Amazon caps its automated DVA+ campaigns at 20 products

Amazon Ads has set out, step by step, how campaigns are now built in the product that replaced the Amazon DSP name. A Support Center guide titled "Create a DVA+ campaign," updated on November 13, 2026, describes three ways to build a Display, Video, and Audio campaign: an automated DVA+ flow, a one-form workspace called DVA+ advanced, and a legacy mode that keeps the old campaign, ad group and ad workflows apart. The automated flow accepts up to 20 products per campaign, draws on seven objectives depending on account eligibility, and runs ads across display, online video and streaming TV with optimization switched on by default.

In Short

Amazon has updated its help guide for building DVA+ campaigns, the display, video and streaming TV buying product that took over from Amazon DSP, and it now describes three routes in: a mostly automated flow, an advanced one-form workspace and a legacy mode. It matters to sellers, brands and agencies buying those ads through Amazon, because the guide shows how much the automated route decides on its own, from creative assembly to targeting, and where manual controls still sit. In practice, the automated flow takes up to 20 products, location targeting only works with off-Amazon objectives, changing a KPI after launch resets what the campaign has learned, and the guide gives conflicting instructions on whether clicking Launch in the advanced workspace actually puts a campaign live.

Three routes to one campaign type

The guide opens with a menu. "There are several tools available to create DVA+ campaigns," according to Amazon, and it names three.

DVA+ is the default. According to the page, "DVA+ is the simplified buying experience and optimized workflow for creating Display, Video, and Audio campaigns." The advertiser defines an objective, sets a budget, chooses products or a brand URL, picks conversion events and supplies creatives. "The system builds the rest of the campaign and optimizes it towards your objective," the guide states.

DVA+ advanced keeps the controls that programmatic buyers used in the old demand-side platform, but changes the order in which they are set. Instead of building a campaign, an ad group and an ad separately and then linking them, the advertiser fills in "one connected form," according to Amazon. Three aids stay available throughout, according to the guide: Amazon Ads Agent, a Campaign structure panel and Campaign guidance.

Legacy mode is the third route. "Legacy mode is the traditional method of creating DVA+," the guide says, in which campaign, ad group and ads are created "in separate workflows" and then linked. The phrasing is odd for a product that is about six weeks old. Amazon introduced DVA+ on September 29, 2026, and the "traditional method" being described appears to be the campaign and line item workflow of the former Amazon DSP under new names.

Getting to the advanced workspace takes four clicks: Create campaign in the side menu, Display, Video, and Audio campaigns, the "DVA+ with advanced settings" tab on the Display, Video, and Audio card, and then Create campaign. Some advertisers will not need to do that. The guide's wording is: "Based on your account history, you may automatically be routed to DVA+ advanced." An Advanced settings toggle sits at the top right of the screen, filled in with a check mark when the setting is on; switching between the two versions means clicking the toggle, reading a disclaimer and clicking Switch. In the illustration accompanying those steps, a "Switch to legacy" link sits next to the toggle.

Access has been described differently over time. When DVA+ launched, PPC Land reported that advertisers with programmatic experience received both tiers, while new advertisers and Sponsored Ads advertisers received the automated DVA+ only and had to ask an account manager for advanced settings. On October 29, Amazon's own DVA+ product page still described the advanced tier as available to a limited set of US advertisers. The November 13 guide refers only to routing by account history.

The automated flow, step by step

The default DVA+ path now runs to five numbered steps, plus one optional section. At launch in September, Amazon described a four-step builder: pick an objective, select products or a brand URL, review AI-generated creatives, set a budget. The guide splits the last step in two, campaign settings and a separate launch, and adds detail that the launch material did not carry. Set against PPC Land's account of the September 29 launch, the differences are these:

Seven objectives, shown by eligibility

A chat interface is present from the first screen. According to the guide, the conversational experience "is always available throughout campaign creation" and offers recommendations. The system also recommends an objective, though any objective shown on screen can be chosen. That choice decides how delivery is optimized, which conversion events are tracked and which performance metrics are reported.

