Amazon programmatic advertising in 2025: what agencies can actually do with Amazon DSP

Amazon’s DSP now combines retail-grade first-party signals with expanding premium video access (including Prime Video via programmatic guaranteed), a much bigger authenticated CTV footprint through Roku, and clean-room activation via Amazon Marketing Cloud. For agencies, this makes Amazon programmatic a credible full-funnel option, not just for endemic brands.

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What “Amazon programmatic advertising” really means

When marketers say Amazon programmatic, they’re talking about Amazon DSP - the demand-side platform that lets advertisers buy display, video, and audio across Amazon-owned properties (e.g., Prime Video, Twitch, Freevee, IMDb/Fire TV surfaces) and a large network of third-party sites and apps. Unlike Sponsored Ads tied to onsite search, DSP campaigns run on and off Amazon using Amazon’s first-party signals.

DSP targeting falls into three buckets:

• Amazon Audiences (in-market, lifestyle, demographic and streaming/shopper-based signals),
  
  
• Advertiser audiences (retargeting, product/page viewers, CRM uploads),
  
  
• Third-party audiences (curated external data providers)
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The latest news on Amazon DSP

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Prime Video goes self-service via programmatic guaranteed

Agencies can now activate Prime Video inventory in self-serve with programmatic guaranteed (PG) deals,locking delivery and pricing while using contextual or audience targeting. Rollout covers the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and key European markets including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, U.K., and Austria. Activation happens directly inside Amazon DSP’s deal workflow.

Amazon has also shipped a single “Deals” experience in DSP to discover and activate Preferred, Private Auction, and PG supply (Prime Video, Twitch, Freevee), with publisher-specific contextual segments, frequency caps, and budget controls. 

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The biggest authenticated CTV footprint (U.S.) via Roku

In June 2025, Amazon Ads and Roku announced an exclusive integration: advertisers can reach an estimated 80M U.S. CTV households (over 80% of U.S. CTV homes) exclusively via Amazon DSP, using a shared logged-in identifier across Roku OS and Fire TV. Availability is slated to begin in Q4 2025. For agencies, this consolidates ID-based reach and frequency across two massive CTV ecosystems through one DSP.

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Modeled audiences and “similar audiences” to shore up addressability

Amazon has expanded modeled Amazon Audiences internationally and introduced similar audiences (beta),signals-driven expansion that doesn’t rely on legacy identifiers. Practically, this helps sustain scale and relevance as third-party IDs continue to decline.

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What about measurement and clean-room activation ?

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) provides privacy-safe, event-level analytics across DSP and Sponsored Ads. Advertisers query (SQL) pseudonymized signals to run path-to-conversion, incremental reach, frequency, and cohort analyses. Crucially, AMC Audiences lets you create an audience from your analysis and push it directly into DSP for activation,bridging insight and buying. 

Amazon’s DSP also surfaces Omnichannel Metrics (OCM) and supports Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) partners to quantify offline and cross-channel impact. The result is a more defensible measurement stack for stakeholders who expect lift, not just clicks. 

Amazon continues to position AMC + DSP + Publisher Cloud as a triad: build custom audiences in clean room, enrich with Amazon/partner signals, then activate in DSP. 

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Where Amazon DSP actually fits in a media plan ?

Endemic brands (selling on Amazon) already know the playbook: prospect with in-market/lifestyle segments, retarget product and detail-page viewers, then close the loop in AMC.

The more interesting story in 2025 is non-endemic adoption:

• Amazon explicitly enables businesses that don’t sell in the Amazon store to reach audiences through DSP (and even Sponsored Display in certain scenarios). 

• Multiple industry analyses document non-endemic use cases (finance, automotive, education, local services) leveraging Amazon’s shopping and streaming signals to find high-propensity consumers offsite.
  
  

Two practical notes for planners:

• Policies/eligibility vary by placement,for major events, certain non-endemic categories face restrictions on homepage/event pages. Check the fine print before promising exposure.
  
  
• Managed vs self-service: Amazon offers both; minimums and access can vary by market and partner setup. (Confirm with Amazon or an accredited partner for your region.)
  
  

Targeting depth: what you can REALLY use

• Retail & streaming signals (shopping, browsing, Prime Video streaming) drive the core Amazon Audiences catalog. For planners, these are the highest-fidelity intent signals you’ll find at scale outside walled gardens.
  
  
• Advertiser/CRM audiences: onboard hashed emails or site tags to retarget and build lookalikes/similar audiences.
  
  
• Third-party audiences: augment reach with vetted data providers directly in DSP. (Use sparingly; start with Amazon’s own signals, then layer where it’s materially additive.
  
  

For B2B objectives: Amazon does not expose LinkedIn-style profile attributes, but non-endemic advertisers can still execute B2B strategies by combining CRM lists, third-party business audiences, and contextual/video environments,including CTV,then quantifying reach/overlap and contribution in AMC.

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How about creative and supply ?

• CTV & premium video: Prime Video, Twitch, and Freevee available through DSP deals; programmatic guaranteed now self-serve with geo-specific availability. Use it when delivery certainty and fixed budget pacing matter.
  
  
• Open web display/video/audio across Amazon’s network and third-party publishers for economical reach and retargeting.
  
  
• Deal management inside DSP (Preferred, PA, PG) with contextual options, frequency caps, and near-instant publisher approvals.
  
  

Our planning and measurement guide

1) Data plan before media plan
Map your seed signals (first-party CRM, product viewers, high-value cohorts in AMC). Decide where modeled and similar audiences are acceptable and where you need strict deterministic reach.

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2) Treat CTV like performance media
With the Roku integration going live, plan frequency holistically across Roku + Fire TV via Amazon DSP, then evaluate unique reach and repetition cuts in AMC or partner dashboards. Set expectations: the integration begins Q4 2025.

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3) Use PG for premium video discipline
If you have brand flights tied to launch dates or GRP-like reach objectives, shift Prime Video to programmatic guaranteed to control delivery and price,and keep optimization levers (contextual, audience, pacing) inside DSP.

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4) Build an AMC routine
Standardize a monthly AMC cadence: path analysis, incrementality reads, and AMC Audience pushes back into DSP. This is how you compound performance instead of resetting each quarter.

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5) Align procurement early
Self-serve vs managed access, deal minimums, and brand-safety requirements vary by market. Confirm your route-to-buy and legal/policy constraints before committing flighting.

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Common pitfalls to avoid

• Treating DSP like Sponsored Ads. DSP is not search; success hinges on signal strategy, sequencing, and incrementality measurement (AMC/OCM/MMM), not keyword harvesting
  
  
• Ignoring non-Amazon reach. Recent DSP upgrades notably boosted addressability on non-Amazon supply. If you only plan O&O, you’re leaving efficient reach on the table.
  
  
• Over-reliance on third-party data. Start with Amazon’s own audiences; layer third-party segments only where they demonstrate incremental value in AMC queries.
  
  

The bottom line

Amazon programmatic has outgrown its “retail-only” label. With Prime Video PG, an exclusive Roku tie-up, and AMC-to-DSP audience activation, agencies can plan true full-funnel programs,grounded in durable first-party signals and measurable in a clean room. For endemic and non-endemic brands alike, this is now a practical, defensible part of the media mix. 

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