Amazon Has a New Way to Prove That TV Ads Drive Sales

Amazon wants to prove that its video ads actually work.

Brand+, a new ad-targeting tool in Amazon’s demand-side platform, or Amazon DSP, emerged from beta today. The tool uses AI to analyze shopping, browsing, and streaming signals and then optimizes ad buys across streaming TV and online video to target an audience who is most likely to buy an advertiser’s product.

The goal is to bring more of a performance focus to TV advertising, which is traditionally seen as an upper-funnel, brand awareness play.

Brand+ is the newest example of how Amazon is trying to win over big-spending TV advertisers. Amazon’s search and digital ads have long focused on driving conversions, and Amazon hopes to do the same with TV ads as it builds out a large streaming ad business.

Using Amazon DSP, “advertisers can apply AI-optimized automation to purchase TV advertising that reaches unique audiences of customers most likely to buy their products or services,” Kelly MacLean, vice president of Amazon DSP, said in a statement. The tool, “[turns] brand awareness into a strategic driver of conversions.”

Through Brand+, advertisers can buy ads across Amazon-owned properties including Prime Video and Twitch as well as video publishers like Buzzfeed, Fox Corporation, and Dotdash Meredith. Amazon sells some ads for these publishers in exchange for earning a cut of ad revenue.

In beta testing, Amazon said that some advertisers saw a 10% increase in sales and over 70% increase in website traffic.

“We are seeing more ROAS and better reach with customers that engage with our brand over time,” said Rajiv Ragu, senior vice president of growth at Thorne, in a statement. Thorne—a vitamin and supplement company—participated in Amazon’s beta test with Brand+. “We’re doubling down on our STV strategy in 2025 and are laser focused on Brand+,” Ragu added.

Brand+ is basically an upper-funnel pairing to another one of Amazon’s tools in Amazon DSP called Performance+. Performance+ uses AI to find audiences most likely to convert on digital ads.

Bolstering Amazon’s retail media dominance

Brand+ pushes Amazon further ahead of competitors in the retail media space, noted Mike Feldman, senior vice president and global head of retail media at VaynerMedia. He said that it’s a compelling play as Amazon aims to convince more clients to use Amazon DSP as their primary DSP over alternatives like Google or The Trade Desk.

“Amazon has more data and is using it more effectively than everyone else,” he said.

While the new tool will likely help ecommerce-first advertisers identify new or specific audiences more efficiently, Feldman said it also creates an opportunity for advertisers that don’t sell direct-to-consumer online or via Amazon. Because it allows brands to target ads based on such a wide range of data, non-endemic advertisers like automakers and finance companies are also likely to benefit.

“The more that you plug into Amazon’s [retail media business], the more effective that’s going to be, because they just have such a ridiculous amount of data,” Feldman said. “To think any brand can do it on their own, or couldn’t do it better with Amazon, seems really short-sighted.”