Amazon Ads isn't just for sellers anymore

Amazon reported earnings on July 30, 2026, and the advertising line is the number worth stopping on. Ad revenue grew 26 percent year over year to $19.8 billion for the quarter, part of the company's first $200 billion revenue quarter. The part most small business marketers miss: a growing share of that money is not coming from people who sell on Amazon at all. It is coming from brands that use Amazon as a media platform, the way they already use Google and Meta.

What actually happened on July 30

Amazon's Q2 2026 results showed total net sales of $200.6 billion, up 20 percent year over year, and advertising services revenue of $19.8 billion, up 26 percent. CEO Andy Jassy specifically called out advertising as a growth driver alongside AWS, which grew 37 percent, its fastest rate in 18 quarters. Full-year 2026 Amazon ad revenue is now projected at roughly $88.6 billion, up from $56.2 billion in 2024, a jump that outpaces Amazon's overall retail growth by a wide margin. Ad businesses do not grow that fast by selling more ads to the same sellers. They grow by opening the platform to advertisers who were not there before.

The stat that matters: non-endemic spend tripled

Non-endemic advertisers, meaning brands in categories like auto, financial services, insurance and travel that sell nothing on Amazon, accounted for 23.8 percent of total Amazon ad spend in 2026, up from 9.1 percent in 2023, according to eMarketer's 2026 full-year digital advertising forecast. That is not a rounding change. It means roughly one in four dollars flowing through Amazon's ad business now comes from advertisers with no Amazon storefront, buying the platform purely for its audience data and reach.

How a non-seller actually buys Amazon ad inventory

The mechanism is Amazon DSP, its demand-side platform, which now reaches beyond Amazon.com through more than 340 external publisher integrations, a network Amazon says drove a 44 percent increase in off-Amazon programmatic placements. As of May 2026, that inventory expanded again when LinkedIn connected TV became buyable through Amazon DSP for US advertisers, putting Amazon's purchase-intent audience data behind CTV placements that used to require a separate buy. In practice this means a business with no Amazon listing can run display, video or CTV ads targeted using Amazon's shopping and browsing signals, and send every click to its own website, not an Amazon product page.

Why this matters more now than it did a year ago

The context is signal loss. As Apple and Google tighten tracking, first-party purchase data has become the scarcest resource in performance marketing, and Amazon has more of it than almost anyone outside Google and Meta. That is also why YouTube's Q2 2026 numbers are worth a glance in the same breath: Alphabet reported YouTube ad revenue of $11.06 billion, up roughly 13 percent year over year, with growth specifically attributed to direct response demand from small and medium businesses and continued share shift from linear TV to connected TV. Two different platforms, the same underlying pattern: budget is migrating toward whoever holds owned audience or purchase data, not just impressions.

Where Amazon Ads actually fits in an SMB media plan

Amazon is not a replacement for Google Search or Meta. For most small businesses those two remain the workhorses for demand capture and demand generation. Amazon Ads earns a place as a third platform for two specific jobs: reaching households through purchase-intent data your other platforms cannot replicate, and running connected TV or display at a scale a small media budget could not previously afford. It is a poor fit if your business has no product that benefits from purchase-intent targeting, or if your team cannot support one more reporting dashboard on top of Google Ads and Meta Ads.

If you already run performance marketing across Google and Meta, adding an Amazon DSP test is a reallocation decision, not a new department. Brief your media team on it the same way you would a new Meta placement: a hypothesis, a budget cap and a CAC target, reviewed after 30 to 45 days of spend.

Frequently asked questions

How much ad revenue did Amazon make in Q2 2026?

Amazon advertising revenue grew 26 percent year over year to $19.8 billion in the second quarter of 2026, reported alongside total net sales of $200.6 billion, the company's first $200 billion revenue quarter. Full-year 2026 Amazon ad revenue is projected at roughly $88.6 billion, up from $56.2 billion in 2024.

What is a non-endemic advertiser on Amazon?

A non-endemic advertiser is a brand that does not sell products on Amazon at all, such as an auto, financial services or travel company, but still buys Amazon ad inventory to reach Amazon's shopper and browsing data. Non-endemic spend reached 23.8 percent of total Amazon ad spend in 2026, up from 9.1 percent in 2023, according to eMarketer.

Can I run Amazon Ads if I do not sell anything on Amazon?

Yes. Amazon DSP lets non-sellers buy display, video and connected TV inventory both on Amazon properties and across a network of more than 340 external publishers, driving Amazon shoppers back to your own website or landing page rather than an Amazon product listing.

Is Amazon Ads a replacement for Google or Meta Ads?

No, treat it as a third platform rather than a replacement. Google and Meta remain the primary demand capture and demand generation channels for most small businesses. Amazon Ads adds reach through purchase-intent data and off-Amazon inventory that Google and Meta cannot offer, and works best as a test budget alongside existing channels, not instead of them.

Why is Amazon advertising growing faster than the rest of its business?

Amazon's advertising arm is growing faster than retail because it monetizes first-party purchase and browsing data that has become scarcer elsewhere as Apple and Google tighten tracking. Amazon DSP's expansion to 340-plus external publishers and new connected TV inventory, including LinkedIn CTV as of May 2026, is turning that data advantage into ad inventory well beyond Amazon.com.

The takeaway

The headline from Amazon's Q2 2026 earnings is not that ecommerce is strong, it is that Amazon has quietly become a general-purpose ad platform competing for the same non-endemic dollars Google and Meta have owned for a decade. You do not need a storefront to test it, and the audience data behind it is a genuine hedge against signal loss elsewhere. Start small, measure it against your real CAC target, and let the results decide whether it earns a permanent line in the budget.