Understanding the Difference Between Amazon PPC and Amazon DSP: A Complete Guide for Advertisers

When it comes to advertising on Amazon, two key platforms often come up: Amazon PPC (Pay-Per-Click) and Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform). While both tools are designed to help businesses promote their products, they serve different purposes, offer different targeting capabilities, and operate on distinct advertising models. If you’re a seller or marketer looking to increase your visibility and sales on Amazon, it’s essential to understand how these two platforms work and how they differ.

Let's break down the main differences between Amazon PPC and Amazon DSP, so you can decide which is right for your advertising strategy.

Amazon PPC using search term "Electrolytes"

What is Amazon PPC?

Amazon PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click, and it is one of the most common advertising methods used by Amazon sellers and vendors. As the name suggests, with PPC, advertisers pay a fee only when someone clicks on their ad. This makes PPC a highly performance-driven advertising option, as you only pay for actual engagement with your ads.

The primary goal of Amazon PPC is to drive direct sales by increasing product visibility. Sellers can target specific keywords or product categories to ensure that their ads appear to relevant customers actively searching for those products on Amazon.

There are three main types of PPC ads on Amazon:

Sponsored Products: These are the most common ads that show up on Amazon search results pages and product detail pages. They appear when customers search for specific keywords or browse product categories related to your item.
Sponsored Brands: These ads display a brand logo, custom headline, and multiple products. Sponsored Brands typically appear at the top of the search results and are excellent for driving brand awareness.
Sponsored Display: These ads appear on product pages, review pages, or even third-party sites. Sponsored Display ads can be used to retarget customers who have already shown interest in your products.

What is Amazon DSP?

Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) is a more advanced advertising platform designed for larger-scale, programmatic advertising campaigns. It allows advertisers to buy display, video, and audio ad inventory across Amazon’s sites, apps, and third-party sites using real-time bidding (RTB) technology.

While Amazon PPC is primarily focused on driving direct sales, Amazon DSP is better suited for brand awareness, customer acquisition, and retargeting. With Amazon DSP, you can reach users at various stages of the customer journey—whether they are just discovering your brand or ready to make a purchase.

Amazon DSP offers advanced targeting options based on Amazon’s vast customer data, which includes shopping behaviors, interests, demographics, and even how customers interact with other ads.

The key benefit of Amazon DSP is its ability to reach customers outside of Amazon, allowing advertisers to extend their campaigns beyond Amazon.com and into external websites, mobile apps, and even connected TV platforms like Amazon Fire TV.

Key Differences Between Amazon PPC and Amazon DSP

While both platforms help businesses advertise on Amazon, the primary differences between Amazon PPC and DSP come down to the advertising model, targeting capabilities, ad formats, and campaign goals.

1. Advertising Model

Amazon PPC: The pay-per-click model means you only pay when a customer clicks on your ad. It’s a highly direct way to drive sales, as ads are shown when customers search for relevant keywords or browse specific products.
Amazon DSP: This platform operates using programmatic advertising and often uses a cost-per-impression (CPM) model, where advertisers pay for every thousand impressions. While you can also pay per click, DSP is ideal for reaching users across a wider network and building brand awareness.

2. Targeting Options

Amazon PPC: Targeting is typically based on keywords and product categories. Your ads will appear when users search for specific terms or browse related products on Amazon.
Amazon DSP: Offers more advanced targeting capabilities, including audience segmentation based on customer demographics, behaviors, and purchase history. You can target users who have interacted with your brand in the past, and even reach shoppers on external websites and apps.

3. Ad Formats

Amazon PPC: The ad formats are generally simpler—Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display ads. These ads typically appear on Amazon search results pages, product pages, and some other Amazon-owned properties.
Amazon DSP: Amazon DSP supports a wider variety of ad formats, including display ads, video ads, audio ads, and even rich media ads. These ads can appear not just on Amazon but also on third-party websites, apps, and even on streaming platforms like Prime Video.

4. Campaign Goals

Amazon PPC: PPC is ideal for driving direct product sales. It’s a great tool for promoting individual products and targeting customers who are already searching for products or browsing relevant categories.
Amazon DSP: DSP is more suited for brand-building and long-term customer engagement. It helps you reach customers at various stages of the buying journey and is ideal for retargeting and acquiring new customers.

5. Management and Complexity

Amazon PPC: Typically easier to set up and manage. Most sellers and advertisers can manage their campaigns directly through Amazon Seller Central or the Amazon Advertising Console. It's a self-serve platform that's intuitive and user-friendly.
Amazon DSP: Because of its advanced features and targeting options, Amazon DSP is often more complex to manage. It may require a higher level of expertise, and some advertisers may opt to work with an agency or an Amazon representative to set up and optimize campaigns.

Which One Should You Use?

Use Amazon PPC if you’re looking to increase product visibility and drive direct sales on Amazon. It’s an excellent choice for sellers who want to promote specific products through keyword or product targeting and can be easily managed in-house.
Use Amazon DSP if your goal is to build brand awareness, engage with broad audiences, and target specific segments across Amazon and external sites. DSP is a powerful tool for retargeting and acquiring new customers who are in the awareness or consideration stages.

In Short

Both Amazon PPC and Amazon DSP offer powerful advertising opportunities for sellers, but they cater to different needs. If you’re looking for a straightforward way to increase product sales and visibility on Amazon, Amazon PPC is likely the right choice. On the other hand, if your goal is to create long-term brand awareness, retarget customers, and engage with users across multiple platforms, Amazon DSP will provide you with the tools you need to achieve these objectives.

By understanding the key differences between these two advertising solutions, you can make an informed decision about which platform best suits your marketing strategy.