Amazon Ads retail media network: sponsored ads, Prime Video and how to buy

Scale sets Amazon apart before anything else. Its advertising services line earned $68.6 billion in 2025 (PPC Land, February 2026). For comparison, Walmart's global ad business neared $6.4 billion in its fiscal 2026, less than a tenth of Amazon's total (PPC Land, February 2026). Growth has slowed, though. Q3 2026 revenue rose 11% and missed the analyst consensus, which Amazon partly put down to Prime Day moving into the second quarter (CNBC, 29 October 2026).

The second difference is who buys. Most retail networks sell to suppliers through a sales team. Amazon's advertisers include its own marketplace sellers, vendors and self-published authors, and sponsored ads carry no minimum spend beyond a $1 daily budget (Amazon Ads FAQ). A small seller with one product can start a campaign in an afternoon. That long tail of self-serve buyers is the reason Amazon's tools, reporting and partner market are so deep.

The auction behind those ads is now the subject of a pending lawsuit. On 31 August 2026 the Federal Trade Commission and 22 state attorneys general sued Amazon in federal court in Seattle under consumer protection law, not antitrust law (PPC Land, 31 August 2026). The complaint alleges that Amazon described its sponsored ads auction as second-price while adding post-auction "soft reserve" prices, so winners often paid their own bid.

Amazon rejects the claims. It says Sponsored Products cost per click stayed flat in real terms from 2019 to 2024 and that no advertiser pays more than its bid (Amazon, 31 August 2026). No court has ruled on the allegations.

Third, Amazon now buys everything in one place. In November 2025 it merged its ads console and its demand-side platform (DSP) into a single buying tool. On 29 September 2026 it renamed that tool Amazon Ads Agent and put three campaign types inside it: sponsored ads; Display, Video and Audio; and Full-Funnel Campaigns (Amazon Ads, 29 September 2026). The new DVA+ type combines what used to be Sponsored Display, Sponsored TV and programmatic campaigns.

PPC Land reports that the product formerly known as Amazon DSP became DVA at the same event (PPC Land, 29 October 2026), although Amazon's FAQ still uses the Amazon DSP name. For buyers, search and video budgets now sit side by side.

Amazon also sells its ad tech to other retailers. Amazon Retail Ad Service offers sponsored-products technology to US multi-brand retailers, with Macy's featured, and brands do not need to sell on Amazon to use it (Amazon Retail Ad Service, accessed 9 November 2026). Asda in the UK is the first retailer outside the US, with a phased start from Q4 2026 (Amazon Ads, 23 June 2026).

Amazon renamed several formats over the past two years, which confuses older guides. This table maps old names to current ones.

Onsite. Sponsored products remain the core retail format. They appear where shoppers search and compare, so they behave like paid search with a checkout attached. Brand Stores are free, multi-page brand sites inside Amazon.

Streaming. Prime Video has carried ads by default since January 2024, and viewers pay extra to avoid them (PPC Land, February 2026). Amazon puts Prime Video's global ad-supported reach above 315 million and its US monthly reach above 130 million (company claims, Amazon Ads, 11 November 2025).

Partner inventory. Roku, Netflix and Spotify inventory is sold through Amazon's programmatic buying, Amazon DSP, now sold as DVA inside Amazon Ads Agent, not as retail ads. The Amazon DSP profile covers those deals and the Amazon DSP cost guide covers fees.

Amazon targets with what people search, buy, browse and stream across its properties. Advertisers never receive those records. They get audiences inside Amazon's tools and aggregated reports.

For deeper analysis, Amazon offers Amazon Marketing Cloud, a clean room built on AWS Clean Rooms. It accepts only pseudonymised inputs, returns only aggregated outputs above set thresholds, and Amazon says it cannot access the data an advertiser uploads (Amazon Ads, accessed 9 November 2026). AMC is free to eligible advertisers.

