Amazon Ads last month launched a self-service workflow for third-party measurement studies inside Amazon DSP, making it possible for advertisers and agencies to discover, configure, fund, and retrieve results from more than 50 vendor measurement products without going through a managed-service intermediary. The announcement, dated May 15, 2026, extends the capability to 18 countries across North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.

The launch addresses a persistent friction point. Until now, setting up a third-party measurement study on Amazon DSP typically required coordination with Amazon account teams or managed-service arrangements, adding lead time and limiting flexibility for advertisers who wanted to test incrementality, brand lift, or offline sales impact on their own terms. The new workflow collapses that process into a single interface accessible directly within the platform.

What the self-service workflow includes

According to Amazon Ads, the feature is accessed through a dedicated Studies page inside Amazon DSP. From there, advertisers can browse the available third-party measurement options for their specific region and select the study type that aligns with their campaign objectives. The vendor catalogue spans more than 50 products, covering a range of measurement methodologies - brand lift, offline sales lift, omnichannel metrics, and others.

Once a study type is selected, advertisers choose between two management paths. The first, labeled "Managed within Amazon DSP," consolidates everything inside the platform: configuration, management, and direct billing through Amazon. The second path, "Managed with Vendor," is designed for advertisers who already have existing relationships with measurement vendors and want to extend measurement across both Amazon and non-Amazon campaigns. That distinction matters operationally. An advertiser running cross-platform campaigns who has a pre-negotiated contract with a vendor like Kantar or DISQO can connect that existing relationship to their Amazon activity without creating a parallel billing arrangement with Amazon.

After a study is submitted, the advertiser receives a notification once it is approved. Progress monitoring and result downloads are available directly from the Studies page. For studies billed to advertiser accounts, Amazon will issue a separate monthly invoice covering third-party study costs after studies are completed. That invoicing model separates measurement spend from media spend, which has accounting and budget-tracking implications for larger organisations managing multiple cost centres.

The vendor landscape inside Amazon DSP

The launch document names several vendors visible within the Amazon DSP Studies interface: NCS Offline Sales Lift Full, DISQO Brand Lift, and Kantar Brand Lift Full Report appear among the examples shown. Omnichannel metricsstudies are also listed as a study type alongside brand lift.

These are not new relationships for Amazon's measurement ecosystem. Integral Ad Science secured Media Rating Council accreditation for its third-party measurement capabilities on Amazon DSP on November 13, 2025, validating server-to-server integration for tracking impression, viewability, and invalid traffic data - the first time an independent verification provider had received MRC certification for those specific metrics within Amazon's advertising ecosystem.

DISQO, one of the vendors visible in the Studies interface screenshot, has been expanding its measurement partnerships across the programmatic ecosystem. The company had previously been integrated into audio platforms and CTV networks as a preferred brand lift partner.

Kantar's presence in the interface reflects a long-standing measurement relationship with Amazon. The vendor has operated across multiple major platforms. TikTok introduced Brand Lift Studies with Kantar as its third-party verification partner in July 2021, and Kantar has since conducted over 700 TikTok Brand Lift studies collaboratively with brands. NCS - Nielsen Catalina Solutions - brings its offline CPG measurement infrastructure. Amazon Marketing Cloud added NCS CPG Insights Stream in May 2024, providing advertisers with modeled offline transaction signals for all US households and becoming the early architecture on which Amazon's offline sales measurement capabilities were built.

Geographic scope and access tiers

The 18-country rollout spans several distinct advertising markets. In North America: the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In South America: Brazil. The European markets included are Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, Turkey, Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Ireland, Denmark, and Luxembourg. The Middle East and Asia Pacific regions are covered through separate launch documentation, with Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain, and Kuwait listed for the Middle East, and Australia, India, Japan, China, New Zealand, and Singapore in Asia Pacific.

That geographic breadth is notable. Some Amazon measurement tools have launched in a single market or in a handful of English-language countries before expanding. Amazon Brand Lift expanded to Mexico in September 2025, bringing the tool to its eighth global market at that time. The self-service measurement workflow launches across substantially more markets simultaneously.

Both managed-service and self-service advertisers and agencies can use the feature. The access-tier structure is consistent with how Amazon has approached recent capability releases - the unified reporting system launched in November 2025initially covered all self-service DSP accounts, with managed-service accounts added in Q1 2026.

How this fits Amazon's broader measurement build-out

Amazon has been systematically expanding its measurement infrastructure over the past two years. The company expanded Omnichannel Metrics to five additional product categories - consumer electronics, fashion, home goods, home improvement, and toys - in November 2025, extending a tool that connects Amazon DSP campaign exposure to offline purchase activity. That capability addresses a core attribution gap: according to Forrester research cited in Amazon documentation, 72% of US retail sales still occur in physical stores, meaning digital-only attribution misses most of the purchase funnel for many advertisers.

The self-service access model itself has been a recurring theme in Amazon's product releases. Amazon made Marketing Cloud directly accessible to sponsored ads advertisers in September 2025, removing the partner-dependency requirement that previously slowed campaign optimisation. The same logic applies here: self-service access reduces latency between a campaign decision and the measurement infrastructure needed to evaluate it.

Platform consolidation has also shaped the context. Amazon unified DSP and sponsored ads into a single Campaign Manager platform in November 2025, collapsing interfaces that previously required advertisers to navigate separate systems. The Studies page within Amazon DSP is another layer of that consolidation logic - centralising measurement configuration within the buying platform rather than routing it through external processes.

The November 2025 expansion of offline sales measurement also noted that third-party measurement vendors compete with platform-provided solutions. Tools like Innovid's purchase attribution functionality, Adsquare's attribution dashboard, and Prescient AI's marketing mix model all operate in this space. By embedding third-party vendor access natively into Amazon DSP, Amazon is positioning its platform as the infrastructure layer through which those vendor relationships are activated - rather than something that competes with them.

