Open Auction? Deals? How to Buy Media on Amazon's DSP with Ross Walker & Danilo Alvares - Episode 422

🎙️Interview with Ross Walker & Danilo Alvares of Acadia

DESCRIPTION

Welcome to The Ecommerce Braintrust podcast, brought to you by Julie Spear, Head of Retail Marketplace Services, and Jordan Ripley, Director of Retail Account Management.

We're diving into a big topic this week: programmatic media buying through Amazon DSP, and the many different ways brands can leverage it. If you've been wondering how to get started with ADSP or how to access the right inventory to drive real results, this episode has you covered.

To help us unpack it all, we've invited two of our in-house experts: Ross Walker, Director of Retail Media, and Danilo Alvares, Senior Retail Media Manager.

Tune in to find out more!

Quote:

"The key, I would say, is balancing scale and transparency depending on what the brand is trying to learn and achieve."

Danilo Alvares

KEY TAKEAWAYS

In this episode, Julie, Jordan, Ross, and Danilo discuss:

• Ways to Access Amazon DSP: The difference between the traditional Amazon Managed Service, agency/tech partner "seats," and brands owning and operating their DSP seat in-house.

• Evolution of DSP Access: How Amazon has opened up the DSP ecosystem, making it more user-friendly and accessible for agencies and self-service buyers.

• Buying Models - Crawl, Walk, Run: The progression from open auction (crawl) to private auctions (walk) to preferred deals and programmatic guarantees (run), describing the level of control, complexity, and inventory at each stage.

• Aligning Deal Types with Brand Goals: How brands should approach DSP deals based on their growth stage, goals (reach vs. efficiency), and market maturity.

• Custom Deals & Working with Amazon Supply Desk: Insights on negotiating custom inventory deals that align closely with brand audiences, often requiring a strong relationship with Amazon's supply desk team.

• Latest Updates – Project Deal Builder: The team discusses Amazon's new (beta) Project Deal Builder, which aims to democratize custom deal-making for DSP buyers further.

• Transparency and Measurement: Examination of how transparency, reporting, and measurement vary across different buying models—and how tools like AMC (Amazon Marketing Cloud) help unify data analysis.

• Favorite Types of Buys: Both Danilo Alvares and Ross Walker share their excitement around mixing precise audience targeting with creative formats and leveraging new inventory opportunities like streaming TV.