Amazon DSP
Programmatic display, video and audio advertising that reaches shoppers on and off Amazon, planned and managed by our DSP specialists.
Re-engage shoppers who viewed your listings without buying, and build awareness beyond keyword search, measured against targets agreed before launch.
Amazon DSP is Amazon's demand-side platform, the system used to buy display, video and audio advertising programmatically using Amazon's shopper signals. The advertising runs on Amazon's own sites and apps and on third-party inventory bought through the platform, which is the part that matters: it reaches people who are not currently typing anything into a search box.
That makes it useful for two jobs keyword advertising cannot do on its own. Re-engaging shoppers who viewed a product and left without buying, and reaching audiences who have never searched for you at all.
What DSP is not
It is not Sponsored Display with a bigger budget. Sponsored Display is an ad type inside the Amazon Ads console with a small set of audience options. DSP is a separate platform with a wider inventory pool, considerably more control over who is targeted and where the advertising is allowed to appear, and reporting of its own. The two overlap in exactly one place, retargeting people who viewed your product, which is why the confusion exists.
If Sponsored Display retargeting is currently delivering everything you need, that is an argument for postponing DSP, not for buying it.
When it is the wrong thing to buy
DSP does not repair anything. It is reach, and reach applied to a problem makes the problem more expensive.
A listing that does not convert will not convert better because more people saw it. A product with no reviews does not need a larger audience, it needs the reviews. Search advertising that is not yet profitable will not be rescued by adding a second channel on top of it, and the account will simply have two problems to diagnose instead of one.
The sequence that works is the boring one. Get search advertising stable and profitable, learn from it which products convert and against which competitors, then buy reach for the products that have earned it.
What we actually do
Audiences first. This is where most of the outcome is decided, before a single impression is served. Remarketing pools built from what shoppers did on your listings, in-market and lifestyle segments, and audiences modelled on the people who already buy from you. Which segments, and how wide, is a per-brand decision and not a template.
Inventory selection. Where the advertising may appear, and where it may not. A placement that is cheap and available is not automatically a placement worth buying, and the difference between a category where streaming inventory works and one where it does not is worth more than any bid adjustment.
Creative and flighting. Display and video are not the same asset resized. We prepare and traffic what each placement needs, from your assets or produced with your approval, and manage how the budget is spread across the flight rather than letting it spend itself in the first week.
Optimisation against the target that was agreed. Placements, audiences and pacing are managed against the numbers set at setup, not against whichever metric looks best afterwards.
The measurement problem nobody mentions
DSP does not report like Sponsored Products, and the difference is the single most common way brands end up believing something untrue about their own advertising.
Search reporting is built on clicks. DSP adds two things: view-through conversions, meaning sales that followed an impression nobody clicked, and new-to-brand metrics, meaning orders from customers who have not bought from your brand in the lookback window. Both are genuinely useful. Neither is comparable to ACoS on a search campaign.
The trap is arithmetic. The same sale can be attributed by DSP and by Sponsored Ads, and adding the two reports together produces revenue that never existed. We agree the targets and the attribution window with you before launch, and reporting keeps new-customer reach separate from remarketing so the two are never read as one number. A campaign that looks like a triumph on a blended number and a disappointment on incremental new customers is a campaign you should be able to see clearly, including when the honest answer is that it is not working.
What we need from you
Access to the Amazon Ads account, creative assets or approval to produce them, and agreement on the target and the budget before anything launches. The planning conversation covers which marketplaces are in scope: we run advertising across eight, DSP inventory and availability differ by country, and a European plan is not a translated copy of an American one.
Where to start
DSP starts at $5,000 in media spend on our side. Below that an audience does not get enough delivery to be judged, and the reporting cannot separate the advertising from the noise in the account.
If you are not sure whether the account is ready for it, a marketplace audit answers that question first, and PPC management is the work that has to be delivering before reach is worth buying.
What's included
- DSP campaign strategy, setup, and audience selection
- Remarketing to shoppers who viewed or considered your products
- Creative trafficking, placement management, and flighting
- Ongoing optimization against agreed performance targets
- Reporting on reach, view-through, and attributed sales
How this works
- 01
Brand and account analysis
We review your current position on Amazon, ad performance, and category trends before proposing DSP.
- 02
Audience and strategy build
Segments, remarketing pools, and placements are chosen per brand rather than from a default template.
- 03
Creative trafficking
Assets are prepared and flighted across display and video placements.
