DVA+ Simple Mode vs Advanced Settings: What Changes and Which to Use

Quick answer: DVA+ simple mode lets you pick an objective, products, creative and a budget, and Amazon’s AI handles targeting, bidding, inventory and format choice. DVA+ advanced settings add manual control over audiences, bidding, inventory, creative, budget allocation and frequency caps, and let you build more than one ad group. Existing programmatic advertisers get both, new advertisers get simple mode and can request advanced settings, and DVA+ itself is still in extended closed beta in the US.

Amazon is rolling DVA+ out in stages, and its own pages disagree in places, so confirm what your account shows.

What Is the Difference Between DVA+ Simple Mode and Advanced Settings?

Simple mode hands targeting, bidding, inventory and format decisions to Amazon, while advanced settings give them back to you. Both build the same kind of campaign across display, video, audio and streaming TV, and advanced settings are where the controls that Amazon DSP buyers know now live.

Amazon’s DVA+ page sets out the split, and the table summarizes it.

Diagram splitting DVA+ decisions between the advertiser and Amazon in simple mode and in advanced settings, across objective, creative, budget, targeting, bidding, inventory and frequency caps

Figure 1: Who makes each decision in simple mode and in advanced settings.

What Does DVA+ Simple Mode Control, and What Does It Hand to Amazon?

In simple mode you control four things: the objective, the products or brand URL, the creative and the budget. Amazon’s AI controls the rest, including audience targeting, bidding, inventory and which formats to use.

Amazon’s campaign creation guide describes a four step flow. You choose an objective such as sales, leads, subscriptions, traffic or awareness, and the objective shapes bidding, targeting and format allocation. Sellers and vendors pick ASINs, while brands that do not sell on Amazon give a landing page URL and define a conversion event. DVA+ generates display, online video and streaming TV creative that you can edit or replace, and you set daily, weekly, monthly or lifetime pacing and flight dates. Amazon says the process is designed to get you live in 15 minutes or less.

What Do DVA+ Advanced Settings Unlock?

Advanced settings unlock manual audiences, manual bid strategies, publisher lists, deal activation, full creative management, format level budgets, frequency caps and multiple ad groups. They also add campaign guidance tools such as a health score, What If analysis and pre flight checks.

PPC Land’s summary of the launch adds three details. Natural language targeting and media plan uploads sit in advanced settings. A budget calculator is listed for streaming TV only. And drafts, bulk management and pre flight validation are described as arriving as the features roll out, with no dates. If you rely on bulk edits today, plan to wait for those features.

Who Gets DVA+ Simple Mode, Advanced Settings or Both?

Existing programmatic advertisers and agencies with existing entity access get both, while new advertisers and Sponsored Ads advertisers get simple mode and can request advanced settings through their account manager. Eligible accounts are sellers, vendors and brands that do not sell on Amazon, all with an Amazon Ads Agent account.

The practical effect is that a seller who never used DSP starts in the AI default. Ask your account manager about advanced settings before you plan around them, because Amazon’s creation guide says they are available to limited advertisers in the US for now.

Is “Simple Mode” an Official Amazon Name?

Not exactly. Amazon’s DVA+ overview page describes DVA+ as the simple experience and DVA+ with advanced settings as the manual one, while its campaign creation guide talks about a standard experience and advanced settings. “Simple mode” is a convenient label used by trade coverage and in this guide.

Search for any of the three terms and you reach the same two experiences. When you read Amazon’s pages, treat “DVA+”, “standard” and “simple mode” as the default tier, and “advanced settings” as the toggle that adds manual control.

Where Do Frequency Caps and Budget Controls Sit in DVA+?

Frequency caps and format level budget allocation sit behind the advanced settings toggle, according to Amazon’s DVA+ page, so simple mode gives you one budget and no frequency cap. For anyone running remarketing or small audiences, that is the control gap that matters most.

Remarketing spend ceiling = Audience size × Share reachable per day × Daily frequency cap × CPM ÷ 1,000

Example (illustrative). A past purchaser audience has 20,000 people, 40% are reachable each day, you want at most 2 exposures a day each and the CPM is $8. The ceiling is 20,000 × 0.40 × 2 × $8 ÷ 1,000 = $128 a day. In simple mode you set one budget for the whole campaign, so a $1,000 daily budget has no way to be held to that audience’s $128 ceiling. Advanced settings let you cap frequency and split ad groups by audience, so the small group does not get the same ad over and over.

Can You Switch Between DVA+ Simple Mode and Advanced Settings?

Amazon describes the approach as starting with AI and adding control when you need it, and says advertisers can switch between conversational assistance and direct controls. It does not say how switching between the default tier and advanced settings works before launch, or whether you can switch back after you have built a multi ad group campaign.

PPC Land notes that the creation guide does not list which settings are locked in standard mode before launch, or how to move between the two. Ask your account manager three questions before you commit: can I start in simple mode and add advanced settings later, does a switch reset what the campaign has learned, and do reports keep the same structure?

What Can You Change After Launch in DVA+ Standard Mode?

After launch in the standard experience you can edit budget, flight dates, products, creative and, for brands that do not sell on Amazon, location targeting. Amazon’s creation guide says every edit needs your confirmation, and you can pause or resume at any time.

