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Amazon launches geographic insights feature to identify untapped markets

Amazon introduces Geographic Insights and Activation to help advertisers discover new customer bases using retail data.

Luis Rijo

• 6 min read
Amazon launches geographic insights feature to identify untapped markets
Amazon Ads

Amazon Ads announced Geographic Insights and Activation (GIA) on June 23, 2025, providing advertisers with tools to identify and target high-potential geographic markets through Amazon DSP. The feature leverages Amazon's first-party retail signals to help brands reach new-to-brand customers more effectively while expanding into underpenetrated regions.

GIA addresses a growing challenge in digital advertising where brands often overperform in specific areas while remaining relatively unknown in others. According to the announcement, 78% of marketers cite localized personalization as critical to campaign success, yet only 43% feel equipped with the right tools to act on geographic insights. This capability gap has historically required extensive reporting and complex optimization strategies that slowed campaign execution.

The new solution integrates with Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), enabling advertisers to combine online and offline sales data for comprehensive market performance analysis. This integration allows teams to visualize proprietary geo-segmentation directly within Amazon DSP and activate custom strategies based on their specific data requirements.

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Summary

Who: Amazon Ads launched the Geographic Insights and Activation feature, developed in collaboration with industry partners including WPP Media and Choreograph. The solution targets advertisers using Amazon DSP who need to identify and reach new-to-brand customers in untapped geographic markets.

What: Geographic Insights and Activation is a new feature within Amazon DSP that enables advertisers to identify high-potential geographic areas using Amazon's first-party retail signals. The tool provides sales index visualizations, integrates with Amazon Marketing Cloud, and offers one-click activation for geographic campaign optimization.

When: Amazon announced GIA on June 23, 2025, following initial concept development that began in 2024 through strategic collaboration with industry leaders. The feature is available now for Amazon DSP advertisers.

Where: GIA leverages Amazon's extensive first-party retail data and integrates directly into Amazon DSP's interface. The solution works across Amazon's retail ecosystem and can be combined with Amazon Marketing Cloud for comprehensive market analysis.

Why: The feature addresses the challenge that 78% of marketers cite localized personalization as critical to campaign success, yet only 43% feel equipped with proper tools. GIA helps brands expand into underpenetrated markets more efficiently while improving return on investment in an increasingly complex digital advertising environment.

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"Our clients are constantly looking to derive growth signals from new pools of data, and geographic insights are some of the deepest and richest," said Evan Hanlon, CEO of Choreograph. "Leveraging GIA gives our teams a smarter, faster way to identify those signals. Instead of manually building localization models, our teams can now dynamically optimize campaigns to reach areas with the most potential for new-to-brand growth."

The development of GIA builds on foundational work between Amazon Ads and industry leaders, including WPP Media and Choreograph, during the solution's initial concept phase in 2024. This strategic collaboration provided Amazon with valuable insights into advertisers' needs around geographic optimization that helped shape GIA's current capabilities.

Technical implementation and data visualization

GIA enables advertisers to leverage sales index visualizations to understand where their products over- or under-index relative to their category. The system allows optimization of delivery to areas with lower brand penetration, helping reach category buyers unfamiliar with specific brands. The feature reduces guesswork by surfacing Amazon's retail signals directly in the location widget, providing actionable insights without relying on third-party cookies.

Through the Amazon Sales Index, advertisers can identify where their brand has room to grow compared to the broader category, transforming geographic variability into opportunity. A single-click activation enables teams to apply strategic geo-modifiers quickly, maintaining campaign momentum during high-demand periods like product launches or peak seasons.

For instance, a national cereal brand might identify geographic clusters where breakfast food demand is strong but their brand share lags. With GIA, they can dynamically increase investment in those regions, accelerating new-to-brand acquisition without fragmenting campaign delivery. The solution combines retail intelligence, flexible activation, and seamless data integrations to help brands localize their paid media strategies without operational friction.

Addressing industry challenges in programmatic advertising

The launch comes as programmatic advertising faces mounting pressure to deliver stronger return on investment while navigating increased complexity in media buying. Common hurdles include rising acquisition costs, evolving privacy standards, and the challenge of scaling personalized strategies efficiently. Programmatic advertising growth has reached 72%, with privacy-first targeting becoming essential as ID coverage drops below 50% for mobile advertising in 2025.

