Amazon DSP Fundamentals and Platform Overview
The big picture
Amazon DSP is a demand-side platform for buying display, video, audio, and connected-TV inventory programmatically, both on Amazon-owned properties and across the open web through Amazon Publisher Services and third-party exchanges. Candidates should be fluent in the hierarchy: advertiser account → campaign → order → line item → creative, and in the distinction between self-service and managed service buying. Know the roles: campaigns hold budget and flight dates; orders group line items and can carry a frequency cap; line items carry targeting, bidding, and budget at the tactical level.
Concepts to master
- Supply sources: Amazon-owned (e.g., IMDb, Twitch, Fire TV), Amazon Publisher Services, and third-party exchanges.
- Audiences: Amazon shopper audiences (in-market, lifestyle, remarketing), Amazon-created and advertiser-created audiences, and third-party segments.
- Bidding: fixed, dynamic (up-and-down), and rule-based; plus deal types like preferred deals and private marketplace.
- Measurement: Amazon Attribution, viewability, and reporting dimensions.
Traps
Questions love to blur campaign vs. order vs. line item responsibilities (e.g., where frequency caps live, where budget is set). Another classic: assuming DSP only serves Amazon.com placements - it reaches third-party inventory too. Watch for confusion between Amazon Attribution (off-Amazon measurement of Amazon ads) and DSP-native reporting.
Rule of thumb
Budget and flight = campaign/order level; targeting, bid, and pacing = line item level. If a question asks where a tactical setting lives, default to the line item.