Guide
Your guide to Amazon Ads pricing transparency
As part of our compliance with the DMA, Amazon Ads has developed the following pricing transparency guide. The guide gives an overview of the pricing information available to our advertisers and publishers and also outlines the changes we have made to provide additional pricing granularity and ad transparency.
All advertisers and publishers with campaigns in the EU have access to expanded reports which will provide data on the costs and fees paid by the advertiser and earnings received by the publisher for ads shown on third-party websites and apps. Our advertiser and publisher customers can choose whether they wish to disclose their fee data or otherwise be included in the default aggregated metrics. The reports are available on the Amazon Ads Console for advertisers and on the Amazon Publisher Services portal for publishers.
Sponsored ads pricing
Amazon Ads pays a CPM to publishers to acquire app and website inventory, and charges advertisers based on customer action, typically either cost per click (CPC) or cost per 1,000 viewable impressions (vCPM). When choosing Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products, Amazon Ads primarily considers the keywords advertisers bid on, the amount advertisers bid and the customers’ expected interest in advertiser offers, based on information about the offer, similarities to other offers and past customer purchases. When choosing Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products, advertisers choose the maximum amount to pay for a shopper to click or view an ad.
Amazon DSP pricing
Amazon demand-side platform (DSP) supports a cost + fees pricing model, where advertisers can add a la carte fees for opt-in features and services (targeting, measurement, managed services, etc.). Amazon Ads also supports fixed cost-per-mille (CPM) campaigns where the CPM price is set based on a variety of supply/demand factors, and can be pre-negotiated between the seller and the buyer. Fixed price campaigns can be either guaranteed or non-guaranteed and supply can include Amazon owned and operated only, third-party only or a blend.
Amazon DSP offers fee-based services from third-party service providers, and handles the billing transactions between the advertiser and service provider.
| Service/Product | Description | Fee type |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon ads audiences | Amazon Ads offers a standard catalogue of audiences that are available for use on Amazon DSP campaigns. Amazon Ads audiences are invoiced based on the published CPM price for both positive and negative targeting use. If multiple audience segments are combined (impressions delivered to user(s) matching more than one audience), Amazon Ads only charges the highest CPM. | CPM |
| Omni-channel Measurement | Omnichannel Metrics (OCM) enables advertisers to measure the impact of their ad tactics on Omnichannel (online and offline) shopping activities across retail outlets while campaigns are mid-flight. This enables advertisers to allocate budgets to better performing campaigns before it ends and improve overall campaign ROAS. Learn about Omnichannel measurement | Percent of Media Cost |
| Third-party pre-bid targeting | Third party pre-bid targeting is functionality available on Amazon DSP. Charges for third-party pre-bid targeting is invoiced based on the published CPM price. | CPM |
| Third-party audiences | Amazon DSP customers have access to third-party audiences. Third-party audiences are invoiced based on the published CPM price. If multiple audience segments are combined (impressions delivered to user(s) matching more than one audience), Amazon Ads only charges the highest CPM. Amazon Ads customers won’t be charged third-party audience fees for negative targeting use. | CPM |
| Amazon DSP tech fee | Amazon DSP charge, set at the entity level, in exchange for system access and standard campaign management functionality. The tech fee is based on a percent of media cost and disclosed at the time of campaign setup. Please note, this fee may also be referred to as platform fee or console fee. | Percentage |
| Managed-service | Amazon Ads offers full campaign management support by an internal Amazon Ads team. The managed-service fee is invoiced as part of the Amazon DSP tech fee, which a percent-based fee added to the media cost. | Percentage |
Amazon Publisher Services Pricing
Amazon Publisher Services (APS) transactions occur on a cost-per-mille (CPM) basis that can be variable or fixed. Variable CPM prices apply to open auction bidding where CPMs fluctuate due to market demand. Fixed CPM prices apply to deals and are set based on a variety of supply/demand factors, and can be pre-negotiated between the seller and the buyer. Fixed price deals can be either guaranteed (e.g. Programmatic Guaranteed) or non-guaranteed.
| Service/Product | Description | Fee type |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory share agreements | Amazon may enter into inventory share agreements with selected publishers who distribute content on FireTV, Prime Video Channels and Alexa. Under these agreements publishers may provide a portion of their ad inventory to Amazon at discounted rates to support investment and innovation in these services. The inventory share agreements are negotiated privately between Amazon and publishers, and are not shown as fees due to the confidentiality terms which can impact the reported numbers. | Variable |
| Supply-side fee | The amount a publisher pays Amazon Ads to sell their supply via open auction. | Percentage |
Amazon Ad Server pricing
Amazon Ad Server (AAS) prices are based on negotiated rates, with no additional fees. Standard default rate cards are region and currency specific. Questions regarding AAS prices can be directed to adserver-revops@amazon.com
Pricing transparency UI update
Amazon Ads gives advertisers a choice to share their name and pricing data with publishers; and publishers a choice to share their name and pricing data with advertisers. To consent to share this information, a new setting is available in each of the customer interfaces, Amazon Ad Console and APS, with default setting of “no consent”. If an advertiser or publisher does not consent, their name and price metrics will not be disclosed, instead this information will be aggregated in the pricing transparency report.
Pricing transparency report
The expanded pricing transparency report provides Amazon Ads advertisers and publishers with campaigns in the EU, to view the costs and fees paid by the advertiser and earnings received by the publisher for ads shown on third-party websites and apps. Reports provide the daily aggregate of billable events (e.g. impressions and/or click-throughs) that Amazon Ads invoices to advertisers, and/or remits payment to APS publishers.
The daily aggregate metrics in the pricing transparency report are included based on the following criteria:
- The billable event (impression or click) must have been served to an EU country.
- Some advertisers and publishers may not have any data in the pricing transparency report. For example, a Japanese advertiser who has campaigns in Japan can access the report, but it is expected that the report will not have any pricing data for the Japanese advertiser.
- The billable event was purchased by an advertiser buying through Amazon Ads.
- The billable event on a third party website or app that is integrated with APS.
- Existing reports include pricing information for ads served on Amazon owned and operated websites and apps.
- Existing reports include pricing information for ads served from a third-party platform (e.g. SSP or 3PB).
Pricing report metrics
| Metric | Description | Calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher earnings | The net payment a publisher receives from Amazon Ads for serving ads on their supply. | Publisher earnings = supply cost - supply-side fees |
| Supply-side fees | The amount a publisher pays Amazon Ads to sell their supply via open auction. | Supply-side fees = CPM/1000 * billable fee |
| Total advertiser cost | The total amount an advertiser pays for their campaigns. This includes the supply cost plus any demand-side fees. | Total cost = supply cost + demand-side fees |
| Demand-side fees | The sum of any billable fee an advertiser pays to use Amazon Ads products, and includes Amazon DSP tech fee, Amazon Audience fee and third-party fees applied to campaigns. Note: Sponsored Ad products do not charge any demand-side fees to advertisers. | Demand-side fees = (audience fee) + (tech fee) + (3P pre-bid targeting) + (third-party audience fee) |
Due to varying impression counting methods, currency differences, and time needed to reconcile invalid traffic, publisher earnings and advertiser cost metrics may vary by up to 3%. If you see reporting discrepancies beyond these differences, contact your Amazon Ads representative.