What is Amazon DSP?

Amazon DSP (demand-side platform) is Amazon's programmatic advertising product for buying display, video, audio and streaming TV ads across Amazon's own properties and third-party sites and apps. Where Sponsored Products charges per click from a shopper who is already searching, DSP buys impressions in front of audiences, priced per thousand impressions (CPM).

What it is now

Amazon's own pages describe DSP mid-transition, so it is worth reading them directly (all checked 2026-10-03):

• The Amazon DSP product page says DSP has evolved into Amazon Ads Agent, that its programmatic capabilities are now reached through Display, Video, and Audio (DVA+) campaigns with advanced settings, and that the pricing model, including self-service and managed-service options, carries forward.
• The DVA+ page describes one campaign type that brings together what was previously created through Amazon DSP, Sponsored Display and Sponsored TV, billed on CPM with no minimum spend. It says DVA+ with advanced settings is currently available to limited advertisers in the US, and that DSP users in the other countries it lists, including the UK and Germany, continue to see the Amazon DSP experience.
• Amazon's DSP guide says self-service carries no management fees and that the managed service typically requires a minimum spend of $50,000 USD, which may vary by country.

The label may change again. The mechanics below do not depend on it.

How it differs from sponsored ads

The row that matters most is the fourth. A DSP sale can be credited to an impression the shopper never clicked, so DSP results and sponsored ads results are not measured on the same basis and should not be compared line for line.

The formula: price what can be seen

A CPM quote is the price of an impression served, not one seen. Amazon's viewability guide gives the industry standard (checked 2026-10-03): a display ad is viewable when at least 50% of its pixels are in view for at least one second, and a video ad when it has been in view for at least two seconds. Divide the quote by the viewable share to get the price of impressions that had a chance to work:

Viewability Rate = Viewable Impressions ÷ Measured Impressions
Viewable CPM     = CPM ÷ Viewability Rate

If you buy on vCPM, which charges per thousand viewable impressions, this step is already done.

Worked example

The inputs below are invented for the arithmetic. Two line items quote different prices:

The cheaper quote is the more expensive media.

Now carry line A through to profit. Suppose $3,000 of spend at a $4.00 CPM buys 750,000 impressions, and the campaign is credited with 150 orders of a product that sells for $50. The product's contribution margin, after Amazon fees and landed cost, is $20 an order, so its break-even ACoS is 20 ÷ 50 = 40%.

• Cost per attributed order = $3,000 ÷ 150 = $20, exactly the margin.
• Attributed sales = 150 × $50 = $7,500, so attributed ACoS = $3,000 ÷ $7,500 = 40%, exactly break-even.
• Now suppose a holdout test shows only 75 of those orders would not have happened without the ads. Cost per incremental order = $3,000 ÷ 75 = $40. Those 75 orders contributed 75 × $20 = $1,500 against $3,000 of spend, a $1,500 loss.

The attributed report says break-even. The incremental view says loss. That gap is why DSP has to be judged on total sales and on tests, never on its own report alone.

How to use it to make decisions

1. Set your ceiling from your own margin. The most you can pay per incremental order is that order's contribution margin. Work it out per product with the break-even ACoS calculator before you read any DSP report.
2. Judge on the whole business. Track total sales and TACoS for the advertised products before, during and after a flight. A campaign that works should move total sales, not only its own attributed column. The TACoS calculator does the arithmetic.
3. Compare on viewable CPM. Never rank line items on the quoted price.
4. Test with a holdout. Only a group or region you deliberately leave unserved tells you how many credited orders the ads actually caused.
5. Size the test by orders, not by a minimum. Decide how many orders you need to read a result, then work back to the budget through your own CPM and conversion rate.
6. Get search right first. Sponsored ads reach shoppers who are already looking. If those campaigns are not yet profitable at the margin, an upper-funnel channel adds cost rather than fixing it.

Common mistakes

• Comparing DSP ROAS with Sponsored Products ROAS. One credits views, the other only clicks.
• Treating attributed sales as incremental. Retargeting in particular reaches shoppers who were already close to buying.
• Buying the cheapest CPM. Low viewability can make the lowest quote the most expensive line.
• Running DSP retargeting and Sponsored Display on the same products during a test. Both can claim the same sale, so neither result can be read.
• Leaving the spend out of your profit figures. A DSP invoice paid outside the sponsored ads console still comes off your margin.

How it relates to adjacent terms

• Sponsored Display is the self-service display product in the sponsored ads console. Amazon's DVA+ page now folds it into one campaign type with DSP and Sponsored TV, so far for limited advertisers in the US.
• Impressions are what DSP sells, so read them with viewability beside them.
• TACoS divides all ad spend by all sales, which makes it the fairest common ruler across DSP and sponsored ads.

How Shurq helps

Shurq does not create, manage or report DSP or DVA+ campaigns. It works with Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display, next to your Seller Central sales and fees. For a DSP test it keeps the spend inside your profit picture:

• Count the invoice as ad spend. A custom expense in Shurq can be marked Count as advertising cost. Shurq then adds it to total ad spend, so it lands in TACoS and in contribution after advertising instead of a separate spreadsheet.
• Watch total and organic sales. The dashboard splits sponsored and organic sales and charts TACoS and break-even ACoS over time, which is the before, during and after view a DSP flight should be judged on.