For advertisers who sell products on Amazon, which is the account requirement the page sets for this group, the guide lists three objectives:

The Traffic detail deserves attention. An advertiser who picks that objective is shown a cost per detail page view but cannot instruct the system to hit a particular figure.

On eligibility, the page's wording is: "DVA+ supports 7 objectives total, but you will only see the objectives you're eligible to optimize for based on your account type and settings."

Twenty products, three ways in

The cap is explicit. The guide's wording is: "You can add your products manually or use the conversational experience. Select up to 20 products that you want to advertise." There are three ways to enter them. A search box takes a product name or ASIN, with an Add click for each product. An "Enter list" field takes multiple ASINs separated by commas, spaces or new lines. A CSV template can be downloaded, edited and uploaded again.

For a brand with a handful of hero products, 20 is unlikely to bind. For a seller with hundreds of variations or a large catalogue, advertising more than 20 products through this flow means more than one campaign. The advanced workspace, described below, offers a choice between featuring a product and featuring all of its variations.

Creative assembled by the system

Format selection is not a step. "DVA+ campaigns automatically run across multiple ad formats," according to the guide, naming Display, Online Video (OLV) and Streaming TV, "with interactive features and optimization enabled by default."

Creative is assembled for the advertiser. The system builds recommended creatives from the selected products, brand assets, landing page and campaign goal, and "DVA+ provides AI tools to generate missing ad formats," the page says. An advertiser without video assets, in other words, can have them generated. Assets can also be uploaded, picked from an existing asset library, or customized. Reviewing them happens in a carousel of image and video previews, where a trash icon deletes an ad and an edit button opens it. The step carries three tabs: "Review creative assets," "Upload your own ads" and "Generate video assets."

Location targeting, off Amazon only

Targeting in DVA+ is automated. The rule, in the page's words: "DVA+ campaigns use automated targeting to optimize for your goal, but you have the option to add location targeting if you're using an off-Amazon objective." Location is the only manual targeting layer the default flow documents. Advertisers using one of those objectives can search for a postal code, city, state or region, designated market area, or country, then click Add. Radius and file-upload options appear as tabs beside the location search. An advertiser on an on-Amazon objective has no location option in this flow at all.

Settings and launch

The fourth step is housekeeping: a name, start and end dates, and a budget that can be edited while the campaign runs. Three budget types are offered - monthly, daily or lifetime. The fifth step is a single instruction: click Launch campaign at the top of the screen.

Inside DVA+ advanced

The advanced workspace is where most of the guide's length goes, and most of its detail. Changes are saved in draft status as the campaign is built.

Settings, goals and a KPI that resets learning

Campaign settings start with a name, and the rule is stated plainly: "The name can't be changed after your campaign ends." An optional purchase order number tracks performance; for advertisers in Europe, the guide says, the same ID is used as the PO number printed on invoices. Optional comments record changes and are visible only within the ads console.

Goals come in three kinds - awareness, consideration or conversion - and the goal determines which key performance indicators are available. Here the guide includes one of its most consequential sentences for anyone running live campaigns. The page's wording: "You can change your KPI after launch, but this resets your campaign's performance learnings and may impact optimization." Swapping a reach KPI for a conversion KPI partway through a campaign, in other words, sends the optimization back to the start.

Once a KPI is chosen, an optimization strategy appears. It has two parts. Bidding priority determines how Amazon ranks ads to win impressions for the campaign, and the budget management system controls whether the budget is optimized automatically or managed manually.

Conversion tracking and responsive ads

Conversion tracking is set before launch, and the guide explains why. "Adding the right products ensures accurate attribution, supports dynamic creatives, and prevents data loss once the campaign begins," according to the page. Advertisers choose between Products and Off-Amazon conversions. Products are added by the same three methods as in the automated flow - search, list or CSV upload - and the guide adds a constraint: "Your products won't appear here if their ASIN is inactive or out of stock." For items with variations, the advertiser decides whether to feature the single product or all variations.

A checkbox labelled "Automatically create responsive ads" generates a responsive eCommerce (REC) creative for eligible featured ASINs. That creative can be updated at any time, according to the guide.

