Amazon Advertising
Amazon's retail media arm selling sponsored ads and DSP access across its store, Prime Video, and Alexa.
On the record
Checkpoint: Q2 2026 earnings call, next quarterly ad revenue and growth-rate check
The call
Amazon Advertising sells access to shoppers it already owns, and the only visible dent so far is Walmart Connect growing off a much smaller base.
Amazon Advertising lets sellers pay to show their products to people browsing and buying on Amazon. It is hard to copy because Amazon owns the actual purchase data from hundreds of millions of shoppers, knows who they are across devices, and sellers feel forced to advertise there to reach customers at the moment they want to buy. Google and Walmart have their own ad businesses but cannot see Amazon's transaction records. The one thing that could change this is if Amazon's advertising team shrinks faster than the company replaces those jobs with AI software that does campaign planning and creative work automatically, which means individual ad jobs may disappear even as the business stays strong.
Why
01
AI pressure: OpenAI/Walmart/Shopify agentic commerce. If shopping agents start buying directly instead of browsing Amazon search, sponsored placements lose the eyeballs they're sold against. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.
02
Bigger players: Walmart Connect. Walmart Connect ad revenue hit $4.4B in FY2025, up 31%, still small next to Amazon's $68.6B but growing faster. Could a giant copy it? No, they are blocked.
03
What protects it. Amazon owns the actual purchase data and checkout for 40% of US e-commerce, so sellers must buy its ads to reach buyers already there.
What would change this call
Walmart Connect reports ad revenue growth rate and absolute spend figures in coming quarterly earnings. Would show whether retail-media budgets are shifting away from Amazon in absolute dollars, not just relative growth.
Amazon's ad revenue growth rate compared to Google's in Q2 2026 earnings (July 30, 2026). A drop below Google's growth rate would signal advertiser budgets rotating elsewhere.
OpenAI, Walmart, or Shopify agentic-commerce tools reporting measurable transaction volume. Would indicate purchase intent bypassing Amazon search, weakening its funnel lock-in.
Amazon's ad revenue growth rate compared to Google's in Q2 2026 earnings (July 30, 2026). A drop below Google's growth rate would signal advertiser budgets rotating elsewhere.
OpenAI, Walmart, or Shopify agentic-commerce tools reporting measurable transaction volume. Would indicate purchase intent bypassing Amazon search, weakening its funnel lock-in.
Key numbers
- 2025 ad revenue $68.6B, up from $56.22B in 2024
- Q4 2025 ad revenue $21.3B, up 23% YoY
- Amazon holds 75%+ of US retail media spend
Named risks
- Agentic-commerce platforms could pull purchase intent away from Amazon search over time.
- Layoffs (30,000 corporate roles since Oct 2025) touching ad-sales roles may hollow out account management capacity.
- Heavy AI infrastructure capex (guided ~$200B for 2026) could pressure margins across Amazon including ad-tech stack.
- Regulatory or consumer-trust scrutiny of AI agents completing purchases inside ads (Alexa+ Agentic Ads) is untested at scale.
- Retail media rivals like Walmart Connect growing faster off small base could erode Amazon's share over multiple years.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Walmart Connect | gaining on | Estimated $4.4B FY2025 revenue, +31% YoY, but still ~8% share vs Amazon's 75%+ as of Feb 2026 |
| Google Ads | gaining on | Amazon growing ~22% YoY vs Google's forecast 5.6% growth for 2026, per EMarketer June 2026 |
| Meta Ads | contesting | Meta forecast at 14.2% 2026 growth, close to Amazon's pace, both gaining share vs Google through 2027 |
| The Trade Desk | contesting | Competes with Amazon DSP for open-internet programmatic ad budgets as of 2026 |
| Netflix | contesting | Became an Amazon DSP inventory partner across 11 markets starting Q4 2025, blending rival and supplier roles |
Questions people ask
- Is Amazon Advertising profitable and how big is it?
