DVA+ is a campaign type inside Amazon Ads that buys display, video and audio advertising from a single objective, a single budget and a single campaign. The advertiser picks a goal, names the products or brand website to promote, approves machine-generated creative and sets a budget; Amazon's systems then choose audiences, inventory, formats and bids. It exists because Amazon's programmatic buying tool, long sold as Amazon DSP (demand-side platform), was built for specialist traders and agencies, while many sellers on Amazon bought only search ads through a separate console. Amazon describes DVA+ as "a unified campaign type bringing together what was previously created through Amazon DSP, Sponsored Display, and Sponsored TV." It was announced at Amazon's unBoxed conference on September 29, 2026, the same day Amazon replaced the Amazon DSP product name with DVA, short for display, video and audio, according to AdExchanger.

How a DVA+ campaign is built

Amazon reduced campaign creation to four steps, and its guide says the flow is designed to get a campaign live "in 15 minutes or less".

Step one is the objective. Amazon's guide lists sales, leads, subscriptions, traffic and awareness. Step two is the promoted item. Sellers on Amazon choose ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers, the catalogue codes for individual products); brands that do not sell on Amazon supply a landing page URL and define a conversion event, such as a sign-up or purchase on their own site. Step three is creative. The system builds ads from the product detail page, Brand Store or brand website, plus Amazon shopping signals, and the advertiser reviews, edits or uploads alternatives. Step four is budget. Pacing can be daily, weekly, monthly or lifetime, with flight dates; Amazon's guide states that flights of 14 days or longer give the optimiser time to learn.

The same campaign can be assembled through a form or through a chat prompt in Amazon Ads Agent. Once live, budget, flight dates, products, creative and, for off-Amazon brands, location targeting can be edited, each change requiring explicit confirmation. If an ad is rejected under Amazon's ad policies, DVA+ may apply content-rating exclusions, dayparting or supply-source exclusions on its own and resubmit it.

Default mode and advanced settings

DVA+ comes in two tiers. In the default tier, Amazon manages audiences, bidding and inventory across its own properties and the open internet, allocates budget across formats automatically and scores campaigns in real time. DVA+ with advanced settings reopens the levers DSP traders were used to: manual audience targeting (lookalikes, retargeting, suppression), manual bid strategies and format-level CPM (cost per mille, or cost per thousand impressions) management, publisher inclusion and exclusion lists, private deal activation, budget flighting, frequency caps and multiple ad groups.

Underneath both sit two optimisation engines Amazon built earlier. Brand+ targets awareness and reach; Performance+ targets consideration and conversions, measured by cost per acquisition (CPA) and return on ad spend (ROAS). DVA+ selects one according to the objective chosen. In advanced settings, the advertiser can pick either engine or neither. Kelly MacLean, Amazon Ads vice president for engineering, science and product, framed the split on stage: "Some of you want full control over every decision. Others want us to optimize for you."

According to Amazon's launch announcement, advertisers with programmatic experience and agencies get both tiers; newcomers get default DVA+ and must request advanced settings.

Where it sits in the transaction

DVA+ is a buying layer, not a new exchange. Amazon's announcement summarises it as "Same infrastructure, same signals, same measurement." Impressions are still bought through the auction and deal machinery that powered Amazon DSP, across four format families listed on Amazon's product page: streaming TV (full-screen, non-skippable ads on Fire TV, Prime Video, Twitch and other streaming apps), online video, display (Amazon.com, IMDb and third-party sites) and audio (Amazon Music and podcasts), which Amazon marks as "coming soon". Amazon says the targeting draws on signals from "over 300 million authenticated users".

Billing is by CPM with no minimum spend, according to Amazon's product page. During the closed beta, payment is by invoice only, with credit card support planned for Q1 2027. API access for Display, Video and Audio campaigns is also targeted for Q1 2027, so for now DVA+ campaigns can only be created in Amazon Ads Agent.

