Amazon has replaced Ad Console, its long-standing interface for buying and managing campaigns, with Amazon Ads Agent. It has also merged its DSP into the same agent-driven surface. Advertisers now describe what they want in plain language, and the agent recommends, builds and optimises the campaign. If your team runs Sponsored Ads or programmatic on Amazon, the console they learned is no longer the front door, and the default workflow is now agentic.
What Amazon announced at unBoxed
The changes were unveiled at Amazon’s annual unBoxed advertising event in San Francisco. According to AdExchanger’s breakdown of the DSP overhaul, the “Amazon DSP” name has gone. It is replaced by DVA, short for display, video and audio. The Ads console and the DSP are being merged and rebranded as Amazon Ads Agent. Ads Agent first appeared at last year’s event as a chat-based helper. Kelly MacLean, Amazon Ads’ VP of science, engineering and product, said that same agentic intelligence now powers “the entire advertising experience”. She told ADWEEK that the change isn’t simply a rebrand, because agents are integrated into the workflows themselves.
The default campaign type is now DVA+. Amazon’s own announcement describes it as a single buying experience that combines Sponsored Display, Sponsored TV and programmatic campaigns, which were previously managed separately. You pick a goal (sales, traffic or awareness), add products and creative, set a budget and launch. DVA+ then chooses between Brand+ (prospecting and branding) and Performance+ (bottom-funnel conversions) based on that objective. It places ads across streaming TV, online video, display and audio, on Amazon properties and the open internet. Experienced buyers can toggle into “advanced settings” to get the familiar controls: targeting, deals, supply sources, frequency caps and bidding strategies.
Two other changes stand out. The agent now keeps context as you move between pages and campaigns, and between DSP and sponsored buying, which previously had separate workflows and sign-ins. A new product called Full-Funnel Campaigns is aimed at smaller sellers who want to reach streaming TV and audio without becoming experts in formats and supply sources. Video creative can be generated inside the workflow. With approval, the platform can also auto-generate a media plan and auto-optimise the campaign once it’s live. Planning and forecasting are still in development this year.
Why this is more than a UI change
Defaults decide behaviour. When the AI-driven campaign type is the starting point and the manual controls sit behind a toggle, most advertisers will take the default. Amazon is betting that natural language becomes the primary way commercial advertising is bought, and it has redesigned the product so that the bet holds unless you actively opt out.
The angle we think is under-discussed is data. Google has search intent and Meta has social behaviour. Amazon has purchase behaviour, and it says DVA+ draws on trillions of shopping, browsing and streaming signals. A plain-language brief such as “launch a new SKU to lapsed customers ahead of Christmas” carries far more information about commercial intent than clicks in a form. Amazon hasn’t said how it uses agent conversations. Even so, an interface that captures intent in words, sitting on top of transaction data, is a hard position for competitors to match.
For Irish, UK and EU sellers, the opportunity is real. Streaming TV and audio have been out of reach for many small brands because of the setup complexity, and Full-Funnel Campaigns targets exactly that. The sources don’t detail regional rollout timing, so check what your marketplace accounts actually show. The risk is quieter: when the agent plans, buys, optimises and reports, Amazon grades its own homework.
What to do now
- Write the brief before you open the agent. Define the product, the audience, the margin you can afford and what success means. The agent handles setup, but these strategic calls are still yours.
- Run a control. Put one comparable campaign through advanced settings alongside DVA+ so you have a baseline that isn’t entirely automated.
- Keep measurement you own. Export results into your own reporting and reconcile them against actual sales and margin, not only Amazon’s attribution.
- Set rules for what goes into the chat. Treat prompts as data you’re sharing with a vendor, and apply the same data security and privacy practices you’d use on any AI project.
- If you build on Amazon Ads tooling, audit your dependencies. Confirm what the console and DSP changes mean for your integrations rather than assuming nothing moved.
The broader lesson is one we apply to every client system. Don’t let a vendor’s interface become your only memory of what worked. Keep the briefs, the results and the learnings in a layer you control, so that each campaign makes the next one smarter for you as well as for Amazon. That is how you build systems that compound, even when the platform underneath changes overnight.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I still run Amazon campaigns manually?
Yes. Amazon Ads Agent includes an "advanced settings" toggle that gives the traditional DSP-style controls: targeting, deals, supply sources, frequency caps and bidding strategies. DVA+ is the default unless you toggle out of it.
What is the difference between DVA+, Brand+ and Performance+?
DVA+ is the AI-based campaign type that combines Sponsored Display, Sponsored TV and programmatic buying. It uses Brand+ for branding and prospecting or Performance+ for sales and conversions, choosing between them based on your campaign objective.
What are Full-Funnel Campaigns?
Full-Funnel Campaigns is a new Amazon product designed to help smaller advertisers and sellers expand into channels such as streaming TV and audio. They don't need expertise in the formats and supply sources involved.
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