At its flagship unBoxed conference in San Francisco this week, Amazon Ads announced a significant restructuring of its advertising platform, collapsing previously separate buying workflows into unified tools. The company renamed its unified platform Amazon Ads Agent and launched Full-Funnel Campaigns, which combines sponsored ads, display, video and streaming TV within a single campaign. The company also introduced DVA+, which consolidates Sponsored Display, Sponsored TV and programmatic display, video and audio buying into one experience.
Both products exemplify Amazon's broader strategy of moving AI from a feature within buying tools to a central role in how advertisers operate them. In Full-Funnel Campaigns, advertisers specify products, creative, and budget while Amazon's AI determines execution and continuously optimizes toward outcomes including new-to-brand customers and long-term sales metrics. DVA+ offers a simplified mode where advertisers select an objective, budget and creative while Amazon handles targeting and optimization, though experienced buyers can switch to advanced settings to retain control over targeting, deals, supply sources, frequency and bidding. For commerce practitioners, the key tension is that while automation reduces operational complexity and expands programmatic access to smaller advertisers without dedicated teams, advertisers in Full-Funnel Campaigns cannot select individual channels or specific audiences, and Amazon is still working on audience transparency.
These announcements arrive while Amazon's advertising business faces regulatory scrutiny; in August, the Federal Trade Commission and 22 state attorneys general sued Amazon, alleging the company secretly used surcharges in its advertising auctions that resulted in Sponsored Products advertisers paying over the odds on the platform. Market observers advise caution when assessing Amazon's claims, particularly regarding transparency in auction mechanics and fee structures as previously separate buying systems are consolidated.