Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) is Amazon's programmatic advertising system for reaching consumers on Amazon-owned or partnered properties beyond standard on-site search results — e.g., Twitch, Prime Video, partnered news sites, even non-Amazon inboxes like Outlook. DSP campaigns are typically seeded with audiences defined in Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) rather than plain keywords.
In a four-stage funnel model (top / mid / bottom-funnel / cross-sell "crosser"), DSP's real value sits at top- and mid-funnel awareness, since bottom-funnel conversion and some cross-sell are already served by Sponsored Products. See New-to-Brand as the DSP Success Metric for how to judge whether a DSP campaign is actually operating at that level rather than duplicating cheaper retargeting.
Direct-with-Amazon DSP access historically required a high monthly minimum; agencies now aggregate multiple clients' spend under one larger direct commitment, letting individual sellers buy into a shared seat at a much lower monthly cost. DSP can also be run through self-serve automation software, but templated execution is described as achieving only a baseline result compared to audience work built from AMC queries.
Demographic data from the Brand Analytics customer avatar can be fed directly into DSP audience targeting.
Apply: For consumables brands especially — where repeat-purchase economics via LACoS (Lifetime ACOS) and Lifetime TACOS make acquiring the right customer worth more than for a one-time-purchase brand — prioritize building DSP audiences from the customer avatar rather than DSP's default targeting suggestions.
The Find My tracker brand stood up an Amazon DSP program a few months before this interview, with a dedicated team whose targeting approach is aligned to the same strategy as the brand's PPC manager — rather than running DSP as an independent, siloed channel.
Apply: Once a brand has scale to justify DSP, don't spin it up as a silo — coordinate DSP audience/targeting strategy with the existing PPC team's priorities (e.g. the same branded-defense and category-domination goals) so both channels reinforce each other.