Commitments, budgets and caps

Commitments are spending agreements between buyers - agencies and brands - and sellers, meaning publishers, in Display, Video, and Audio inventory. Each commitment tracks the agreed spending amount, the time period for spending and the associated deal IDs, according to the guide. Amazon launched a Commitments Hub for this kind of publisher spend tracking in September 2025.

Budgets are set per flight, defined on the page as "the time period during which ad groups associated with this campaign will deliver." A budget cap can limit spending per calendar day or per calendar month; applied partway through a day or month, it covers only the remaining time. Amazon is direct about the cap. A tip on the page reads, in full: "Unless you need a strict spend limit, avoid using budget caps, they can cause under-delivery by blocking full budget use."

Agency fees appear as a line in the same section, defined as "the markups or margins that agencies, resellers, and partners charge advertiser clients for managing their Display, Video, and Audio campaigns." Two days before this guide was updated, Amazon put manager-account agency fees into open beta and set January 31, 2027 as the last day for the legacy per-campaign fee.

Frequency

A frequency cap sets the maximum number of times a customer can see ads, and the guide leaves no campaign without one: "If you don't set a frequency cap, a default will be set." Up to three frequency capping rules can be set per ad group; the guide's wording is "You can set up to 3 frequency caps per ad group at the user or household level." Frequency groups, which are optional, apply one shared limit across several campaigns, and "Only active groups can be added to a campaign."

Recommended ad groups from Brand+ and Performance+

The workspace can build ad groups itself. Once goal, KPI and conversion tracking are complete, the advertiser chooses media types, and recommended ad groups appear beneath them based on Brand+ and Performance+ tactics - Amazon's two AI-managed campaign products, which launched in 2024 as AI-powered campaign management inside Amazon DSP. The advertiser selects the groups wanted, clicks "Add ad groups and link creatives," and associates existing creatives with each group. Creatives can be assigned in bulk; if the selected groups span different media types, only those supporting the creative's format receive it. A new creative has to be uploaded in the campaign manager first.

Streaming TV gets a separate mechanism. "For Streaming TV media, you can auto-generate ad groups based on deals and inventory sources," the guide states. Automation of streaming TV deal selection has been building through the year: Amazon DSP's automatic deal selection for streaming TV launched in April 2026, and in July, Brand+ moved to automatic deal selection by default for new streaming TV prospecting lines.

Ad groups, the health score and the Launch button

Brand+, Performance+ and inventory-based ad groups arrive with all required settings completed by the system, which can be edited or removed. A campaign health widget predicts whether the campaign will deliver its planned budget. Saving does not activate anything; according to the page, "Saving your campaign does not mean it's active." A Campaign structure panel shows the campaign and ad group hierarchy throughout and allows new ad groups to be created or existing ones managed in bulk.

The last step is a Review page. It summarizes campaign name, country, goal and KPI, total budget, flight dates, budget caps, optimization strategy and status, and lists every ad group on its own card. On arrival, the system "runs a full validation of each ad group against the campaign and flags any issues it finds." Each ad group has a checkbox. Checked groups publish when the campaign launches; unchecked ones stay in draft, and "Draft ad groups will not block your campaign from launching," according to Amazon. The campaign manager then shows a notice that "X ad groups not yet launched."

A delivery confidence score on the campaign health card indicates whether the campaign is predicted to spend according to plan. Budget problems are flagged there; the guide's example is a total allocated across ad groups that exceeds the campaign flight budget. For new draft campaigns, every checked ad group counts toward the score. For active and inactive campaigns, ad groups already running stay in scope by default, and only draft or inactive groups can be checked or unchecked.

Then comes Launch. The condition is set out as: "If your campaign health score is critical, or you have unaddressed recommendations, a warning appears when you click Launch. Acknowledge the warning before you can launch." And launching, according to the page, does not mean delivering: "When you click Launch, your campaign saves and becomes visible on the Campaigns page. It remains inactive until you activate it."

Legacy mode and the managed-service fee

Legacy mode covers much of the same ground in a different order, with a few items the newer flows do not show. An "Amazon deal" option appears among campaign settings. Media types are optional and serve to generate automated line item recommendations; four are listed - Display, Online Video, Streaming TV and Audio, the last described as "Audio ads that serve on streaming audio and podcast inventory." Audio buying is not new to the underlying platform: in June, Amazon added audio as a supported inventory type in its DSP campaign management APIs. Commitments split into inherited commitments and order commitments.