Amazon reports closed-loop sales on its own store. Its proprietary metrics include new-to-brand purchases, projected 12-month long-term sales and brand halo, which counts sales of a brand's other products (Amazon Ads, accessed 9 November 2026). Amazon Attribution, a free tool, measures the effect of non-Amazon channels on Amazon sales.

Independent checks are narrower. The Media Rating Council lists Amazon Ads Sponsored Products as accredited for display clicks, search clicks and sophisticated invalid traffic filtration, at total level only (MRC, accessed 9 November 2026). Sales attribution is not part of that accreditation. Amazon says Full-Funnel Campaigns in beta delivered 67% higher long-term return on ad spend (company claim, Amazon Ads, 30 September 2026). For the industry guidelines behind such claims, see retail media measurement standards explained.

1. Open an account. Sellers and vendors advertise from their existing Amazon accounts; agencies register at advertising.amazon.com and work in Amazon Ads Agent.
2. Start with Sponsored Products. Choose automatic or keyword targeting, set a daily budget of at least $1 and bid per click (Amazon Ads FAQ).
3. Add Sponsored Brands and a Brand Store once you have several products and want shoppers to see the range.
4. Move up the funnel with Display, Video and Audio or Full-Funnel Campaigns. Managed service for that tier typically starts around $50,000 in the US.
5. Check results in Amazon Marketing Cloud or through a certified partner using the Amazon Ads API, and compare new-to-brand sales with your own data.

It suits:

• brands and marketplace sellers whose products already sell on Amazon;
• small advertisers who need a self-serve tool with no minimum spend;
• categories where shoppers search by need, such as household goods, electronics and books;
• advertisers who want streaming TV and search under one reporting roof.

It suits less:

• brands that do not sell on Amazon, apart from Prime Video and partner inventory;
• advertisers who need user-level exposure data in their own warehouse;
• teams without time to manage bids, because self-serve costs depend on auction skill.

• Amazon's share of US retail media spend; the main forecaster's page could not be accessed.
• How advertising services revenue splits between sponsored ads, Prime Video and programmatic. Amazon does not break it out.
• The minimum cost-per-click bid, because the official limits page could not be read.
• Launch dates of Amazon Retail Ad Service and "sponsored products across retailers".
• The number of advertisers or sellers using sponsored ads.
• The FTC's own press release and complaint. The FTC site could not be accessed, so this page relies on trade press and Amazon's response.

1. AdExchanger, "Amazon rebrands its ad products under Amazon Advertising" (5 September 2018). https://adexchanger.com/online-advertising/amazon-rebrands-its-ad-products-under-amazon-advertising/
2. Amazon Ads, "unBoxed 2025 recap" (11 November 2025). https://advertising.amazon.com/library/news/unboxed-2025-recap
3. PPC Land, "Amazon's ad revenue hits $21.3B as Prime Video reaches 315M viewers" (7 February 2026). https://ppc.land/amazons-ad-revenue-hits-21-3b-as-prime-video-reaches-315m-viewers/
4. Amazon Ads, "Amazon Ads introduces Full-Funnel Campaigns, DVA+, and enhanced chat experience in AI-powered ad platform, Amazon Ads Agent" (29 September 2026). https://advertising.amazon.com/library/news/amazon-ads-agent
5. Amazon Ads, "The 11 biggest takeaways from unBoxed 2026" (30 September 2026). https://advertising.amazon.com/library/news/unboxed-2026-news-announcements
6. CNBC, Amazon Q3 2026 earnings report (29 October 2026). https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/29/amazon-amzn-q3-earnings-report-2026.html
7. Amazon Ads, "Frequently asked questions" (accessed 9 November 2026). https://advertising.amazon.com/resources/faq
8. Amazon Ads, "Amazon Marketing Cloud" (accessed 9 November 2026). https://advertising.amazon.com/solutions/products/amazon-marketing-cloud
9. Media Rating Council, "Accredited services: digital" (accessed 9 November 2026). https://mediaratingcouncil.org/accreditation/digital
10. Amazon Ads, "Amazon Retail Ad Service" (accessed 9 November 2026). https://advertising.amazon.com/retail-ad-service