According to a Digiday report, 28% of brands identified increasing sales and revenue, including improving ROI, as their top priority for the year. This underscores the growing need for tools that can drive measurable, localized growth. Amazon DSP has been expanding its targeting capabilities throughout 2024, with location targeting improvements announced in May 2024 that consolidated region and location targeting into a single, streamlined interface.

The programmatic landscape has adapted to evolving privacy changes with improved business outcomes through better cost efficiencies. Marketers have increasingly leaned on first-party signals and contextual strategies, making geographic factors sometimes overlooked despite their critical importance. Consumer behavior and brand engagement can vary widely across different regions, creating opportunities that require sophisticated tools to identify and exploit.

Market impact and competitive positioning

GIA addresses performance blind spots through data-driven localization in today's fragmented media environment. Brands cannot rely solely on broad-based strategies, making localized insights powered by purchase behavior critical for unlocking growth. The feature embeds geographic insights directly into Amazon DSP with a one-click activation workflow, making it easier for advertisers to reach new-to-brand customers and deliver incremental sales growth at scale.

Amazon DSP has been aggressively expanding its capabilities in 2024, launching goal-based bidding in September 2024 to enhance brand campaign efficiency. The platform also expanded Related Product Targeting to third-party supply in August 2024, broadening contextual advertising options for marketers.

The timing aligns with significant changes in the advertising technology landscape. Netflix has opened its ad inventory to major demand-side platforms, while Disney's inventory became available on Amazon DSP in June 2025, creating more premium streaming inventory options for advertisers.

Rather than adding complexity, GIA helps streamline campaign optimization by providing strategic insight combined with operational efficiency. This enables brands to transform geographic challenges into opportunities for sustainable business growth. The solution supports scalable growth in a changing programmatic environment where privacy-conscious solutions are becoming table stakes.

Strategic implications for marketing professionals

The feature reflects broader industry trends toward more sophisticated targeting capabilities that do not rely on third-party cookies. As digital advertising becomes more complex, tools that leverage first-party data and retail signals become increasingly valuable for maintaining campaign effectiveness while respecting privacy standards.

For marketing professionals, GIA represents a shift toward data-driven geographic strategy rather than traditional broad-based approaches. The ability to identify untapped markets using actual purchase behavior data provides a competitive advantage in customer acquisition efforts. This approach aligns with programmatic advertising trends showing 62% of advertisers planning to increase investment in 2024.

Amazon DSP's technical improvements continue throughout 2024, with enhanced display ad targeting capabilities announced in December 2024. These ongoing enhancements demonstrate Amazon's commitment to providing comprehensive programmatic solutions that address evolving advertiser needs.

The launch of GIA also comes amid growing concerns about reduced campaign control across major advertising platforms. While platforms have implemented AI-driven automation, many advertisers report challenges maintaining consistent results during periods requiring precise budget control. GIA's approach of providing actionable insights while maintaining advertiser control may address some of these concerns.

Market context and industry positioning

Geographic optimization has regained focus as programmatic advertising adapts to privacy changes while seeking improved business outcomes through better cost efficiencies. While first-party signals and contextual strategies remain essential for media buyers, geographic factors often receive insufficient attention despite their significant impact on campaign performance.

The feature addresses pressures advertisers face from rising acquisition costs and evolving privacy standards. By providing tools that work within current privacy frameworks while delivering measurable results, GIA positions Amazon DSP as a solution for brands seeking growth in increasingly challenging market conditions.

Amazon's approach with GIA reflects the company's broader strategy of leveraging its unique position as both a retail platform and advertising technology provider. The combination of extensive first-party retail data with sophisticated programmatic capabilities creates opportunities that traditional demand-side platforms cannot easily replicate.

In an environment where every dollar matters and new-to-brand growth is increasingly difficult to find, GIA offers a path forward through efficient, signal-informed geographic audience buying that scales. This combination of strategic insight and operational efficiency enables brands to expand their customer base in untapped markets while maintaining strong returns on their advertising investments.

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