Reach the shoppers Sponsored Ads can't.
Programmatic display, video, streaming TV and audio across Amazon's own inventory and the open internet, targeted using Amazon's first-party shopping signal.
What Amazon DSP is, and what it isn't
DSP stands for demand side platform: a system that lets advertisers buy online ad inventory across many publishers and websites through an automated exchange. Amazon DSP is the only DSP that gives you access to Amazon's own inventory, which includes the Amazon marketplace itself, Prime Video, Twitch and Fire TV. Alongside that sits premium partner streaming (Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and ESPN), Spotify and SiriusXM audio, and a huge pool of third-party publisher and app inventory across the open internet.
What sets it apart isn't the placements, it's the targeting data. Amazon holds first-party shopping signal at a scale nobody else has: what people search, browse, add to basket and actually buy. DSP lets you target on that behaviour rather than on inferred interest, which is why it reaches shoppers Sponsored Ads structurally cannot, the ones who haven't typed your search term yet.
It's best understood as the modern equivalent of traditional media buying, but measurable. A billboard reaches a lot of people you can't identify and can't optimise against. DSP reaches a defined audience, reports on what happened, and lets you shift budget the same week. It's also pay-as-you-spend rather than a large upfront commitment.
Display, video and audio, planned separately and bought together.
Three very different inventory types sit under one platform. They are priced differently, measured differently and belong at different points in a plan, so we treat them as three disciplines rather than one media line.
Display
Static and rich-media placements across Amazon's own real estate and the open internet, with negotiated deals where the environment an ad appears in is part of the brief.
Amazon-owned placements
Display units on Amazon itself: the home page, search results, product detail pages and the shopping app. No other demand side platform can buy them, which is the single clearest reason to run display here rather than elsewhere.
- Amazon home page
- Search and detail pages
- Shopping app
Prime Video and Fire TV static
Static and interactive units around streaming content, including pause ads that surface when a viewer stops playback, and placements on the Fire TV home screen and pre-screensaver. Big-screen presence without a TV production budget.
- Prime Video pause ads
- Fire TV home screen
Open internet display
Publisher and app inventory across the wider web, still targeted on Amazon shopping behaviour rather than an inferred third-party interest segment. This is where reach gets built cheaply.
- Publisher sites
- Mobile apps
- Amazon audience signal
Private marketplace deals
Negotiated PMP and preferred deals with named publishers, for campaigns that need guaranteed placement in a defined, brand-safe environment instead of whatever the open exchange returns that day.
- PMP
- Preferred deals
- Guaranteed placement
Video and Streaming TV
Two distinct things sit under video: online video across the open internet, and Streaming TV on the living-room screen. Conflating them is how video budgets get spent badly.
Online video (OLV)
In-stream and out-stream video across open-internet publisher and app inventory. Used where reach, frequency and cost per completed view matter more than the premium of a full-screen TV environment.
- Open internet
- In-stream and out-stream
Preferred and PMP video
Negotiated video deals with specific publishers, for campaigns where the content the ad runs against is as much of a decision as the audience it reaches.
- Preferred deals
- PMP
- Named publishers
Streaming TV on Amazon inventory
Full-screen, non-skippable TV placements across Amazon's own streaming estate: Prime Video, Twitch and Fire TV. Freevee's catalogue and its ad-supported audience now sit inside Prime Video, which concentrated that reach rather than reducing it.
- Prime Video
- Twitch
- Fire TV
Streaming TV through Amazon's partnerships
Amazon DSP now buys premium third-party streaming directly: Netflix inventory across eleven markets, and Disney+, Hulu and ESPN through the Disney Real-Time Ad Exchange integration. Complete TV plans, buys and measures the whole TV spend in one place rather than across three platforms.
- Netflix
- Disney+
- Hulu and ESPN
- Complete TV
Audio
Streaming audio reaches people in the moments no screen does: the commute, the gym, the kitchen. Bought in the same platform, against the same shopping signal, and measurable in the same clean room.
Amazon audio inventory
Ad-supported audio across Amazon Music's free tier and Alexa-enabled devices, with companion display on screen-equipped Echo units so the spot has somewhere to land.
- Amazon Music free tier
- Alexa devices
- Companion display
Partner audio inventory
Spotify's audio and video inventory is bought directly through Amazon DSP under the two companies' global programmatic partnership, alongside SiriusXM's premium digital audio. Audio folds into the existing plan instead of being a separate deal on a separate platform.
- Spotify
- SiriusXM
- One programmatic buy
We tell you when DSP is not the right next step
DSP is not a fix for a weak listing or an under-optimised Sponsored Ads account. If your foundations aren't ready, we will say so rather than sell you a bigger media budget.
We sequence audiences to the funnel, not to the platform default
In-market, lifestyle, contextual and remarketing audiences each get used where they actually work, informed by AMC path-to-conversion analysis rather than out-of-the-box presets.
We measure DSP on incrementality, not attributed sales
It's easy to make DSP look good by retargeting people who were going to buy anyway. We use AMC to isolate what DSP genuinely added on top of Sponsored Ads and organic.
Creative is built for the format by our own studio
Display, video and audio creative is produced in-house to the spec of the placement it's running in, rather than resizing a Sponsored Brands asset and hoping it holds up.
What's included
Full-funnel audience strategy
In-market, lifestyle, and remarketing audiences sequenced against where a shopper actually is in their journey.
Amazon and open-internet reach
Amazon's own placements plus publisher, app and private marketplace inventory across the open internet, all on Amazon shopping signal.