The change is visible in reporting. Amazon's unified report renames DSP-era objects so they match sponsored ads: "order" becomes campaign, "line item" becomes ad group and "creative" becomes ad. PPC Land counted that 137 of the 156 unified report dimensions carry the DVA+ marker and 59 apply to DVA+ alone, among them deal, supply source, publisher and live event fields. Dimensions that do not apply to a given ad product return null.

Origin and evolution

The product line is older than its name. Amazon's programmatic tool was called the Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP) until September 5, 2018, when Amazon renamed it Amazon DSP as part of a consolidation that also turned Headline Search Ads into Sponsored Brands, according to Digiday. Amazon Advertising became Amazon Ads in October 2021.

Automation came next. Performance+ and Brand+ launched in 2024. An Amazon post dated March 21, 2025 announced Performance+ general availability and Brand+ open beta, although its body says both were "available globally for all advertisers"; PPC Land has separately reported that Brand+ left beta in January 2025. The two dates have not been reconciled publicly.

At unBoxed in November 2025, Amazon merged Amazon DSP and sponsored ads into a single Campaign Manager in beta, launched Ads Agent for campaign creation and analytics, and added AI improvements to Performance+ and Brand+, including cross-campaign remarketing from Sponsored Products. On July 30, 2026, existing DSP accounts were upgraded to a single global account across 34 countries. On September 29, 2026 the pieces were relabelled: the unified platform became Amazon Ads Agent, the DSP product became DVA, and DVA+ was put into an extended closed beta in the United States, with open beta expected in late October 2026, international expansion through Q4 2026 and general availability in 35 unnamed markets targeted for Q1 2027.

Why it matters

For the marketing community, DVA+ moves programmatic display, video and streaming TV within reach of advertisers who never had a DSP seat. MacLean told MediaPost: "With DVA+, we have brought the power of programmatic to advertisers of all sizes." That is a commercial question as much as a product one. Amazon reported third-quarter 2026 advertising revenue of $19.64 billion, up 10.9 per cent, and sponsored ads sold on a cost-per-click basis with no minimum spend have long been the entry point for sellers.

For agencies, the change alters the work. When DSP accounts were consolidated, PPC Land asked whether the agency was the next thing Amazon would remove. Agencies also lose Amazon's legacy DVA fee setting after January 31, 2027, as fees move to the manager account.

Limitations and disputes

The first dispute is about names. Amazon's announcement does not expand "DVA+", and sources disagree on what was renamed: AdExchanger reported that the console and Amazon DSP were merged and rebranded as Amazon Ads Agent, while PPC Land wrote that Amazon DSP did not become Ads Agent - the buying product became DVA. Destaney Wishon, chief executive of btr media, summed up the confusion on LinkedIn: "DSP is no longer DSP. It is DVA."

The second is evidence. The performance figures Amazon publishes for DVA+ are internal data, mostly from Brand+ and Performance+ campaigns run before DVA+ existed. They are also inconsistent: Amazon's product page credits an "up to 68%" CPA improvement to sellers, while its DVA+ guide credits it to brands that do not sell on Amazon, and off-Amazon conversion gains appear variously as 141 per cent, 149 per cent and 2.5 times.

Third, availability remains unclear. Common Thread Collective said on October 24, 2026 that open beta had begun, but PPC Land found no Amazon announcement confirming it. Advanced settings are limited to "a limited set of advertisers in the US", and advertisers in 21 countries that used Amazon DSP, including the UK, Germany, Japan and India, keep the older DSP experience.

Fourth, transparency. Amazon has not published typical CPMs or the platform fees applied inside DVA+. That matters because on August 31, 2026 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 22 states sued Amazon over alleged undisclosed "soft reserve" surcharges in its ad auctions, which Amazon denies; the FTC has alleged that Amazon charged advertisers their full bid 79% of the time. Agency Tinuiti warned that speed "becomes less compelling if it comes at the expense of audience design, budget allocation, campaign structure."

