ACoS look better than its true incremental value.

Ways to get a more honest read:

• Watch total sales, not just attributed sales. If you pause retargeting for two weeks and total sales don't move, it wasn't adding much.
• Track TACoS over time. If retargeting spend rises but total sales stay flat, TACoS climbs. Use the TACoS calculator.
• If Amazon offers a lift or experiment tool for your account, use it on retargeting first.

Bidding retargeting campaigns

Retargeting audiences are small and high-intent, so you can usually afford higher bids than in prospecting. Work it out from your numbers rather than guessing:

Retargeting clicks often convert better than cold traffic, so after two weeks, recalculate with the campaign's actual conversion rate. If the 7-day audience converts at 12%, its sustainable bid rises to about $1.89 at the same target. The PPC bid calculator does this in a few seconds.

If you choose vCPM billing for retargeting, judge it on cost per order and total sales rather than click metrics, and remember view-through conversions can be included. Most performance-focused sellers stick with CPC for retargeting so the numbers are easier to compare.

Which products to retarget

• Products with high traffic but middling conversion: lots of viewers left without buying, so the audience is large enough to matter.
• Higher-priced products where shoppers compare for days before deciding.
• Your best sellers, where the listing already converts well once a shopper returns.
• Skip products with very low traffic. Their remarketing audiences are too small to spend meaningfully.

Purchases remarketing for repeat buyers

For consumables, purchases remarketing lets you remind past buyers when they are likely to run out. Pair it with a Subscribe & Save offer if you have one. For non-consumables, use purchases remarketing to cross-sell: show a phone case buyer your screen protector, for example. Keep these campaigns separate from views remarketing so you can judge them on their own goals.

Purchases remarketing audiences build slowly for new brands, because they depend on your order history. If the campaign barely spends, that's usually why. Give it time, or widen the window, rather than raising bids sharply on a tiny audience.

A weekly retargeting check

1. Confirm every advertised product is in stock and holds the featured offer.
2. Check whether each campaign capped out its budget, and at what time of day.
3. Compare ACoS and cost per order across lookback windows; move budget toward the efficient ones.
4. Look at total sales and TACoS for the advertised products to make sure retargeting spend is adding, not just claiming, sales.

Common mistakes

• Advertising a product in retargeting that is low on stock or has lost the Buy Box, so ads stop serving.
• Using one long window for everything and wondering why ACoS is high.
• Retargeting with a product page that converts poorly. Retargeting can't fix a weak listing; see listing conversion rate and PPC.
• Comparing retargeting ACoS directly against Sponsored Products and moving budget away from prospecting. Retargeting only works if new shoppers keep entering the funnel.

For the full set of Sponsored Display options, see the Sponsored Display ads guide. When you're ready to manage retargeting budgets alongside everything else, AdSpark's budget pacing keeps high-intent campaigns from running dry while lower-value ones still have money.

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