It has been a few months since I posted here. A conversation yesterday with Jeff
By Michaeldweck36 · November 4, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
It has been a few months since I posted here.
A conversation yesterday with Jeff Cohen pulled me back.
Jeff and I crossed paths at Amazon. What I valued most about those years was the people: smart, direct, and willing to push each other on every assumption. Yesterday felt the same.
We spent most of the time on retail media. Tooling, where the budget is moving, and how Amazon is pushing advertisers beyond Sponsored Ads into DSP and full-funnel campaigns.
One theme stayed with me.
Amazon just unified its ad tools. Sponsored Ads and DSP now live in one buying experience. What it has not unified is Ads and Retail.
I sat on both sides of that wall, first as a Vendor Manager, then in Amazon Ads. The two teams are built to optimize different outcomes. Ads grows advertising. Retail protects margin, in-stock, and price. Both are right, and neither owns the full picture of a brand's business.
So the brand has to own it. Every dollar moving from Sponsored Ads into DSP should answer to the same question as a wholesale cost or a referral fee: what does it do to contribution margin per unit?
The tools are converging. The P&L is still yours to connect.
Jeff, thanks for the time. Looking forward to the next one.
#RetailMedia #AmazonAds #Amazon Skai