- Amazon Advertising is not broken out as a separate profit line, but revenue hit $68.6 billion for full-year 2025, up from $56.22 billion in 2024, with Q4 2025 alone at $21.3 billion, up 23% year over year, per a February 6, 2026 Marketing Dive report.
- Could AI replace Amazon Advertising's ad sales jobs?
- AI tools like Ads Agent and Creative Studio, launched September to November 2025, automate media planning, campaign ops, and creative production. The company itself is not at risk, but Amazon cut about 30,000 corporate roles including ad-sales positions between October 2025 and January 2026 under 'Project Dawn.'
- Who is Amazon Advertising's biggest competitor?
- Walmart Connect is the closest rival, with an estimated $4.4 billion in FY2025 ad revenue growing 31% year over year, but it still holds only about 8% of US retail media spend versus Amazon's 75%+, per a February 10, 2026 PPC Ninja analysis.
- How does Amazon Advertising compare to Google and Meta in growth?
- Amazon's ad revenue grew about 22% year over year through 2025, faster than both. EMarketer forecast Google's 2026 US ad revenue growth at just 5.6% and Meta's at 14.2%, versus Amazon's continued double-digit pace, per EMarketer data published June 29, 2026.
- What percentage of US retail media spend does Amazon Advertising control?
- Amazon accounted for more than 75% of US retail media ad spend in 2025, reflecting its 40.6% share of US e-commerce sales overall, according to EMarketer data cited June 29, 2026.
- Is Amazon Advertising building its own AI agents for advertisers?
- Yes. Amazon launched 'Ads Agent' and a Creative Studio AI agent between September and November 2025, and rolled out 'Alexa+ Agentic Ads' in July 2026, letting shoppers complete purchases inside ads on Echo Show devices without leaving the conversation.
Timeline
- 2026-07-02Amazon launches Alexa+ Agentic Ads enabling in-ad purchase completion on Echo Show
- 2026-06-28Amazon Ads introduces Dynamic TV Creative for Prime Video using 90% household graph
- 2026-02-07Q4 2025 ad revenue hits $21.3B, up 23% YoY, Prime Video reaches 315M viewers
- 2026-02-06Amazon reports full-year 2025 ad revenue of $68.6 billion
- 2026-01-28Amazon confirms 16,000 more corporate job cuts, total layoffs reach 30,000 since October
- 2025-11-15Amazon merges Ads Console and DSP into unified Campaign Manager, launches Ads Agent
- 2025-10-31Amazon says DSP is fully featured, Rufus AI credited with $10B+ incremental sales
- 2025-10Amazon cuts 14,000 corporate roles, start of 'Project Dawn' layoffs
- 2024Amazon Advertising revenue reaches $56.22 billion, first full year over $50B
Revision history
22 July 2026
First assessed. Hard to displace. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- Amazon's annual ad revenue passes $68B, boosted by full-funnel strategy (2026-02-06)
- Amazon Advertising Revenue & Market Share (2026-07-03)
- Amazon's Ad Revenue Grew 22% Over the Past Year, but Capex Spending Balloons (2026-02-05)
- Amazon's ad revenue hits $21.3B as Prime Video reaches 315M viewers (2026-02-07)
- Retail media dominance, Prime Video scale, and agentic ad tools (2026-06-29)
- Amazon vs Walmart PPC: CPC, ROAS, and Performance Benchmarks Compared (2026-02-10)
- Marketing and Advertising Tracker Q4 2025 (2026-01-29)
- 5 Key Takeaways On AI, Corporate Employee Cuts And Andy Jassy's Plans
- Amazon confirms 16,000 more corporate job cuts (2026-01-28)
- Amazon Ads introduces Dynamic TV Creative for Prime Video (2026-06-28)
- Amazon says DSP is now 'fully featured' as ad-sales boom continues (2025-10-31)
- Advertising platforms merge behind AI agents as infrastructure scramble intensifies (2025-11-15)