Before you decide whether to run Amazon DSP... You need to answer a more fundame
By Adam Weiler · October 7, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Before you decide whether to run Amazon DSP...
You need to answer a more fundamental question.
Do you believe Amazon is a discovery channel?
Or is it a commit channel?
Here's what I mean:
If shoppers go to Amazon with intent already formed — brand in mind, decision mostly made, just confirming — then DSP's upper-funnel targeting is reaching people who've already completed their journey.
You're not influencing them. You're following them around after they've already decided.
In that case, your first-touch investment belongs somewhere else entirely. Meta. TikTok. Connected TV. The places where people are open to discovering something new.
Amazon dollars should be concentrated on one thing: capturing the intent that already exists.
Now... DSP does have a real use case. Retargeting people who've viewed your detail page in the last 14-30 days is legitimate. Those are warm shoppers who didn't convert. Following up on that audience makes sense.
But here's the sequence most brands skip:
1️⃣ Max out Sponsored Display first
Same audience targeting capabilities. Fraction of the cost. Most brands are spending 1% of their ad budget here. That's not a DSP problem — that's a Sponsored Display opportunity you haven't touched.
2️⃣ Test CPM bidding on display
If your current display setup runs on low CPC bids, try a CPM model to see if you can reach a meaningfully bigger audience at a cost that still works.
3️⃣ When you've hit the ceiling on Sponsored Display targeting... that's when DSP earns the conversation.
Not before.
DSP isn't a bad product. It's a product that gets sold too early, to brands who haven't exhausted cheaper options with the same audiences first.
Do you think Amazon is where your customers discover your brand — or where they confirm a decision they already made?