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Amazon Demand Side Platform: What Advertisers Need To Know

Feb 5, 2025

Neha Bhuchar

Say you’re an advertiser trying to promote a new line of eco-friendly kitchen products among homeowners in Florida. You ideally want to reach an audience with the following characteristics:

Environmentally conscious
Frequently shop for kitchenware
Age between 35-45
Located in Florida

Traditionally, achieving this level of precision demanded hours of manual targeting. This is where programmatic advertising comes in and makes a difference. It is a powerful advertising tech that uses automation and data-driven insights to help you reach your ideal target audience.

Now, a potent and popular programmatic advertising tool available today is the Amazon DSP advertising platform. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore what Amazon DSP is and how to integrate it into your marketing funnel.

What is Amazon Demand Side Platform?

Imagine you’re launching a new line of eco-friendly kitchenware and you want to zero in on Florida homeowners who are both green-minded and kitchen-obsessed, aged 35–45. In the old days, drilling down to that exact audience meant countless hours of manual targeting. Enter programmatic advertising: the automation-driven tech that uses data insights to pinpoint and reach your ideal customers in real time.

One of the most powerful programmatic tools today is the Amazon DSP advertising software that automates and centralizes the purchase of digital ads across multiple channels, even for products you don’t sell on Amazon. The result? You tap into premium ad placements and boost your return on ad spend (RoAS) by reaching the right people at the right moment.

Amazon DSP platform currently supports three key types of products ads:

Video Ads: Non-skippable OTT video ads for streaming platforms and skippable OLV video ads for websites.
Audio Ads: Bite-sized ads on mobile apps like Amazon Music and partner audio platforms.
Display Ads: Fully customizable banners where you control logos, headlines, and imagery. These include In-Store Digital Ads—dynamic display units on Amazon Fresh kiosk screens, Fire TV demo stations, and Alexa-enabled devices in physical stores.

With Amazon DSP advertising, your campaigns can appear on first-party channels—Prime Video, Twitch, Fire TV—and on top-tier third-party sites and apps via Amazon Publisher Direct and programmatic exchanges. Availability varies by region, but together they turn Amazon DSP into a true omnichannel bridge between online, streaming, and physical retail. It’s all you need to extend your reach beyond Amazon’s storefront and plug into the people who matter most to your brand.

Key terms you need to know about Amazon Demand Side Platform

Before diving into Amazon DSP, let’s get familiar with a few foundational terms so you can hit the ground running:

Dashboard: Think of this as your mission control. It’s where you monitor all your DSP campaigns, track key metrics, and get a quick pulse on performance
Line Items: These are your individual ad placements within a campaign. Each line item bundles together targeting criteria, creative assets, bid strategy, and budget.
Orders: An order groups related line items under the same campaign umbrella, sharing common settings and goals
Ad Exchange: This is the digital marketplace where advertisers bid in real time to buy ad inventory from publishers
Ad Server: The behind-the-scenes engine that serves up the right ads to the right audiences, on the right devices. It manages delivery, tracking, and reporting across channels
Real-Time Bidding (RTB): The auction-style process where ad impressions are bought and sold on the fly. You set your targeting rules and bid; if you win, your ad shows
Supply-Side Platform (SSP): Used by publishers to sell their ad space to the highest bidder. Upon meeting inside ad exchanges, DSPs bring the bids, SSPs bring the slots.
Programmatic Lifecycle: The automated, real-time buying and serving of digital ads through a combination of demand side platforms (DSPs), supply side platforms (SSPs), and ad exchanges. Here’s what happens:
1. A visitor loads a page (or opens an app).
2. The publisher’s ad server signals through SSP that an ad slot is available.
3. Your DSP receives the bid request, checks the visitor against your targeting rules, and bids within milliseconds.
4. If your bid wins, the ad is served instantly, and the impression is logged for reporting.
Clean Room: A secure, privacy-centric environment (for example, Amazon Marketing Cloud) where you can combine your first-party data with Amazon’s insights to build deterministic or modelled audiences, without exposing user-level identifiers.
Interoperability: The seamless management between Amazon DSP and tools like AWS, Amazon Marketing Cloud, and Amazon Publisher Cloud, eliminating data silos across planning, buying, and measurement.

Amazon DSP vs. Sponsored Ads: What Sets Them Apart

It’s easy to conflate Amazon DSP with Sponsored display ads. Both let you target audiences, run multiple ad formats, and track results. But they serve very different purposes.

In short, if you want to stay inside Amazon’s walls, Sponsored Ads are your go-to. If you’re looking to cast a wider net across streaming platforms, apps, and external sites, Amazon DSP is the tool for that.

How much does Amazon DSP cost?

Unlike Amazon’s PPC options, Amazon DSP advertising runs on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) model, so you pay for how often your ad shows, not clicks. Here’s the breakdown:

Managed Service: Best for advertisers who want full support and strategic guidance. You get premium DSP inventory plus expert consultation. Minimum investment usually starts around $50,000 (varies by region). You can also work through an Amazon Advertising Sales Partner, who’ll either manage your campaigns or give you self-serve access; partner fees typically kick off at about $5,000 per month.
Self-Service: Ideal if you want hands-on control. You set your own bids and budgets via Amazon’s automated system. A basic retargeting campaign starts around $3,000, making it a low-risk way to test DSP before scaling up.

Why Use Amazon DSP Advertising?