Commonly confused terms

DVA vs DVA+. DVA is the product family that replaced the Amazon DSP name. DVA+ is the simplified, objective-led campaign type within it.

Full-Funnel Campaigns. A separate campaign type, launched the same day, that combines sponsored ads with display, video and streaming TV. Digiday reported that advertisers "cannot select individual channels or specific audiences" in it, and MediaPost reported a minimum daily budget of $100. DVA+ does not include Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands.

Amazon Ads Agent. The platform, and its conversational assistant, where DVA+ campaigns are built. It is not a campaign type.

Sponsored Display. The self-service display format that DVA+ absorbs.

Recent developments

Amazon notified advertisers that from January 1, 2027 DVA display ads on the Amazon Store will count an impression only when the ad appears on screen, and expects 63% fewer impressions on average. On November 11, 2026 Amazon updated its unified reporting dimensions, the page behind PPC Land's 156-dimension count. As of November 2026, Amazon's own launch page still describes DVA+ as a closed beta in the United States, with general availability in 35 markets targeted for Q1 2027.

Timeline

  • September 5, 2018 - Amazon renames the Amazon Advertising Platform as Amazon DSP and Headline Search Ads as Sponsored Brands.
  • October 2021 - Amazon Advertising becomes Amazon Ads.
  • 2024 - Performance+ and Brand+ launch inside Amazon DSP.
  • January 2025 - Brand+ leaves beta for all DSP advertisers, as reported by PPC Land.
  • March 21, 2025 - Amazon announces Performance+ general availability and Brand+ open beta.
  • June 17, 2025 - Disney's real-time ad exchange integrates with Amazon DSP.
  • September 10, 2025 - Netflix inventory announced for Amazon DSP from Q4 2025.
  • November 10-11, 2025 - unBoxed: unified Campaign Manager beta, Ads Agent launch, unified reporting beta.
  • June 8, 2026 - Unified reporting reaches general availability.
  • July 30, 2026 - DSP accounts upgraded to one global account across 34 countries.
  • August 31, 2026 - FTC and 22 states sue Amazon over ad auction pricing.
  • September 29, 2026 - unBoxed: Amazon DSP name replaced by DVA; DVA+ enters US closed beta; platform named Amazon Ads Agent; Full-Funnel Campaigns launched.
  • October 24, 2026 - Common Thread Collective reports open beta has begun; not confirmed by Amazon.
  • November 11, 2026 - Amazon updates unified reporting dimensions and agency fee documentation.
  • January 1, 2027 - On-screen impression counting begins for DVA display on the Amazon Store.
  • January 31, 2027 - Last date to use the legacy DVA agency fee setting.
  • Q1 2027 - Targeted general availability of DVA+ in 35 markets, API access and credit card billing.

Summary

Who: Amazon Ads built DVA+ for sellers, vendors and brands that do not sell on Amazon, as well as agencies. Kelly MacLean, Amazon Ads vice president for engineering, science and product, presented it at unBoxed 2026.

What: DVA+ is an AI-led campaign type that buys display, video, streaming TV and, later, audio advertising from one objective, one budget and one campaign, routed through Amazon's Brand+ or Performance+ engines. It absorbs the buying previously done through Amazon DSP, Sponsored Display and Sponsored TV, with an advanced-settings tier for manual control.

When: Announced on September 29, 2026, when the Amazon DSP name was replaced by DVA. It entered closed beta in the United States, with general availability in 35 markets targeted for Q1 2027.

Where: Campaigns are built in Amazon Ads Agent and run across Amazon properties such as Amazon.com, Prime Video, Fire TV, Twitch and IMDb, and on third-party sites and apps. Advertisers in 21 countries that used Amazon DSP keep the older experience for now.

Why: Amazon wants the programmatic buying once reserved for DSP specialists to be usable by any advertiser, in minutes rather than dozens of steps. The trade-off is less visibility into targeting, pricing and fees, which remains contested as the FTC case over Amazon's auction pricing proceeds.