The legacy budget section also names a managed option. "Amazon Ads offers full campaign management support by an internal Amazon Ads team," according to the page. "The managed services fee is a percent-based fee added to the media cost, and invoiced as a separate fee." Legacy campaigns end with a Save click, after which ad groups are built separately.

The documented path, step by step

The guide records the following sequences. They are set out here as Amazon documents them, in the order the page gives.

Reaching DVA+ advanced

1. Create campaign, in the navigation side menu.
2. Display, Video, and Audio campaigns.
3. The "DVA+ with advanced settings" tab on the Display, Video, and Audio card.
4. Create campaign.

Switching between DVA+ and DVA+ advanced takes three actions, according to the page: the Advanced settings toggle at the top right is clicked, a disclaimer is read, and Switch is clicked.

DVA+

1. "Choose an objective" - the system recommends one; seven exist in total, shown by eligibility.
2. "Add what you want to advertise" - up to 20 products, by search, pasted ASIN list or CSV upload.
3. "Upload and review ads" - system-assembled creatives appear in a carousel, with a trash icon to delete and an edit button to change each one.

Between steps 3 and 4 sits an unnumbered, optional section: location targeting, for off-Amazon objectives only. Search for locations is selected, a postal code, city, state or region, DMA or country is searched, and Add includes it; an x removes it.

1. "Campaign settings" - name, start and end dates, and a monthly, daily or lifetime budget.
2. "Launch campaign" - a button at the top of the screen.

DVA+ advanced

1. "Set up your campaign" - campaign settings (name, optional PO number, optional comments); goal, KPI and optimization strategy; conversion tracking (Add conversion tracking, then Products or Off-Amazon conversions, then Apply); commitments; budget and delivery settings; frequency; recommended Brand+ and Performance+ ad groups; inventory-based ad groups for streaming TV; then Continue to ad groups.
2. "Build and customize ad groups" - each ad group's settings are reviewed, the campaign health widget checked, creative associations confirmed, Next saves and moves on, Save stores the campaign in draft, and Continue to review follows.
3. "Manage ad associations" - Add, in the Action column of each creative, then Save.
4. "Review and launch" - campaign overview, ad group summary with full validation, a checkbox per ad group to publish or leave in draft, the campaign health card, then Launch.

Legacy mode

1. Campaign settings - name, PO number, Amazon deal option, comments.
2. Media - optional primary media types: Display, Online Video, Streaming TV, Audio.
3. Goal and optimization - goal, KPI, optimization strategy.
4. Commitments - inherited and order commitments.
5. Budget and delivery - Amazon managed option, budget and flights, budget cap, agency fees.
6. Conversion tracking.
7. Frequency - frequency cap and frequency groups.
8. Save, after which ad groups are created.

What the guide leaves open

The default DVA+ flow lists display, online video and streaming TV but not audio, although Amazon said at launch that audio availability would expand in the fourth quarter of 2026. The advanced section says both that a campaign "will not be active until you click Launch" and that a launched campaign "remains inactive until you activate it." The frequency cap is defined "within a single campaign" yet set "per ad group." The page states neither the default cap, the managed-services percentage, what "Reach at optimal frequency" means, nor how product variations count toward the 20-product cap, and it names no countries, beta stage or change log.

Why this matters for advertisers and agencies

Amazon has spent a year collapsing its buying tools into one place. In November 2025, it put Amazon DSP and sponsored ads into a single Campaign Manager in beta and introduced Ads Agent to build campaign structures from media plans, the same month its Creative Agent was extended to streaming TV formats. In August 2026, Amazon DSP added publisher-hosted creatives for Google Ad Manager programmatic guaranteed deals in 33 markets, a feature the new guide lists as a related topic. Then came September 29, the retirement of the Amazon DSP name and the four-step DVA+ builder.

