Amazon advertising keeps changing in small steps, and the steps add up. A seller who set up campaigns a few years ago and has not looked closely since is running them in a different auction than the one they planned for. Clicks cost more in many categories, more of the console is automated, and more ad formats are within reach of ordinary sellers.
This post is a plain survey of where things stand. It covers the shifts that matter most for sellers and agencies running Sponsored Products, and what each one changes in practice. There are no forecasts here and no industry statistics, just the patterns most accounts are living with.
The auction is more crowded
More brands advertise on Amazon every year, and most of them start with Sponsored Products on the same high-intent search terms. The result, in most categories, is steady upward pressure on cost per click. The CPC trends post goes deeper on what drives it.
What it changes: waste costs more than it used to. A keyword that spent a little too much at a lower CPC now spends meaningfully too much. Hours of the day that convert poorly cost more per wasted click. The basics, tight negatives, sensible match types and controlled budgets, are worth more today than they were, not less.
Automation is everywhere, and it is uneven
Amazon has steadily added automated options in the console: dynamic bidding, suggested bids, budget recommendations, automated targeting and AI-assisted creative tools. Third-party software has moved the same way, with tools ranging from simple rule engines to fully algorithmic bid managers.
The useful question is no longer whether to automate. It is which decisions to automate and how to keep oversight of them. Repetitive, rule-shaped work, like pausing at night, capping budgets or catching a spend spike, suits automation well. Judgment calls, like which products deserve more budget this quarter, still need a person. AI in Amazon PPC covers where the line tends to fall.
What it changes: you need visibility into what automation is doing. Every automated change should be logged and reviewable. An account where bids move and nobody can say why is an account nobody is managing.
Video and streaming are within reach
Video has moved from a brand-only extra to a normal part of many accounts. Sponsored Brands video is common in competitive categories, and streaming TV placements are available to more advertisers than before. Creative tools inside the console have lowered the cost of producing a basic video.
What it changes: the bar for creative has risen in categories where competitors run video, because a static ad sits next to moving ones. It does not mean every seller needs streaming TV. For most, a solid product video used in Sponsored Brands is the practical step. The video ads guide covers the options.
Measurement has improved, and so has the noise
Sellers have more data than ever: search query performance, Brand Analytics, Amazon Marketing Cloud for those who qualify, hourly performance data, and more detailed reporting in the console. That is good news. It also means more numbers to misread.
The biggest risk is judging ads on ad-attributed metrics alone. ACoS tells you how efficient ad sales were. It does not tell you whether ads grew the business. TACoS, total sales and organic rank tell that part. Accounts that report both tend to make better budget decisions. ACoS versus TACoS explains the difference.
Timing matters more than it used to
When clicks were cheap, it mattered less when they were bought. Now that they are not, the difference between a strong evening hour and a dead overnight hour shows up clearly in profit. Hourly data is easier to get than it was, and more sellers are using it to schedule campaigns, adjust budgets through the day and shift spend around sales events.
What it changes: running every campaign around the clock at one bid is a choice, not a default. It may still be the right choice for some products. It should be made on purpose, after looking at the hourly data.
Agencies are under margin pressure
Agencies face the same rising costs as sellers, plus client pressure to show results on tighter budgets. Many are moving routine work, like scheduling, budget control and alerting, into software so that account managers spend their time on strategy and client communication. Pricing models are also under scrutiny, with more clients asking why fees scale with ad spend.
What it changes: the agencies that do well are the ones that can show clients exactly what changed in an account and why. A clear change log has become part of the service.
What to do with all of this
None of these shifts requires a new strategy from scratch. They do suggest a short checklist. Tighten the basics, because waste is more expensive. Decide which work to automate and keep a log of every automated change. Look at hourly performance before accepting around-the-clock delivery. Report total sales next to ad metrics. Add new formats only after search campaigns are efficient.
Sellers who run that checklist once a quarter will be in a better position than those chasing every new feature the week it launches.
Many of these shifts arrive as announcements at Amazon's annual Unboxed conference, most of them aimed at large brands first. How to filter the Unboxed announcements covers which ones a seller should act on and which can wait.
Frequently asked questions
Is Amazon advertising still worth it in 2026?
For most sellers with a competitive listing and healthy margins, yes. Sponsored Products remain the most direct way to reach shoppers who are already searching. What has changed is the margin for error: clicks cost more in many categories, so waste that was tolerable a few years ago now shows up in profit.
What is the biggest change in Amazon advertising this year?
The spread of automation, both Amazon's own and third-party. More bidding, targeting and creative decisions can be handed off. The sellers doing well are the ones who decide which decisions to hand off and which to keep, rather than handing off everything or nothing.
Should small sellers worry about DSP and streaming TV ads?
Not first. Those formats are easier to reach than before, but they work best once Sponsored Products are efficient and the listing converts. A small seller usually gets more from fixing search campaigns than from adding an upper-funnel channel.
Off Hours runs dayparting, budget and performance rules on a 15-minute cadence and logs every change, so the basics that matter more this year happen on schedule. Start a free 14-day trial.