Targeting, bidding and inventory are not on that edit list, which is the point of simple mode. Amazon also advises flights of 14 days or longer, so the optimization engine has time to learn. A short, tightly timed flight, such as a three day event, is a poor fit for an AI that is still learning, so check whether advanced settings give you the pacing control that flight needs.

How Do You Decide Between DVA+ Simple Mode and Advanced Settings?

Use simple mode when you have little programmatic experience, a modest budget and goals that fit one objective, and use advanced settings when you need audience separation, frequency control, publisher control, deals or several ad groups. The table matches common situations to a choice.

Control also has a cost. As an illustration, advanced settings are worth it when the efficiency gain on your spend is larger than the time you spend managing them.

Advanced settings are worth it if Monthly spend × Expected efficiency gain > Added management cost

Example (illustrative). Assume an 8% efficiency gain and 10 extra hours a month at $75 an hour, an added cost of $750. Break even spend is $750 ÷ 0.08 = about $9,400 a month. At $30,000 a month the gain is $2,400, which is above $750. At $5,000 the gain is $400, which is below it, so simple mode is the better use of your time. The 8% gain and the hourly cost are assumptions, so test them with your own account.

Bar chart of the illustrative monthly efficiency gain from advanced settings at 5,000, 15,000 and 30,000 dollars of spend, compared with a 750 dollar management cost line

Figure 2: Illustrative gain from advanced settings against the cost of managing them.

How Do You Test DVA+ Simple Mode Against Advanced Settings Fairly?

Run both on matched products with equal budgets and the same flight dates for at least 14 days, size each arm so it can reach about 50 conversions, and judge them on new to brand growth and incremental sales, not attributed ROAS alone. Amazon runs and scores its own campaigns, so check results against your own order data.

Minimum test budget per arm = Target CPA × Conversions needed

Example (illustrative). A target CPA of $18 and 50 conversions needed gives $18 × 50 = $900 per arm. Over a 14 day flight, that is about $64 a day per arm. If you cannot fund both arms, the test will not give a clear answer, so keep the simple mode run and wait.

Timeline of a fair DVA+ test: a 14 day flight with equal budgets for both arms, then a further 14 days for the attribution window to close before reading results around day 29

Figure 3: A fair test design for simple mode against advanced settings.

Keep three rules. Use comparable products and audiences, because different products make the comparison meaningless. Set a holdout, so you can tell sales the campaign caused from sales that would have happened anyway. And wait for the 14 day attribution window to close after the flight ends before you read the numbers. Our guide to Amazon DSP attribution explains the windows and metrics.

How Do Simple Mode and Advanced Settings Affect Reporting?

Simple mode uses a single campaign structure, which gives you fewer rows to read, while multiple ad groups in advanced settings give you a structure that can map to your own reporting. Amazon has not said whether DVA+ campaigns appear as ordinary line items in the existing DSP console.

Amazon’s own pages disagree on one reporting point. Its overview table lists real time campaign scoring under DVA+, while its text says Campaign Guidance is available only with advanced settings. Ask your account manager which you will see. If your dashboards rely on old DSP campaign names or structures, plan a mapping before you move spend. Our guide to DVA, DVA+ and Full Funnel Campaigns covers the rename in full.

What Has Amazon Not Said About DVA+ Simple Mode and Advanced Settings?

Amazon has not published fees or minimum spend for DVA+, how DVA+ campaigns relate to existing DSP line items, how switching between modes works, or when drafts, bulk management and pre flight validation arrive. These gaps matter before you commit budget.

Our guide to how much Amazon DSP costs covers the pricing you can verify today.

How Can Atom11 Help With DSP Work Around DVA+?

Atom11 is an Amazon ads automation platform, and its Amazon DSP module handles the jobs that stay useful whichever buying interface you use: bulk creation of orders and ad groups, pacing across orders, frequency caps per audience, AMC audiences and unified reporting. Because Amazon has said DVA+ API access is targeted for Q1 2027, confirm with the Atom11 team how DVA+ campaigns and existing DSP style orders are handled today.

Atom11 suits teams that want to own their DSP strategy and keep decisions explainable, and it is a weaker fit for anyone wanting a fully hands off autopilot. Atom11 DSP pricing starts at $499 a month for accounts spending under $50K and is 2% of ad spend above that, with the MCP and Neo included, and a managed service option is available. Check current terms on the pricing page, or book a demo and ask how your DVA+ plans fit.

Conclusion

DVA+ simple mode and advanced settings are two ends of one dial. Simple mode trades control for speed, with Amazon choosing audiences, bids, inventory and formats. Advanced settings give you the controls DSP buyers rely on, including frequency caps and separate ad groups, at the cost of more work to manage.

Choose by need and by spend, not by habit. Use advanced settings when you need audience separation, frequency control, deals or publisher rules, and when spend is high enough to repay the effort. Use simple mode to learn, and to run small or loose tests. Whichever you pick, set a holdout, wait for the attribution window to close, and check Amazon’s reported results against your own order data. Ask your account manager the open questions first, since Amazon has not yet answered them.