Competitor conquesting
Targeted placements against competitor product and category pages, built around real purchase-intent signal.
Cross-channel measurement
Incrementality measured against Sponsored Ads and organic, so DSP spend is judged on what it actually adds.
Creative built for the format
Display, video and audio assets produced in-house to the spec of the placement, not resized Sponsored Brands creative.
AMC-informed targeting
Audience and frequency decisions informed by Amazon Marketing Cloud analysis, not platform defaults.
DSP and Sponsored Ads are one funnel, not two budgets
Sponsored Ads capture demand that already exists: a shopper types a search term and you bid to sit in front of it. That puts a hard ceiling on the channel, because the ceiling is the size of current search demand for your category. DSP is what lifts it, reaching people across Amazon's inventory and the open internet before they have searched for you at all, then bringing back the ones who looked and left.
Run together they compound. DSP and Streaming TV build consideration and drive detail-page views; Sponsored Products converts the search that follows; Sponsored Display and DSP remarketing close the browsers who did not buy first time. Amazon Marketing Cloud is what proves that sequence actually happened, rather than letting DSP take credit for sales Sponsored Ads would have won on its own.
The reason to run that funnel on Amazon DSP rather than another demand side platform comes down to two things no other DSP has: Amazon's first-party shopping signal, meaning what people genuinely search, browse, add to basket and buy, and access to Amazon's own inventory, from detail pages to Prime Video and Twitch. Every other DSP is targeting an inference of purchase intent. This one is targeting the purchase.
Find the funnel gap
We identify exactly where Sponsored Ads stops reaching a shopper (browsers who didn't convert, competitor pages, off-Amazon research) before recommending a single placement.
Launch programmatic audiences
In-market, lifestyle and remarketing audiences go live across on- and off-Amazon inventory, sequenced against where a shopper actually sits in their journey.
Prove incrementality
AMC analysis tells us what DSP actually added on top of Sponsored Ads and organic, and spend gets reallocated toward what the data, not the platform default, says is working.
Amazon DSP: your questions answered
What is Amazon DSP?
Amazon DSP is Amazon's demand side platform: a system for buying display, video, streaming TV and audio advertising programmatically, across Amazon's own inventory (the marketplace, Prime Video, Twitch, Fire TV), premium partner streaming and audio, and a large pool of third-party publisher and app inventory. What makes it distinct isn't the placements, it's that targeting is built on Amazon's first-party shopping behaviour.
Can I buy streaming TV and audio through Amazon DSP?
Yes, and both from the same platform as display. Streaming TV covers Amazon's own estate (Prime Video, Twitch, Fire TV) plus partner inventory including Netflix and, through the Disney Real-Time Ad Exchange integration, Disney+, Hulu and ESPN. Audio covers Amazon Music's ad-supported tier and Alexa devices, plus Spotify and SiriusXM through Amazon's programmatic partnerships. Buying them together is what makes reach and frequency manageable across the whole plan instead of per platform.
Why use Amazon DSP rather than another DSP?
Two reasons, and both are structural. First, targeting: Amazon holds first-party signal on what people actually search, browse, add to basket and buy, where other platforms model purchase intent from third-party interest data. Second, inventory: Amazon DSP is the only way to buy placements on Amazon itself, on Prime Video and on Twitch. If your category is bought on Amazon, no other DSP can reach that shopper in the environment they buy in.
What's the difference between Amazon DSP and Sponsored Ads?
Sponsored Ads reach shoppers who have already typed a search term on Amazon. Amazon DSP reaches people before that, targeting them on what they browse and buy rather than what they searched, and it can place ads off Amazon entirely. Sponsored Ads capture existing demand; DSP creates it. Most accounts need both, in that order.
What is the minimum spend for Amazon DSP?
Amazon's own managed service carries a substantial minimum commitment, which is why most brands access DSP through an agency running the self-service console instead. Budget is then set with your agency against the audience you're trying to reach, and it's pay-as-you-spend rather than an upfront buy. We'll tell you if the number needed to reach a meaningful audience is beyond what the account should commit yet.
Do I need to sell on Amazon to use Amazon DSP?
No. Amazon DSP is open to non-endemic advertisers, meaning brands that don't sell on Amazon at all can still buy its inventory and target its audience signal, sending traffic to their own site instead. For brands that do sell on Amazon, the advantage is closing the loop: the same platform reports what the campaign did to sales.
Is Amazon DSP worth it for smaller brands?
Only once the foundations underneath it are working. DSP will not rescue a weak listing or an under-optimised Sponsored Ads account, it will just buy more traffic for them. Where it earns its budget is when search demand for your category is already being captured and growth has to come from shoppers who haven't searched for you yet.
How is Amazon DSP performance measured?
By incrementality, not attributed sales. Retargeting people who were already going to buy makes any DSP report look strong, so we use Amazon Marketing Cloud to isolate what DSP genuinely added on top of Sponsored Ads and organic, alongside reach, frequency and new-to-brand purchases.
Amazon Sponsored Ads
Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display and Sponsored TV, run as one funnel, not four line items competing for the same budget.
Learn moreAmazon Marketing Cloud
Clean-room analysis across Sponsored Ads, DSP and organic, and the custom audiences that come out of it, pushed straight back into DSP to be spent against.
Learn moreAmazon SEO
Keyword strategy, listing content and A+ pages built around Amazon's actual ranking signals: conversion rate and relevance, not just search volume.
Learn more