Amazon Ads doubles down on Australia to prove full-funnel marketing isn’t a myth
Amazon Ads is using Australia to show how streaming, shopping, and AI can finally link brand dollars to conversions
Amazon is on a mission to turn brand advertising into a performance channel, and it’s picked Australia as its proving ground.
With five million Prime Video viewers, strong advertiser retention, and AI tools linking entertainment to shopping behavior, the company is pitching itself as the rare player that can merge scale, data, and accountability in one stack.
This article explores how Amazon Ads is trying to connect the dots between brand spend and real results, and what it means for marketers navigating fragmented channels, rising media costs, and the pressure to prove ROI.
Short on time?
Here’s a table of contents for quick access:
- Why Australia matters in Amazon Ads’ global strategy
- The AI layer powering Amazon’s media stack
- What marketers should know: measurement, efficiency, and real-world use cases
Patrecia Meliana
Why Australia matters in Amazon Ads' global strategy
Australia is now one of Amazon Ads’ fastest-growing markets, according to Vice President Tamir Bar-Haim. That growth is anchored by Prime Video Ads, which currently reaches five million customers and has seen 80% advertiser renewal since launch.
For Bar-Haim, the current state of brand marketing is broken. “Historically, it sat off in a silo and it’s been difficult to connect that brand investment back to real, tangible business outcomes,” he said. The company's core focus is now what he calls the “connective tissue” between brand and performance, linking entertainment experiences to measurable business impact.
General Manager Willie Pang added that Australian marketers, under mounting pressure to do more with less, are looking for ways to consolidate spend across fragmented channels. With Amazon’s DSP, advertisers can activate campaigns across Amazon-owned inventory and premium open internet publishers including Netflix, using a unified planning and measurement layer.
Pang also described Australia as the ideal test bed for true interoperability, where campaigns can be activated across shopping, streaming, and browsing environments.
The AI layer powering Amazon's media stack
Amazon isn’t just selling media. It’s selling automation, scale, and predictive planning. The company’s AI-powered DSP uses trillions of signals across customer touchpoints to automate campaign setup and optimize performance.
According to the team, early data shows campaign setup times are 75% faster using its AI tools. Bar-Haim said this goes beyond workflow efficiency. “We think we can have a similar impact in the advertising space as we did with personalisation in retail.”
This push includes the Amazon Marketing Cloud, which allows brands to blend their own first-party data with Amazon’s shopping and entertainment signals to map out and optimize full customer journeys. Even brands that don’t sell on Amazon are seeing value.
Take DoorDash: its DoorPass campaign tied to Prime Video’s Nine Perfect Strangers reached 3.9 million customers and lifted purchase intent by 16 points. Nestlé also saw a 321% lift in category searches for NESCAFÉ Espresso Concentrate through a Prime Day activation that spanned Amazon Stores, Prime Video, and influencer placements.
What marketers should know
Here’s what B2B marketers and media decision-makers should take away from Amazon’s push:
1. Full-funnel advertising may finally be real
If Amazon can deliver on its connective tissue promise, marketers may finally get the long-sought ability to track and optimize brand investments all the way to conversions without switching platforms.
2. Australia is Amazon’s blueprint market
Australia’s tight media budgets and advanced DSP adoption make it the ideal lab. If this model works here, expect it to expand rapidly to other regions.
3. Sport isn’t just culture. It’s conversion fuel
Amazon’s deals to stream cricket in Australia, NBA games globally, and other region-specific sports are more than just a reach play. They are a bid to own cultural moments that drive engagement, awareness, and bottom-funnel behaviors.
4. AI is quietly solving media bloat
Marketers struggling with bloated workflows and inefficient planning stacks may find relief in Amazon’s AI-backed system. Faster campaign builds and dynamic measurement help brands shift resources from admin to strategy.
Amazon Ads isn’t trying to replace TV or digital video. It’s trying to fuse what’s best about both worlds: scale and storytelling from streaming, and accountability and optimization from digital. The goal is to create a system that finally closes the loop between brand awareness and business outcomes.
If the model succeeds in Australia, it could redefine what marketers expect from full-funnel platforms around the world.
