Retargeting Ads on Amazon: Your Untapped Growth Channel

In the competitive Amazon marketplace, sellers continually search for effective strategies to maximize their advertising investment. While most focus on traditional Sponsored Products, a powerful yet underutilized advertising approach exists: retargeting ads.

These specialized campaigns allow you to reconnect with shoppers who’ve already shown interest in your products but didn’t complete a purchase—potentially transforming lost opportunities into revenue.

As an advertising channel that typically delivers higher conversion rates than standard campaigns, Amazon’s retargeting solutions offer a strategic advantage for brands serious about sustainable growth. With my experience implementing these campaigns across various product categories, I’ve seen conversion rates increase by 20-40% compared to standard prospecting ads when properly optimized.

This guide will walk you through the essentials of Amazon retargeting, including setup procedures, optimization techniques, and advanced strategies to unlock this growth channel that many of your competitors likely haven’t fully leveraged.

What are Amazon retargeting ads and why do they matter?

Amazon retargeting ads are specialized advertising formats that allow sellers and brands to reconnect with shoppers who have previously interacted with their products or similar items. Unlike standard advertising that targets new prospects, these campaigns focus on shoppers who have already demonstrated purchase intent through specific actions like viewing your product detail pages, adding items to cart, or browsing similar categories.

This advertising approach matters because it addresses one of e-commerce’s biggest challenges: shopping cart abandonment. With industry averages showing abandonment rates between 60-80%, the ability to re-engage these potential customers represents a significant opportunity to recover otherwise lost sales.

Amazon remarketing (the term Amazon sometimes uses interchangeably with retargeting) allows brands to stay visible throughout the customer journey, maintaining brand presence when purchase consideration is highest. This visibility can dramatically impact your advertising effectiveness, as these warm audiences typically convert at higher rates than cold traffic.

How Amazon retargeting works (DSP vs. Sponsored Display)

Amazon offers two primary retargeting channels, each with distinct capabilities and requirements:

• Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform): The more sophisticated option, historically available only through managed service with substantial minimum spends ($35,000+). DSP offers comprehensive targeting options both on and off Amazon properties across the web, allowing brands to reach potential customers wherever they browse. It provides access to Amazon’s rich shopper data and behavioral insights, with placement opportunities on Amazon-owned sites (including IMDB, Twitch) and thousands of publisher sites.
• Sponsored Display: Amazon’s self-service retargeting solution accessible within Seller and Vendor Central accounts. This democratized the retargeting opportunity for sellers of all sizes, requiring no minimums and offering simplified campaign creation. While more limited than DSP, it provides valuable targeting options including product detail page viewers, category browsers, and brand audience segments.

These platforms use Amazon’s first-party data to identify shoppers who’ve interacted with specific products or categories, then display relevant ads to these users during their continued browsing sessions. The key difference lies in reach and sophistication—DSP offers broader audience reach and targeting granularity, while Sponsored Display provides accessibility and simplicity for smaller sellers.

Setting up Amazon retargeting campaigns: a step-by-step guide

Creating effective retargeting campaigns requires strategic planning and proper technical setup. Let’s walk through the process for both available options, starting with the more accessible Sponsored Display approach.

Sponsored Display retargeting setup

1. Access the advertising console: Log into Seller Central or Vendor Central, navigate to the “Advertising” tab, and select “Campaign Manager.”
2. Create a new campaign: Click “Create Campaign” and select “Sponsored Display” as your campaign type.
3. Select targeting type: Choose “Audiences” as your targeting strategy (this is where retargeting options reside).
4. Define audience segment: Select from available retargeting options:
   • “Views remarketing” – targets shoppers who viewed your products but didn’t purchase
   • “Purchases remarketing” – reaches previous customers for repeat purchases
   • “Similar to purchases” – finds new customers similar to your previous buyers
   • “Amazon audience” – leverages Amazon’s interest and behavior-based segments
5. Choose products to advertise: Select which products you want to promote to your retargeted audience.
6. Set budget and bidding: Determine your daily budget and bidding strategy (manual or dynamic).
7. Review and launch: Confirm your campaign settings before submission.