What the guide adds is the operating detail behind that branding. It fits the argument, made in an October ADOTAT column covered by PPC Land, that the real change is a matter of defaults. In the automated flow, an advertiser chooses an objective, products, a budget and dates, and reviews the creative. Formats, targeting and much of the creative are decided by the system, and format choice is not presented as a step at all. Manual controls - frequency caps, commitments, optimization strategy, bidding priority, ad group structure - live in DVA+ advanced, which some accounts reach automatically based on their history, according to the guide.

That distinction carries money. Which campaigns belong in the automated flow - a sales campaign measured on Total ROAS, say, or a traffic campaign whose key metric cannot be set as a target? The guide does not say. But the defaults are clear. Interactive features and optimization are on. A frequency cap exists whether or not one is set. Budget caps come with a warning against using them. Recommended ad groups arrive pre-filled.

For agencies, the timing compounds. In the first two weeks of November, Amazon told advertisers it would count DVA display impressions on the Amazon Store only once ads appear on screen from January 1, 2027, with counts expected to fall about 63% on average; opened manager-account agency fees in beta with a January 31, 2027 cutoff for the legacy fee; and updated its guide to building DVA+ campaigns. All three touch how the same campaigns are built, charged and measured, in an advertising business that generated $19.64 billion in the three months to September.

Key facts

• Source document: "Create a DVA+ campaign," Amazon Ads Support Center, filed under Building campaigns > Setup guides: general
• Date: updated on November 13, 2026
• Platform name: Amazon Ads Agent
• Product: Display, Video, and Audio campaigns, the product formerly sold as Amazon DSP; DVA+ introduced September 29, 2026
• Creation methods: DVA+ (five steps plus optional location targeting); DVA+ advanced, also labelled DVA+ with advanced settings (four steps); legacy mode
• Objectives: seven in total, shown by eligibility; on Amazon: Sales on Amazon, Traffic on Amazon, Awareness on Amazon
• Product limit: up to 20 products in the DVA+ flow
• Default DVA+ formats: Display, Online Video (OLV), Streaming TV (STV)
• Location targeting: postal code, city, state/region, DMA, country; radius; file upload; off-Amazon objectives only
• Budget types: monthly, daily, lifetime
• Frequency: up to 3 caps per ad group at user or household level; a default applies when none is set
• Recommended ad group tactics: Brand+, Performance+; inventory-based ad groups for streaming TV
• Legacy media types: Display, Online Video, Streaming TV, Audio
• Related dates: on-screen impression counting for DVA display on the Amazon Store from January 1, 2027; legacy agency fee settable until January 31, 2027; DVA+ general availability targeted in 35 markets in Q1 2027

Timeline

• September 24, 2025 - Amazon launches Commitments Hub for publisher spend management in Amazon DSP
• November 10-11, 2025 - Amazon puts DSP and sponsored ads into a single Campaign Manager in beta, introduces Ads Agent and updates Brand+ and Performance+
• November 11, 2025 - Creative Agent extended to streaming TV and Sponsored TV formats
• April 15, 2026 - Automatic deal selection for streaming TV launches in Amazon DSP
• June 11, 2026 - Audio becomes a supported inventory type in Amazon DSP campaign management APIs
• July 22, 2026 - Brand+ moves to automatic deal selection by default for new streaming TV prospecting lines
• August 10, 2026 - Amazon DSP adds publisher-hosted creatives for Google Ad Manager deals in 33 markets
• September 29, 2026 - Amazon retires the Amazon DSP name and puts the four-step DVA+ builder in US closed beta
• October 18, 2026 - PPC Land covers an ADOTAT column on Full-Funnel Campaigns and the DVA+ advanced toggle
• October 29, 2026 - Amazon's DVA+ page describes advanced settings as limited to some US advertisers; Amazon reports Q3 2026 advertising revenue of $19.64 billion
• November 3, 2026 - Amazon tells advertisers DVA display impressions on its store will be counted on screen from January 1, 2027
• November 11, 2026 - Manager-account agency fees for DVA enter open beta
• November 13, 2026 - Amazon updates the "Create a DVA+ campaign" Support Center guide, describing DVA+, DVA+ advanced and legacy mode
• Q4 2026 - Window in which Amazon said DVA+ audio availability would expand
• January 1, 2027 - On-screen impression counting begins for DVA display ads on Amazon Store placements
• January 31, 2027 - Last day to set the legacy per-campaign agency fee
• Q1 2027 - Target for DVA+ general availability across 35 markets

