📣 Advertising (SPA and DSP)

About This Section

The Advertising section covers emax digital's analytics for your paid Amazon advertising across two worlds:

• Sponsored Ads (SPA) — Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Brands Video, and Sponsored Display. These ads run inside the Amazon marketplace (search results and product detail pages). Covered by the 360 Sponsored Ads Report and its drill-downs, plus Campaign Overview, ASIN Performance — Campaign Level, Ad Eligibility, and Duplicate Search.

• Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) — programmatic display, video, and audio advertising that reaches shoppers both on and off Amazon. Covered by the 360 DSP Report and its drill-downs (DSP Site Report, DSP Targeting Analysis, DSP ASIN Performance, DSP ASIN Performance per Line Item).

For the per-dashboard documentation, use the child pages of this section. The rest of this page provides the conceptual background you need to interpret those dashboards — what DSP is, how it differs from Sponsored Ads, and the building blocks of a DSP campaign (audiences, inventory, creatives).

Sponsored Ads (SPA) — Background

Sponsored Ads (SPA) are the paid ad formats that run inside the Amazon marketplace. emax digital documents them through the 360 Sponsored Ads Report and its drill-downs. The campaign types covered are:

• Sponsored Products (SP) — keyword- and product-targeted ads that promote individual listings in search results and on product detail pages.

• Sponsored Brands (SB) — banner-style ads featuring your brand logo, a custom headline, and multiple products.

• Sponsored Brands Video (SBV) — video creatives within the Sponsored Brands family.

• Sponsored Display (SD) — display ads that can target audiences both on and off Amazon (product detail pages, the Amazon home page, and beyond).

Reading the Advertising dashboards: filters

In the Advertising dashboards you can filter by:

• Reporting Range — choose between a yearly, monthly, or weekly view.

• Reporting Period — select the specific week, month, or year you want to look at.

• Marketplace — select the marketplace.

• Currency — select the currency.

• Adv Profile ID — select the advertising profile (useful when you have both a seller and a vendor advertising profile in the same marketplace).

• DSP Advertiser ID — select the DSP advertiser profile (same benefit for DSP).

Executive Summary

The executive summary gives an overview of all important advertising KPIs for the chosen timeframe and marketplace. Two key definitions: ACoS = Advertising Cost of Sales; ROAS = Return on Ad Spend.

• Column chart — shows the development of your Ad Sales compared with your Ad Spend and ACoS.

• Summary table — an overall overview of all KPIs relevant to your Sponsored Ads and/or DSP performance. To get a better understanding of spend pacing and revenue-goal achievement, fill out your Budget and Goals in the Ad Planner (see Setting Advertising Goals).

What the SPA drill-downs let you do

From the 360 Sponsored Ads Report you can analyse performance on a deep level — by campaign type and targeting method — and understand product attribution (how many sales came from promoted vs. HALO ASINs). The campaign tables show which campaigns are performing well and which should be optimised. Click into a campaign to analyse it on ASIN level, see which ASINs are included, and review the performance of all keywords and targeted ASINs.

Amazon DSP — Background & Concepts

What Is Amazon DSP?

Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) is an advertising solution that lets advertisers programmatically buy display and video ad placements across the Amazon ecosystem and beyond. Unlike Sponsored Ads, which appear only within Amazon's marketplace, DSP ads can be shown across a wide network of websites, apps, and off-Amazon platforms.

How Amazon DSP works

• Audience targeting — select from targeting options such as demographics, purchase behaviour, and interests, or build custom audience segments.

• Ad formats — display, video, and audio ads designed to capture attention.

• Bidding & budgeting — set budgets and bidding strategies; Amazon DSP uses real-time bidding to reach the right audience at the right time.

• Ad placements — ads run on Amazon-owned sites and on third-party sites, apps, and devices, on and off the Amazon network.

DSP vs. Sponsored Ads

When to use Amazon DSP

• Reach a broader audience beyond the Amazon platform.

• Build brand awareness and promote products at scale.

• Use advanced targeting options for precision advertising.

• Run retargeting campaigns to re-engage shoppers who showed interest.

DSP Strategic Approaches

Define your objective clearly, choose tactics that align with it, and optimise continuously on performance data.

Understanding DSP Audience Targeting

Amazon DSP audiences are specific user groups built from behavioural and demographic data, enabling precise ad targeting.

Types of audiences:

• Behavioural targeting — reach users based on online behaviours (searches, views, clicks).

• Audience targeting — use Amazon's customer data to target segments by demographics, interests, and purchase history.

• Contextual targeting — display ads based on the content/context of the web page.

• Retargeting — re-engage users who previously interacted with your brand.

Standard audiences that tend to perform well:

• Similar audiences — users resembling your existing customers.

• In-market audiences — users actively researching products in specific categories.

• Life-events targeting — users experiencing significant life events (moving, marriage, new baby).

Strategic approaches: define clear objectives; leverage behavioural insights; segment effectively; A/B test and optimise; combine targeting strategies; and use DCO for relevance at scale.

Understanding DSP Inventory

DSP ads can be served across four broad inventory types:

• Amazon Owned & Operated (O&O) — prime advertising real estate on Amazon's own platforms. High-intent shopping audience, diverse placements (product detail pages, search results), and Prime member targeting.

• Amazon devices (limited to certain marketplaces) — Kindle (US only), Fire tablets (US, DE, UK), and Fire TV. Immersive formats, device-specific targeting, and Connected TV advertising via Fire TV.

• Third-party exchanges and SSPs — extend reach beyond Amazon across a wide array of websites and apps; supports cross-channel campaigns and contextual targeting.

• Publisher partnerships — premium inventory on high-traffic sites/apps, with niche audience targeting, brand safety, and customised creative.

Best practices: align objectives with inventory; use the right targeting options; analyse performance regularly; and experiment with creative formats.

DSP Creatives

Amazon DSP creatives come in several formats, each suited to specific objectives:

• Display ads — visuals shown on websites and apps. Includes Standard display (consolidates creative types across desktop, mobile, Amazon and external inventory) and Responsive E-commerce Creative (REC) (size-responsive ads built from your product page ASIN details).

• Video ads — engaging video content to tell your brand story or showcase products.

• Custom creatives — tailored formats for unique campaign goals.

• Audio — compatible with Amazon-owned and third-party audio and podcast inventory.

Creative specifications are published by Amazon — see Amazon's Creative specs reference. DSP campaigns can appear on the Amazon home page, in Amazon search, and on product detail pages, among other placements.

Related Pages

• 360 DSP Report — the full-funnel DSP dashboard and its drill-downs.

• 360 Sponsored Ads Report (SPA) — the Sponsored Ads dashboard and its drill-downs.

• Marketing Cloud (AMC) — cross-channel funnel and audience analysis.

• KPI Glossary — definitions of advertising KPIs (CPC, CPM, CTR, ROAS, ECPM, New-to-Brand, and more).