Amazon DSP retargeting setup

For brands with larger budgets seeking expanded reach and capabilities:

1. Access options:
   • Managed service: Work with Amazon representatives (minimum spend requirements apply)
   • Self-service: Available through select third-party agencies with DSP access
2. Campaign structure: Define line items, creative assets, and audience segments with significantly more granularity than Sponsored Display.
3. Advanced audience selection: Choose from expanded retargeting options:
   • Product detail page viewers (with customizable lookback windows)
   • Add-to-cart abandoners
   • Brand shoppers
   • Category browsers
   • Competitor product shoppers
   • Custom audience combinations
4. Creative development: Prepare banner assets in multiple sizes for optimal placement across the web.
5. Frequency capping: Set impression limits to prevent ad fatigue.
6. Placement strategy: Select from Amazon-owned sites, third-party exchanges, or specific web properties.

Lifecycle marketing & omnichannel retargeting

For maximum effectiveness, consider integrating your Amazon remarketing with broader marketing efforts. This approach creates multiple touchpoints across channels:

• Email marketing: Use Amazon Brand Analytics data to understand customer behaviors that can inform your email messaging, creating consistency between on-platform and off-platform communications.
• Social media retargeting: While you can’t directly share Amazon pixel data with Facebook or Google, you can align messaging themes and product focus across platforms.
• Amazon Attribution: Implement this free tool to measure how non-Amazon marketing efforts drive Amazon conversion, creating a more cohesive understanding of your customer journey.

This multi-channel approach creates reinforcement across touchpoints, increasing the likelihood of conversion by maintaining brand presence throughout the customer’s decision process.

Optimizing Amazon retargeting ads for maximum conversions

Setting up campaigns is just the beginning—optimization is where the real performance gains happen. Let’s explore strategies to maximize your retargeting campaign effectiveness.

Creative and messaging optimization

Your ad creative plays a crucial role in re-engaging potential customers:

• Value proposition focus: Highlight your product’s key benefits, not just features. Address common objections that might have prevented the initial purchase.
• Social proof elements: Incorporate review counts, star ratings, or certification badges to build confidence.
• Urgency creators: Limited-time offers or inventory notifications can motivate action.
• Creative rotation: Develop 3-5 creative variations to prevent ad fatigue and test different messaging approaches.
• Clear call-to-action: Use action-oriented language that directs the shopper precisely what to do next.

Audience segmentation strategy

Not all potential customers should receive the same messaging. Segment your remarketing audiences based on:

• Engagement depth: Separate viewers who spent significant time on your listing from brief visitors.
• Cart abandoners: These high-intent shoppers warrant special attention and potentially more aggressive bidding.
• Time since interaction: Recent browsers (1-3 days) versus older browsers (7-14 days).
• Product category: Align messaging with the specific product categories viewed.
• Price point consideration: Higher-priced items may benefit from installment payment messaging or value justification.

Measuring success—tracking KPIs & ROAS

Effective optimization requires careful measurement of key performance indicators:

• Click-through rate (CTR): Indicates the effectiveness of your ad creative and audience targeting. For retargeting, expect higher CTRs than standard campaigns, typically 0.5-1.5%.
• Conversion rate: The percentage of ad clicks that result in purchases. Retargeting typically delivers 20-50% higher conversion rates than prospecting campaigns.
• Return on ad spend (ROAS): Revenue generated per dollar spent on advertising. Set ROAS targets based on your profit margins and business objectives.
• Advertising cost of sales (ACoS): The percentage of attributed sales spent on advertising. Retargeting typically achieves lower ACoS than other campaign types.
• New-to-brand metrics: Available in DSP, this indicates whether purchases came from new or existing customers.

Establish performance benchmarks by running controlled tests before scaling your campaigns. Document the results of creative variations, audience segments, and bidding strategies to inform future optimizations.

Challenges, considerations, and best practices in Amazon retargeting

While remarkably effective, Amazon retargeting comes with unique challenges and considerations that every advertiser should understand before investing significantly.

Common challenges and limitations

• Limited audience duration: Amazon’s retargeting cookies have shorter lifespans than many other platforms, typically limited to 14-30 days depending on the audience type.
• Restricted reporting granularity: Amazon provides less detailed audience insights than platforms like Facebook or Google, making some optimizations more challenging.
• Creative limitations: Sponsored Display creative options are relatively basic compared to DSP or other advertising platforms.
• Budget management: Amazon’s aggressive algorithm can quickly deplete daily budgets if not carefully monitored, particularly with high-performing remarketing campaigns.
• Limited off-Amazon retargeting: Without DSP access, remarketing remains confined to Amazon’s ecosystem.