Related PPC Land coverage

• Amazon Ads puts 4-step DVA+ campaign builder in US closed beta - The September 29 launch of DVA+, its two tiers, eligibility rules and rollout schedule.
• Amazon calls its ad platform an agent, but the agent is still closed beta - The confusion that followed the rename of Amazon DSP to DVA and the limits on the advanced tier.
• Agencies lose Amazon's legacy DVA fee setting after January 31, 2027 - Five fee methods and four fee levels for agencies running DVA campaigns from a manager account.
• Amazon drops off-screen ads from impression counts, expects 63% fewer - The January 1, 2027 change to how DVA display impressions are counted on Amazon's store.
• Amazon's $100-a-day Full-Funnel Campaigns hand targeting to AI, ADOTAT says - An analysis of automated defaults and the DVA+ advanced settings toggle.
• Amazon kills single-deal STV buying in Brand+ as 10 AI features land - Automatic deal selection by default and Audience Signals in Brand+ and Performance+.
• Amazon DSP auto deal selection picks streaming TV inventory by itself - How machine-learning deal curation for streaming TV works and where it was available at launch.
• Amazon DSP gains publisher-hosted creatives for GAM deals in 33 markets - Programmatic guaranteed deals in Google Ad Manager with creatives hosted by the publisher.
• Amazon DSP now supports audio ad campaigns via API - here is what changed - Audio inventory, creative formats and attention metrics added to Amazon's DSP APIs.
• Amazon launches Commitments Hub for publisher spend management - The tool for tracking spending agreements with publishers, now part of DVA campaign setup.
• Amazon enhances Performance+ and Brand+ with AI improvements and insights - The two AI-managed campaign products whose tactics now seed DVA+ advanced ad groups.
• Amazon unifies DSP and sponsored ads in single Campaign Manager platform - The November 2025 beta that brought sponsored ads and DSP buying into one interface.
• Amazon launches AI agent for automated campaign management - The original Ads Agent, which built campaign structures from uploaded media plans.
• Amazon Creative Agent adds TV capabilities at unBoxed 2025 - Conversational creative generation extended to streaming TV and Sponsored TV formats.
• Amazon ad revenue growth drops to 11% after Prime Day moves to June - Amazon's Q3 2026 results, with advertising revenue of $19.64 billion.

Summary

Who: Amazon Ads, and the sellers, brands, agencies and other advertisers that buy display, online video, streaming TV and audio ads through its Display, Video, and Audio campaigns, the product formerly sold as Amazon DSP.

What: Amazon's Support Center guide "Create a DVA+ campaign" describes three ways to build those campaigns. The automated DVA+ flow has five steps, accepts up to 20 products, offers seven objectives depending on eligibility, runs across display, online video and streaming TV with optimization on by default, generates missing creative formats with AI, allows location targeting only for off-Amazon objectives, and supports monthly, daily or lifetime budgets. DVA+ advanced combines campaign, ad group and ad creation in one form, warns that changing a KPI after launch resets performance learnings, applies a default frequency cap when none is set, recommends ad groups from Brand+ and Performance+ tactics, and scores delivery confidence before launch. Legacy mode keeps separate workflows and lists audio among its media types and a percent-based managed-services fee.

When: The guide was updated on November 13, 2026, about six weeks after DVA+ entered US closed beta on September 29, 2026. Amazon said audio availability would expand in the fourth quarter of 2026 and targeted general availability across 35 markets in the first quarter of 2027.

Where: The Amazon Ads console, now branded Amazon Ads Agent. The guide does not state which countries or advertisers can use each of the three creation methods.

Why: The page does not state Amazon's reasons beyond describing DVA+ as a simplified buying experience and the advanced workspace as a way to work more effectively while keeping control. It matters because it shows which decisions the automated flow takes on itself, where manual controls now sit, and where the documentation leaves gaps, including audio in the default flow, contradictory instructions on when a launched campaign goes live, and undisclosed defaults for frequency caps and managed-service fees.