- 04
Ongoing optimization
Placements, audiences, and pacing are managed against the targets agreed at setup.
- 05
Reach and attribution reporting
Reporting separates new-customer reach from remarketing so the two are not read as one number.
What we need from you
- 01Amazon Ads / DSP account access for the team
- 02Brand creative assets, or approval for us to produce them
- 03Agreement on target metrics and budget before campaigns launch
Results
No case study is published for this service yet. The reviews behind our Clutch and Trustpilot ratings are public, and a strategy call includes a walkthrough of comparable accounts in your category.
Is this a fit?
Good fit
- A fit for brands with established Amazon sales that want reach beyond keyword-based search advertising. DSP starts from $5,000 in media spend, so it is worth discussing once search advertising is already working.
Questions we get asked
What is Amazon DSP?
Amazon DSP is Amazon's demand-side platform: the system used to buy display, video and audio advertising programmatically, using Amazon's shopper signals for targeting. The advertising runs on Amazon's own properties and apps and on third-party sites and exchanges, which is what separates it from Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands. Those appear against a search someone has already typed. DSP reaches people who have not searched yet, or who searched, looked and left.
What does an Amazon DSP agency actually do?
Four things that decide whether the money works. It builds the audiences, which is where most of the outcome is set. It selects and manages inventory, meaning where the ads are allowed to appear and where they are not. It handles creative and flighting, because a display placement needs a different asset from a video one. And it reads the reporting correctly, which on DSP is harder than it sounds: view-through attribution and Sponsored Ads attribution can describe the same sale, and an agency that adds them together will show you a number that does not exist.
How is Amazon DSP different from Sponsored Display?
Sponsored Display is a self-service ad type inside the Amazon Ads console, priced per click or per thousand impressions, with a small set of audience options. DSP is a separate platform with a wider inventory pool, far more audience control, and its own reporting. They overlap in one place, retargeting people who viewed your product, which is why sellers often assume they are the same thing. If Sponsored Display retargeting is already delivering everything you need, that is a reason to postpone DSP rather than a reason to buy it.
How much does Amazon DSP cost?
We start DSP conversations at $5,000 in media spend. Below that the audiences are too small to learn from, and the reporting cannot separate the effect of the advertising from the noise in the account. That figure is media, not our fee. Amazon sets its own terms for DSP access and can change them, so treat it as our entry point rather than as a published price for the platform.
Is DSP worth it for my brand?
It depends on what is already working. DSP is not a fix for weak search advertising, a listing that does not convert, or a product with no reviews. It works when search is already profitable and the constraint is reach: you have taken the demand that exists for your keywords and want the demand that has not reached the search box yet, or you want to stop losing the shoppers who viewed the listing and did not buy. If search advertising is not yet stable, start there and come back.
Where do Amazon DSP ads appear?
On Amazon's own sites and apps, and off Amazon on third-party publisher inventory and exchanges bought through the platform. In practice that means a shopper can see the advertising while browsing Amazon, while streaming, and while reading something unrelated on another site, all from the same campaign and the same audience definition. Which of those surfaces are worth paying for differs by category and by what the campaign is for, which is why inventory selection is part of the work rather than a default setting.
How is Amazon DSP measured?
Differently from Sponsored Ads, and that difference is the thing to agree on before launch. DSP reports on reach and frequency, on new-to-brand orders, and on view-through conversions, meaning sales that followed an impression nobody clicked. Those are useful numbers and they are not comparable to ACoS on a search campaign. We agree the targets and the attribution window before anything runs, and reporting separates new-customer reach from remarketing so the two are never read as one figure.
Can DSP run without Sponsored Products already in place?
Technically yes, in practice it is a poor sequence. Search advertising is where you learn which products convert, at what price, against which competitors, and that knowledge is what makes a DSP audience worth buying. Running programmatic reach at a listing that has not proven it converts is buying traffic for a page that is not ready for it.
How long before DSP shows results?
Retargeting audiences usually show something first, because the shoppers in them already know the product. Prospecting takes longer, and it is the part where a short test tells you very little: an audience needs enough delivery to be judged, and cutting a campaign before it has that is how brands conclude DSP does not work for them. We set the observation window with you at the start rather than reporting on whatever the first fortnight happened to do.
Do you work with brands outside the United States?
Yes. We run advertising across eight Amazon marketplaces, and DSP availability and inventory differ by country, so the plan for a European launch is not a copy of the American one. Which marketplaces are worth including is part of the planning conversation, not an assumption.
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