Guide
Interest-based advertising, explained
How to connect with more relevant audiences
Interest-based advertising connects brands with audiences based on their demonstrated preferences and behaviors. This advertising approach uses signals to deliver more relevant ads that resonate with consumers’ interests.
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Interest-based advertising uses consumer behavior insights to deliver tailored ads that match shoppers' preferences and past activities. Interest-based ads help brands connect with new audiences more effectively by showing relevant products and services to people who have demonstrated related interests.
What is interest-based advertising?
Interest-based advertising is a digital marketing strategy that engages consumers based on their demonstrated interests, behaviors, and preferences signaled by online activities. This advertising approach analyzes insights like browsing history, purchase patterns, search queries, and social media interactions to create tailored ad experiences that resonate with relevant audiences. The Beyond the Generational Divide research report from Amazon Ads noted that audiences are 2.1X more unified by behaviors and interests than generations. By focusing on shared behaviors, marketers can define their audiences with measurable actions and habits rather than assumptions.1
Why is interest-based advertising important?
Interest-based advertising is important for modern marketers as it can improve campaign effectiveness and customer engagement. Rather than delivering ads based on demographics, delivering relevant ads based on interests can help brands achieve higher conversion rates and build stronger connections with their desired audiences while providing shoppers with more meaningful and useful advertising experiences. Advertisers using Amazon DSP found that, on average, campaigns that use both age-based and interest-based audiences together have conversion rates up to 2.2X higher than campaigns that only use age-based audiences.2
Key benefits of interest-based ads
The key benefits of interest-based ads are their ability to genuinely match the interests of relevant audiences, leading to more effective campaigns and an enhanced customer experience.
More effective campaigns
As noted in Amazon Ads Beyond the Generational Divide research, advertisers that used both age-based and interest-based audiences saw a 1.5X increase in page views, add-to-cart rates, and purchase rates, compared to advertisers that only used age-based audiences. Video advertisers that used both age-based and interest-based audiences saw a 2.2X increase in page views and a 1.7X increase in add-to-cart rates on average compared to advertisers that only used age-based audiences.3
Enhanced customer experience
Consumers receive more useful and tailored advertising across all their touchpoints, leading to a better overall customer experience. Rather than seeing irrelevant messages, shoppers encounter ads that genuinely interest them throughout their cross-channel journey—whether they're streaming content, browsing online, or listening to music. This coordinated approach creates a more positive relationship with digital advertising and helps brands maintain consistent, relevant messaging as customers move between channels.
An interest-based approach acknowledges that shopping behaviors reflecting life stages, circumstances, and preferences connect audiences more accurately than demographic labels or broad content placements. Rather than displaying advertisements that may feel random or unrelated, interest-based advertising helps ensure that fitness enthusiasts see athletic gear promotions and cooking enthusiasts encounter kitchen appliance offers, enabling more meaningful connections between brands and potential customers.
Considerations for interest-based advertising
While interest-based advertising offers numerous benefits, it can also present considerations that advertisers must address responsibly. Privacy considerations are the primary concern for many consumers, and understanding these concerns and addressing them with transparency is key to building effective advertising practices.
Amazon Ads follows specific privacy guidelines that vary by country and region when delivering interest-based advertising. We provide transparency about how audience insights are used and give consumers options regarding their advertising preferences. For detailed information about Amazon's approach to interest-based advertising compliance and how we follow guidance required by each country's laws, visit our interest-based ads policy page.
Brand safety also becomes crucial when advertising appears based on interests. Advertisers should ensure robust safeguards to ensure their messages appear in appropriate contexts. Learn more about maintaining brand safety, building brand trust, and tracking brand health to protect your advertising investments.
Examples of interest-based advertising
The following real-world applications demonstrate how brands successfully leveraged interest-based advertising to achieve their marketing objectives and connect with relevant consumers.
RESEARCH
Global research from Amazon Ads shows how brands can go beyond demographics to connect with relevant audiences through shared values, interests, behaviors, and communities.
Case Study
Adbrew and Totalyty helped Bounce, a healthy snack brand, optimize their interest-based advertising approach by identifying audiences who had shown interest in health and fitness products. Through careful audience segmentation and strategic campaign optimization, they achieved a 15% quarterly increase in ad sales while maintaining cost-effective spending levels.
Case Study
Wunderman Thompson Commerce and Mars Petcare UK demonstrated the power of interest-based advertising by engaging consumers who had shown interest in pet care products. Their comprehensive digital marketing strategy resulted in a 303% increase in Whiskas sales by reaching audiences who had previously demonstrated interest in similar products and pet-related content.
Solutions from Amazon Ads
Amazon Ads provides comprehensive tools and solutions to help brands implement effective interest-based advertising campaigns across multiple touchpoints and audience segments. Amazon Ads leverages unique shopping, streaming, and browsing signals to help advertisers reach interested consumers at every stage of their journey. Our advertising technology combines first-party insights with advanced reach capabilities to deliver relevant ads that help drive meaningful results.
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Show up alongside the content your customers love with full-screen, non-skippable video ads that appear before, during, or after video content like TV shows, movies, and live entertainment across connected TV, mobile, and desktop. Streaming TV ads can appear on Prime Video, Twitch, live sports, Fire TV Channels, and top third-party TV publishers and broadcasters.
With billions of proprietary audience signals and a breadth of simple tools, Amazon Ads helps brands build an insight-driven audience strategy to make more meaningful connections.
Additional resources
Sources
1 Amazon Ads custom research with Strat7 Crowd.DNA. Beyond the Generational Divide: The new rules for consumer connection. Fielded December 2024 to January 2025. Data reflects AU, BR, CA, DE, ES, FR, IT, JP, MX, U.K., and U.S. aggregated. Base: All respondents (26,400), Gen Z (6,680), Millennials (6,680), Gen X (6,668), Baby Boomers (6,372).
2-3 Amazon internal data. January 2024 – December 2024. Analysis based on 710 Amazon DSP campaigns that used either age-based audiences only or both age-based and interest-based audiences. Among advertisers in US, CA, UK, IN, FR, JP, AU, BR, AE, TR, DE, ES, IT that sell their products on Amazon.com.