Amazon VCPM Campaigns: What You Need to Know

Amazon's Sponsored Display VCPM campaigns promise brand awareness and top-of-funnel reach. But are they actually delivering value—or are they quietly cannibalizing your organic sales? We dug into the data to find out.

Understanding Amazon VCPM Campaigns

Before we dive into the analysis, let's make sure we understand what VCPM (Viewable Cost Per Mille) is and how this Amazon advertising type works.

In Sponsored Display, Amazon offers three different bid optimization types:

• Optimize for Reach - Brand awareness (top of funnel)
• Optimize for Page Visits - Consideration (middle of funnel)
• Optimize for Conversions - Purchase intent (bottom of funnel)

When we look at the cost structure, optimizing for page visits and conversions uses CPC (cost-per-click) pricing, while optimizing for reach uses VCPM—cost per 1,000 viewable impressions.

What Counts as a "Viewable Impression"?

Here's where things get interesting. A viewable impression is counted when a customer sees just half of your ad for only 1 second. That's it.

Think about that: if your ad is partially visible in the corner of someone's screen for one second while they scroll past, that's an impression you're paying for.

The Hidden Cannibalization Problem

Here's where VCPM campaigns can become problematic for your Amazon advertising strategy.

Let's say a customer is interested in your garlic press and has already visited your product detail page. They're at the end of their buying journey, about to hit the "Buy Now" button. Then Amazon shows them your VCPM ad somewhere on the page—even if it's only half-visible in the bottom corner.

Amazon uses what's called view-through attribution. If that customer makes a purchase, the sale gets attributed to your VCPM campaign—even though the customer was already going to buy.

The Misleading Performance Data

When sellers look at their VCPM performance metrics, it's easy to get excited. Seeing a 3.6% ACoS with hundreds of orders looks like a ridiculously good-performing campaign. But is it real?

How to Find Your True VCPM Performance

Amazon has released a metric that gives us clarity: click-based orders. This metric shows orders where a customer was actually interested enough in your ad to click on it.

Step-by-Step: Finding Click-Based Orders

1. Go to the Measurement and Reporting section in your Amazon Advertising console
2. Create a Sponsored Display Campaigns Report
3. Download the report and filter the viewable impressions column to exclude 0 impressions (this leaves only VCPM campaigns)
4. Compare column T (14-day total orders) with column AB (14-day click-based orders)

When we ran this analysis for our clients, the results were eye-opening. Campaigns that showed a 9.6% ACoS based on total orders actually had a 337% ACoS when looking at click-based orders only.

Real Results: What Happened When We Paused VCPM

After seeing the true performance from click-based orders analysis, we paused all VCPM campaigns for our clients. The results were immediate.

For one client, pausing these campaigns reduced their TACoS from 8.5% to 4.9%—without any drop in sales. This confirmed that the VCPM campaigns were adding to ad spend without contributing meaningful incremental sales.

When VCPM Campaigns Make Sense

We're not saying VCPM campaigns are always bad. They can be useful for:

• New product launches where brand awareness is the primary goal
• Brand defense when competitors are targeting your branded keywords
• Top-of-funnel campaigns where you're genuinely trying to reach new audiences

However, it's crucial to understand their potential downsides:

• Loose targeting that may not reach your ideal customers
• High cost potential from impression-based billing
• Risk of cannibalizing organic sales through view-through attribution

Key Takeaways for Amazon Sellers

• VCPM campaigns charge for viewable impressions, not clicks
• A "viewable impression" = 50% of ad visible for just 1 second
• View-through attribution can inflate performance metrics by taking credit for organic sales
• Always check the click-based orders metric to see true performance
• Consider pausing VCPM campaigns and monitoring your TACoS for changes
• Use the Sponsored Display Campaign Report regularly to make data-driven decisions