Amazon’s Demand-Side Platform (DSP) is rapidly becoming one of the most effective tools for driving measurable business growth across both on-Amazon and off-Amazon channels. While many brands still view DSP as a brand awareness vehicle, its most powerful function lies in leveraging Amazon’s unmatched audience data to accelerate revenue. This guide explores how advertisers are using Amazon DSP to convert shopper insights into high-performing campaigns that boost conversions, customer lifetime value, and overall profitability.
Amazon DSP allows advertisers to buy display, video, and audio ads programmatically across Amazon-owned properties (like IMDb, Twitch, Fire TV, and Amazon.com) as well as third-party websites and apps. What makes it exceptional for performance marketing is Amazon’s first-party shopper data — drawn from billions of real purchase and search behaviors.
With this data, advertisers can target people who are actively considering or purchasing products similar to theirs, or who’ve shown intent signals across the Amazon ecosystem. This precision makes DSP a powerful driver for not just awareness, but also conversion and revenue acceleration.
According to Adbrew’s Amazon DSP guide, brands that integrate DSP into their performance stack can reach audiences far beyond Amazon search ads — including high-intent shoppers who might never directly search for the product. By uniting DSP with Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands, advertisers build a full-funnel approach that fuels both visibility and sales velocity.
The true advantage of DSP lies in how it activates Amazon’s audience data for real-world results. Amazon offers several pre-built and custom audience segments based on shopping, viewing, and purchase history, allowing brands to tailor campaigns around the buyer’s journey.
Here’s how advanced brands are converting that data into dollars:
Retargeting is one of DSP’s fastest paths to revenue acceleration. It enables brands to re-engage shoppers who viewed a product or brand on Amazon but didn’t convert.
For example, an electronics brand can use DSP to serve video or display ads to shoppers who viewed its laptop listings but left without purchasing. A few days later, those same users might see a compelling offer while reading tech news or watching content on IMDb. By reconnecting with warm audiences through multiple touchpoints, brands close more sales at lower cost.
As My Amazon Guy notes, DSP retargeting often yields a lower cost per acquisition (CPA) compared to pure search ads — because the audience has already expressed interest and just needs a nudge to buy.
Amazon’s “similar audiences” or lookalike segments use machine learning to identify new potential customers who resemble your existing buyers. By modeling shopper profiles from your first-party data, Amazon can help you reach more users likely to convert.
For instance, a beauty brand can upload a list of past purchasers through the Amazon Ads Tag or its CRM integration, and DSP will find users with similar behaviors. These campaigns extend your reach efficiently without diluting targeting precision.
Lifestyle segments, on the other hand, group users by ongoing habits — such as “fitness enthusiasts,” “pet owners,” or “eco-conscious consumers.” By combining lifestyle targeting with product-level ads, brands generate awareness among shoppers whose day-to-day interests align with their product category.
This balance between lookalike and lifestyle data allows advertisers to expand top-funnel reach while preserving relevance — fueling long-term growth beyond search-based marketing.
In-market audiences are users who’ve recently shown strong intent to purchase within a product category. For example, if a user has viewed multiple kitchen appliance listings or compared blenders on Amazon, DSP classifies them as “in-market” for kitchenware.
Running ads to these shoppers — both on and off Amazon — means you’re targeting people already in a buying mindset. When paired with contextual targeting (ads that appear alongside related content, like an article about home cooking), this approach drives immediate purchase actions.
According to Nozzle.ai, brands using contextual + in-market strategies report higher clickthrough and conversion rates because the ads appear at the exact moment of purchase consideration.
Amazon DSP allows advertisers to bring their own customer data into Amazon’s ecosystem. By integrating first-party audiences (from CRM systems, email lists, or website visitors), brands can merge their internal insights with Amazon’s retail signals for deeper personalization.
For example, a D2C apparel brand can upload a list of lapsed customers and use DSP to target those users with new seasonal offers. Or a subscription company might cross-reference its churn list against Amazon audiences to win back lost customers through tailored display ads.
As Tinuiti highlights, layering CRM data with Amazon’s behavioral data enhances targeting accuracy and helps maximize ad spend efficiency — turning what was once basic remarketing into a high-performance revenue engine.
Advanced advertisers are now combining DSP data with Amazon Marketing Cloud to unlock multi-touch attribution and performance insights. AMC allows brands to analyze the entire customer journey — from the first impression to the final sale — across both DSP and Sponsored Ads.
This level of visibility helps marketers identify which audience segments, creatives, and placements contribute most to conversions. It also enables the creation of custom audience segments based on real user behavior (e.g., “users who saw a video ad, then purchased within 7 days”).
By connecting AMC and DSP, brands can not only track ROI but also continuously refine their targeting strategies for higher efficiency and scalability.
Skale Strategy, a full-service Amazon agency, shared a case where a client — a footwear brand — achieved a 96% year-over-year sales growth by combining DSP audience retargeting with a delayed launch strategy.
Rather than flooding Amazon with all product variations at once, the brand focused on building awareness within a specific subcategory using DSP display and video ads. Once those audiences were warmed up, the new styles launched on Amazon and via the brand’s own D2C site.
The results: increased new-to-brand purchases, stronger Amazon listing performance, and a DSP campaign return on ad spend (ROAS) of 5.49. This illustrates how DSP can function as a sales accelerator when connected to a thoughtful product rollout plan.
Amazon DSP is most effective when brands have:
For advertisers meeting these conditions, DSP transforms from a top-of-funnel branding tool into a direct driver of bottom-line revenue. As Skai notes, the best-performing DSP campaigns “build continuity between brand awareness, product discovery, and purchase intent — creating a seamless journey for shoppers.”
Amazon DSP’s strength lies not just in reach, but in its ability to connect intent signals with actionable marketing. Brands that learn to interpret and deploy Amazon’s audience data — from behavioral and in-market segments to CRM-driven lookalikes — unlock consistent sales growth.
Used strategically, DSP campaigns deliver measurable revenue acceleration by aligning creative, targeting, and timing with real consumer behavior. When combined with Sponsored Ads and AMC insights, the platform provides a full view of what drives purchases across channels.
Simply put: Amazon DSP gives brands the power to turn audience data into sales momentum — converting insights into profit, and browsers into loyal buyers.