Broader Reach & High Visibility

Tap into Amazon’s premium inventory across Fire TV, Kindle, Prime Video, and Freevee, plus thousands of third-party sites and apps. Amazon DSP ensures your ads appear where customers already spend time, giving your brand high-impact visibility across screens and platforms.

Advanced Audience Targeting

Use Amazon’s rich behavioral, demographic, and purchase data to build precise audience segments, like new customers, shoppers who viewed a competitor’s product or frequently buy in your category. Customize your strategy for each relevant audience, serve hyper-relevant ads, and optimize performance by tracking which segments convert best.

Better Conversion Rates

Retarget potential customers—like past visitors or cart abandoners—with tailored display or video ads that reflect their behavior. Reinforce urgency with time-sensitive offers or bundles to guide shoppers through the final stages of the funnel.

Privacy-First

Amazon DSP uses clean rooms that protect customer data by hiding user-level identifiers while still letting you combine your first-party data with Amazon’s vast browsing, shopping, and streaming insights. Thus, you can safely build deterministic or modelled audiences even after third-party cookies disappear.

AI-Powered

Amazon’s machine learning automates bidding, creative delivery, and audience targeting in real time. By analyzing first- and third-party data, it continuously optimizes campaigns to find high-intent shoppers and boost return on ad spend with minimal manual input.

Built for Scale

With access to Prime Video, Twitch, Freevee, third-party apps, and even Amazon Fresh kiosks, Amazon DSP reaches customers across channels, mobile users, and desktop users. Its integration with AWS and AMC ensures seamless scaling across every stage of your Amazon DSP campaign.

Though the upfront costs can be steep, Amazon DSP’s combination of precise targeting, premium placements, and data-driven insights makes it a powerful addition to any advertising strategy.

How do you integrate Amazon DSP into your marketing funnel?

Integrating Amazon Demand Side Platform (DSP) into your marketing funnel

Amazon DSP works at every stage of your funnel—raising awareness, sparking consideration, driving conversions, and even building loyalty—thanks to Amazon’s data richness and retargeting at the right time.

1. Awareness

Since DSP charges based on a CPM model, it’s a great way to blast your brand in front of broad audiences. Think non-skippable video ads on Prime Video or high-impact display units across third-party sites. The goal here is pure visibility: get your eco-friendly kitchenware in front of as many Florida homeowners as possible.

2. Consideration

Once people know your brand, DSP lets you double down with targeted video and display ads. Show off glowing reviews or customer testimonials, and embed clear calls to action (“Shop Now,” “Learn More”) to move prospects closer to a decision.

3. Conversion

Here’s where DSP’s retargeting magic shines. Serve personalized display ads to shoppers who peeked at your product page but didn’t buy. Highlight limited-time offers or bundle deals to nudge them over the finish line and boost your RoAS.

4. Loyalty

Don’t stop after the sale. Use DSP to re-engage past buyers with ads for complementary products or exclusive repeat-customer discounts. That keeps your brand top of mind, drives repeat purchases, and turns happy customers into vocal advocates.

How can atom11 help?

atom11 is a powerful Amazon PPC software designed to maximize ad efficiency for you. Unlike traditional ad platforms, atom11 integrates key retail signals such as inventory, pricing, and buy box status with Amazon ads to give better spend efficiency to sellers and agencies.

By leveraging real-time data from inventory and pricing trends, our suite of ad tech solutions help you optimize your bids and adjust ad spend based on product availability. This helps you maintain profitability across all your campaigns. Put simply, it is the only advertising tool you need to scale on the Amazon website. Book a demo to start your journey with atom11.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the demand side platform on Amazon?

Amazon Demand Side Platform (DSP) is a programmatic ad-buying tool that lets advertisers purchase and manage display, video, and audio ads both on and off Amazon. It taps into Amazon’s first-party shopper data to target audiences with precision and extends your reach across Amazon-owned properties (like Prime Video or Fire TV) as well as third-party websites and apps.

What is the primary purpose of a demand side platform (DSP)?

A DSP’s core job is to automate and streamline digital ad buying: it runs real-time bidding (RTB), applies your targeting criteria, and serves the right creatives to the right audiences at scale, all while optimizing bids and budgets based on performance data.

What are the main benefits of using Amazon DSP?

With Amazon Demand Side Platform (DSP), you gain access to Amazon’s rich shopper data for hyper-targeted reach, premium ad placements across first- and third-party channels, flexible CPM-based budgeting, and advanced retargeting that keeps your brand top-of-mind, resulting in stronger visibility, higher conversions, and better return on ad spend.

What is the difference between supply side platform and demand side platform?

A Supply-Side Platform (SSP) helps publishers and app owners sell their ad inventory programmatically, while a Demand Side Platform (DSP) enables advertisers to buy that inventory. In Amazon’s ecosystem, Amazon DSP represents the buying side, tapping into Amazon Publisher Services (APS) and its Transparent Ad Marketplace (TAM) as the SSP arm, so publishers can monetize their sites and advertisers can access that premium inventory in one seamless flow.

Who uses Amazon Demand Side Platform?

Amazon Demand Side Platform (DSP) is popular with brand advertisers and agencies, whether you sell on Amazon or off‐site, you can tap into DSP’s audience data and premium placements to extend your reach and drive performance.

What is the minimum spend for Amazon DSP?

While some partners let you start around $5,000, Amazon Demand Side Platform (DSP) shines as an upper-funnel tool, so meaningful impact usually requires larger budgets to properly test and optimize campaigns.