By Carl Wartzack, CEO, WBX
Amazon just confirmed what many in the industry have been anticipating: its demand-side platform (DSP) is now fully featured. That statement, delivered by CEO Andy Jassy during Amazon’s Q3 earnings call, wasn’t just an operational update; it was a signal.
Amazon has quietly transformed its DSP from a retail media buying tool into one of the most powerful advertising ecosystems in the world. With integrations spanning Roku, Netflix, Spotify, SiriusXM, and Prime Video’s live sports, Amazon’s ad business is now firing on every cylinder, and the numbers prove it.
Advertising revenue grew 24% year over year to $17.7 billion in Q3, outpacing nearly every other segment in the company. That’s more than just growth; it’s momentum at scale.
From Retail Media to Full-Funnel Dominance
For years, Amazon Ads was synonymous with product search and lower-funnel conversion. Those days are gone. The DSP’s evolution now gives marketers a truly full-funnel platform, from brand storytelling on Prime Video to shoppable media that converts directly inside Amazon’s ecosystem.
This shift mirrors a broader trend across digital marketing: brands want fewer silos and more integration. Amazon’s pitch is simple: reach, measure, and convert all in one place. For marketers, it’s an appealing proposition: real-time attribution, first-party commerce data, and massive reach across 300 million ad-supported users in the U.S. alone.
At WBX, we’ve seen how this shift impacts the brands we work with. Campaigns that once focused narrowly on sponsored products are now layered with video, display, and programmatic, delivering a more connected customer journey. The DSP’s maturity means advertisers can finally approach Amazon with the same full-funnel strategy they bring to YouTube or Meta.
AI Is Reshaping the Creative and Measurement Layer
Amazon’s growing strength isn’t just about scale; it’s about intelligence. Its new generative AI-powered Creative Studio agent, launched in September, is designed to help marketers research, build, and deploy campaigns faster.
Paired with AI-driven image, video, and audio tools, this system collapses the traditional workflow between ideation, creative production, and activation. For brands managing thousands of SKUs or seasonal campaigns, it’s a major unlock: speed and personalization at scale.
Meanwhile, Rufus, Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, is quietly redefining commerce behavior. With 250 million active customers and a 60% higher purchase likelihood among users, Rufus is proving that AI isn’t just enhancing advertising, it’s influencing consumer decision-making directly.
The Live Sports Advantage
Amazon’s investments in live sports are turning Prime Video into more than a streaming platform; it’s a premium ad destination. With NFL and NBA broadcasts, the company now offers advertisers the same kind of appointment-based reach once reserved for linear television, but with data precision that TV never had.
During this year’s upfronts, Amazon exceeded expectations with “particularly strong commitments” from independent agencies – proof that advertisers are betting big on its ability to blend mass reach with measurable results.
The WBX View: Advertising’s Next Operating System
From our perspective at WBX, what Amazon is building isn’t just an ad platform; it’s an operating system for modern marketing.
It connects commerce, content, and conversion into one unified ecosystem powered by AI and fueled by first-party data. For performance marketers, that’s the holy grail.
But it also comes with a strategic choice: as Amazon’s system becomes more complete, advertisers need to decide how much of their marketing stack they want to entrust to one platform. The balance between efficiency and independence will define the next phase of digital advertising.
Still, one thing is clear. Amazon’s ad business is no longer emerging. It’s leading.
And the rest of the industry is now playing catch-up.
Contact WBX
Ready to see how your brand can leverage Amazon’s full-funnel DSP capabilities? Reach out to the WBX Commerce team, and together, let’s build what’s next.