Amazon’s dominance in retail media budgets is hardly a surprise, with Madison Avenue observers expecting a push to win similar spend in adland. And at its flagship advertising and marketing conference, hosted this week in San Francisco, California, Amazon unveiled its latest offerings.
However, as allegations from government authorities around auction practices continue to dog certain aspects of its media operations, market observers advise caution when it comes to accepting the advertising and retail media giant’s claims lock, stock and barrel.
The company has renamed its unified platform Amazon Ads Agent, with further product launches unveiled today (Sept. 29), including Full-Funnel Campaigns, which combines sponsored ads, display, video and streaming TV within a single campaign.
Here, advertisers specify the products, creative, and budget they want to form their campaign, while Amazon’s AI determines execution and continuously optimizes toward outcomes including new-to-brand customers and its long-term sales metric.
Meanwhile, DVA+ consolidates Sponsored Display, Sponsored TV and programmatic display, video and audio buying. Its simplified mode lets advertisers select an objective, budget and creative while Amazon handles targeting and optimization; experienced buyers can switch to advanced settings and retain control over targeting, deals, supply sources, frequency and bidding.
Amazon Ads Agent becomes the connective tissue
Per some observers, the announcements amount to Amazon collapsing previously separate advertising workflows, such as its demand-side platform and Sponsored Ads units, while giving its AI considerably greater responsibility for how media budgets are planned and deployed — making advertiser control, transparency and the rationale behind automated decisions important questions surrounding the rollout.
Behind the individual launches is a wider overhaul of how Amazon wants advertisers to use its ad stack.
Furthermore, Amazon is expanding what began as a conversational interface into an AI layer spanning planning, campaign creation, optimization, measurement, and support. In practice, this amounts to Amazon moving AI from being a feature within its buying tools to a more central role in how advertisers operate them.
DVA+ brings programmatic buying to a wider base
DVA+ is one of the clearest examples. It brings capabilities previously spread across Sponsored Display, Sponsored TV and programmatic campaigns into one buying experience. Rather than requiring every advertiser to operate something resembling a conventional DSP, Amazon lets buyers select an objective, provide a budget and creative, and hand much of the execution to its technology.
Kelly MacLean, vp at Amazon Ads, described the approach as “bringing the power of programmatic advertising to all advertisers,” in conversation with Digiday, further characterizing the development as “human-led AI supported.”
For Amazon, this also expands the pool of advertisers that can use its programmatic infrastructure. Smaller businesses without dedicated programmatic teams can use the simplified workflow, while agencies and enterprise buyers can open advanced settings and retain controls over targeting, supply sources, deals, frequency caps and bidding. The setup is designed to accommodate both groups without forcing larger buyers into the automated experience. MacLean further described the advanced configuration as letting advertisers retain control over objectives, products, creative approval, budgets, pacing, flight dates, and location targeting, while the platform optimizes for achieving those goals.
Full-Funnel Campaigns pushes further into automated media buying
For some, Full-Funnel Campaigns takes that approach a step further, with the product doing more than simplify programmatic execution by removing operational boundaries between Amazon’s upper- and lower-funnel advertising products. Amit Bhattacharyya, vp, full-funnel products, AI & modeling at Amazon Ads, told Digiday that advertisers were already attempting to connect Sponsored Ads and DVA campaigns themselves, requiring separate campaign setups and leaving buyers to work out how the different pieces should interact. “What if we made it really simple, and yet very powerful for advertising?” he said, explaining Amazon’s rationale for building the product.
Full-Funnel Campaigns moves more of those decisions to Amazon. The system can run activity across sponsored advertising and display, video and audio — including third-party open-internet inventory — while optimizing toward metrics such as new-to-brand customers and Long-Term Sales.
But buyers give up some of the controls available in a conventional DSP campaign. Advertisers approve creative, for example, but cannot select individual channels or specific audiences. Amazon provides format-level visibility and says it is working on further audience transparency. “We are figuring out how to give them more transparency on the audience side,” Bhattacharyya told Digiday.
Transparency under the microscope
That issue becomes more important as Amazon asks advertisers to delegate more planning, allocation and optimization decisions to its models.
For marketers assessing the platform, there are three obvious areas to interrogate: whether they can audit what the agent does with budgets and creative; how well the system works with third-party data, identity and measurement providers; and whether fees, supply sources and auction mechanics remain clear as previously separate buying systems are brought closer together. Amazon maintains that greater automation does not mean abandoning advertiser control. Its reporting shows buyers where their ads were delivered, while DVA+ advanced settings retain conventional programmatic controls. Amazon is also working on explanations inside Amazon Ads Agent that tell buyers why it makes particular targeting or budget recommendations.
Amazon disputes FTC allegations #
The announcements also arrive while Amazon’s advertising business faces regulatory scrutiny. For example, in August, the Federal Trade Commission and 22 state attorneys general sued Amazon, alleging the company secretly used surcharges in its advertising auctions that resulted in Sponsored Products advertisers paying over the odds on the platform.
The complaint alleges advertisers were not adequately informed about how those prices were determined, though Amazon disputes the allegations.
When Digiday asked whether the new tooling would show Sponsored Ads buyers how individual winning prices were determined, including whether a reserve or calculated price was involved, Amazon did not commit to providing that level of auction transparency. Instead, company spokespeople underlined their disagreement with the FTC’s allegations.
These launches show how Amazon is blurring the lines between retail media, programmatic advertising, and its individual campaign products. Under that model, advertisers increasingly tell Amazon what they want to achieve, while its technology determines more of the media plan and execution.
For buyers, the attraction is less operational complexity and easier access to Amazon’s data and programmatic infrastructure. The question accompanying that convenience is how much visibility advertisers retain as Amazon’s technology assumes more responsibility for deciding where their budgets go and how those decisions are made.
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