Best practices for sustainable performance

To mitigate these challenges and maximize long-term remarketing success:

• Implement frequency capping: Prevent ad fatigue by limiting impression frequency, especially important for DSP campaigns where the same user could see your ads across multiple sites.
• Segment by recency: Create separate campaigns for recent versus older site visitors, with more aggressive bidding for recent, high-intent traffic.
• Complement with awareness campaigns: Maintain a balanced funnel by continuing to run discovery-focused campaigns alongside retargeting.
• Refresh creative regularly: Update your ad creative at least monthly to prevent diminishing returns from ad fatigue.
• Test different lookback windows: Experiment with various audience timeframes to find the optimal balance between audience size and conversion intent.
• Exclude recent purchasers: Apply negative targeting to remove shoppers who have already purchased your product to avoid wasted ad spend.

Future of Amazon retargeting—what sellers should expect

Amazon’s advertising ecosystem continues to evolve rapidly, with several developments on the horizon that will impact retargeting capabilities:

• Enhanced cross-device tracking: Improvements in Amazon’s ability to recognize the same user across multiple devices.
• Expanded creative formats: More interactive and engaging ad types beyond standard display ads.
• Advanced audience segmentation: Finer control over who sees your ads based on more specific behaviors.
• Greater DSP accessibility: Potentially lower minimum spends or more self-service options for smaller sellers.
• Cookie-less tracking solutions: As third-party cookies phase out, Amazon is developing alternative identifier systems leveraging their first-party data advantage.

Sellers who master retargeting fundamentals now will be better positioned to leverage these advancements as they become available. The first-mover advantage in advertising often delivers outsized returns, making this an ideal time to develop expertise in Amazon’s remarketing capabilities.

Conclusion

Amazon retargeting represents one of the most efficient ways to increase conversion rates and maximize return on advertising spend. By focusing on shoppers who have already demonstrated interest in your products, these campaigns typically deliver substantially higher conversion rates and lower acquisition costs than standard prospecting efforts.

The key to success lies in thoughtful audience segmentation, compelling creative development, and continuous optimization based on performance data. While challenges exist—particularly around measurement granularity and creative limitations—the potential returns far outweigh these obstacles for most sellers.

As Amazon’s advertising platform continues to mature, remarketing capabilities will only become more sophisticated and valuable. Brands that develop expertise now will enjoy significant competitive advantages in the increasingly crowded Amazon marketplace.

Begin by allocating a small portion of your advertising budget to test these strategies, carefully measure the results, and scale the approaches that deliver the best performance for your specific products and audience segments. The untapped potential of Amazon retargeting awaits those willing to move beyond standard advertising approaches into this more targeted, efficient advertising channel.

Frequently asked questions

Does Amazon offer retargeting/remarketing ads for all sellers?

Yes, Amazon offers retargeting options for all sellers through Sponsored Display ads, which are available to both vendors and third-party sellers with Brand Registry. However, the more advanced Amazon DSP retargeting features have minimum spend requirements (typically $35,000+) or require working with authorized agencies.

What’s the difference between Amazon DSP and Sponsored Display retargeting?

DSP offers more granular audience targeting, off-Amazon placements across the web, extensive creative options, and advanced reporting capabilities. Sponsored Display is more accessible for most sellers, featuring simpler setup within Seller Central, no minimum spend requirements, but more limited targeting options and on-Amazon placements only.

How can I improve conversion rates with Amazon retargeting ads?

Focus on precise audience segmentation based on recency and intent signals, develop compelling creative that addresses common purchase objections, implement strategic frequency capping to prevent ad fatigue, continuously test different messaging approaches, and exclude recent purchasers from your targeting to eliminate wasted spend.

Are Amazon retargeting ads worth the investment?

Amazon retargeting ads typically deliver significantly higher ROI than standard prospecting campaigns due to their focus on warm audiences with demonstrated purchase intent. While results vary by category and execution quality, properly optimized retargeting campaigns often achieve 20-50% higher conversion rates at lower cost-per-acquisition than other ad types.

Can I combine email/SMS lifecycle marketing with Amazon retargeting?

Yes, you can integrate Amazon retargeting with broader marketing efforts for greater impact. While you can’t directly share Amazon data with external platforms, you can align messaging themes across channels, use Amazon Attribution to track off-Amazon marketing impact, and create a cohesive customer experience that reinforces your brand messaging across multiple touchpoints.