Amazon's advertising business is on track to surpass USD 60 billion in retail media ad revenue this year, according to WARC Media's latest "Platform Insights: Amazon" report. This growth indicates Amazon's expanding role as a platform for full-funnel marketing activation, moving beyond its core paid search formats.

Despite its significant ad revenue, advertising currently accounts for only 9.2 per cent of Amazon's total revenue. However, its ad growth rate, which was 17.7 per cent in Q1 2025, is outpacing its overall sales growth. This suggests that advertising is becoming an increasingly important contributor to Amazon's profitability.

"E-commerce giant Amazon offers more than retail media advertising—it's quickly becoming a leading platform for full-funnel activation, with streaming TV and its own demand-side platform serving advertisers of all sizes," stated Alex Brownsell, head of content, WARC Media, and co-author of the report.

While paid search formats like sponsored products remain central to Amazon's ad offerings, the company has seen incremental growth through upper-funnel ad spend, notably via its Prime Video platform. Display ad revenue is projected to double over the last four years by the end of 2025. This expansion allows brands to reach over 200 million shoppers who watch Prime Video, offering new formats and vast first-party data signals.

Amazon's reach extends beyond its e-commerce platform, with an average of 2.5 billion visitors per month globally. The company is also leveraging its demand-side platform (DSP) to allow brands to extend campaigns to other social platforms, including Meta, Pinterest and Snap, and is actively expanding its network of premium publishing partners for off-site growth.

Consumer sentiment towards Amazon ads appears positive. According to Kantar’s Media Reactions study, Amazon ranks highly as a preferred media platform for advertising, with consumers favoring its ads for relevancy, usefulness, trustworthiness, and innovation. This suggests a strong foundation for advertiser engagement.

However, global marketers have not yet ranked Amazon among their top-five preferred digital media brands. Amazon aims to address this perception through continued AI innovation and advanced creative tools across its display, audio, and video ad formats. The company's internal meta-analysis of brand lift suggests that multi-channel or multi-format campaigns within the Amazon ecosystem drive better brand lift for advertisers.