Why this matters for measurement practice

Third-party measurement exists because advertisers cannot rely exclusively on platform-reported data. Platform metrics reflect the platform's own attribution methodology, which is not neutral. Amazon has made multiple attribution methodology changes over the past 12 months - most recently implementing shopping-signal enhanced last-touch attribution for view-based campaigns starting January 1, 2026, which affected ROAS reporting across Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and Amazon DSP. Independent measurement studies use different methodologies: randomised control groups, survey-based lift measurement, panel-based offline transaction tracking, or matched market tests.

For brand lift specifically, the approach involves splitting exposed and unexposed audiences and surveying both to detect attitudinal changes in awareness, consideration, purchase intent, or ad recall. Amazon's own meta-analysis of over 3,000 brand lift measurements from Q4 2022 to Q3 2024 found that combining DSP display with video formats produced a 2.2x increase in brand awareness compared to standalone video - a finding that independent third-party studies can either corroborate or challenge.

For offline sales lift, the NCS methodology uses anonymised purchase data from grocery stores, drugstores, and mass merchants to estimate the incremental sales impact of a campaign. That is a different signal to Amazon's first-party omnichannel data, and having both available through the same Studies interface creates a comparative measurement environment that did not previously exist in a self-service format.

The billing structure for managed-within-Amazon studies is also operationally relevant. Measurement costs arriving on a separate monthly invoice - rather than bundled into the media buy - give finance teams clear visibility into what measurement is costing independently of media spend. For agencies managing multiple advertiser accounts, that separation simplifies reconciliation.

The wider context for programmatic measurement

Platform-native measurement access has been expanding across the programmatic ecosystem. DV360 expanded measurement options for Instant Reserve Masthead deals in March 2024, adding support for third-party reach and viewability measurement through vendors including iSpot.tv, Nielsen, Comscore, and Kantar. Nielsen audience segments became available in Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud in December 2025, integrating third-party audience targeting capabilities through Zeotap Data Distribution.

What distinguishes the May 2026 launch from those earlier integrations is the scope of the vendor catalogue - more than 50 products - and the self-service nature of the workflow. Previous third-party measurement access on Amazon's platform required managed-service coordination. The shift to self-service removes a structural barrier that affected smaller advertisers disproportionately, since managed-service arrangements typically carry minimum spend thresholds or require dedicated account support that not every advertiser has access to.

The geographic rollout to 18 countries at launch, rather than a staged single-market introduction, also suggests that the underlying infrastructure for international third-party measurement had been built out ahead of the announcement rather than being developed in parallel with it.

Timeline

  • May 2024: Amazon Marketing Cloud introduces NCS CPG Insights Stream, providing modeled offline transaction signals for all US households - early architecture for Amazon's offline sales measurement. PPC Land
  • May 2024: Amazon DSP receives additional MRC accreditation for display measurement transparency.
  • July 2021: TikTok introduces Brand Lift Studies with Kantar as its third-party verification partner. PPC Land
  • September 3, 2025: Amazon Brand Lift expands to Mexico, its eighth global market, covering six brand objectives. PPC Land
  • September 16, 2025: Amazon makes Marketing Cloud directly accessible to sponsored ads advertisers, removing partner-dependency for AMC access. PPC Land
  • November 4-12, 2025: Amazon expands Omnichannel Metrics to five additional product categories - consumer electronics, fashion, home goods, home improvement, and toys. PPC Land
  • November 10, 2025: Amazon unifies DSP and sponsored ads into a single Campaign Manager platform at unBoxed 2025. PPC Land
  • November 11, 2025: Amazon launches unified reporting system across advertising products in open beta. PPC Land
  • November 13, 2025: IAS earns MRC accreditation for third-party Amazon DSP measurement, the first such certification for impression, viewability, and invalid traffic metrics on the platform. PPC Land
  • December 8, 2025: Nielsen audience segments arrive in Amazon DSP and Marketing Cloud via Zeotap Data Distribution. PPC Land
  • January 1, 2026: Amazon implements shopping-signal enhanced last-touch attribution for view-based campaigns, affecting ROAS reporting across Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and Amazon DSP. PPC Land
  • April 15, 2026: Amazon DSP auto deal selection launches in the US, automating streaming TV inventory selection for self-service advertisers. PPC Land
  • May 15, 2026: Amazon Ads launches self-service workflow for third-party measurement studies in 18 countries, covering 50+ vendor products within Amazon DSP. According to Amazon Ads.

Summary

Who: Amazon Ads, serving both managed-service and self-service advertisers and agencies using Amazon DSP across 18 countries.

What: A self-service workflow for third-party measurement studies, enabling advertisers to discover available vendor products from a catalogue of 50+, configure and fund studies, and download results entirely within Amazon DSP - with two management paths available: billed directly through Amazon, or managed through an existing vendor relationship.

When: Launched on May 15, 2026.

Where: Amazon DSP, accessible across 18 countries in North America (United States, Canada, Mexico), South America (Brazil), Europe (Germany, Spain, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, Turkey, Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Luxembourg), the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain, Kuwait), and Asia Pacific (Australia, India, Japan, China, New Zealand, Singapore).

Why: Third-party measurement access on Amazon DSP previously required managed-service coordination, creating delays and restricting access for advertisers without dedicated account support. The self-service workflow removes that intermediary step, giving advertisers direct control over study setup, vendor selection, and billing - and positioning Amazon DSP as the central infrastructure layer through which third-party measurement vendor relationships are activated rather than managed externally.