I ran $1M+ in Amazon DSP campaigns when I worked at Amazon, and I never used The Trade Desk. That means I know Amazon's side deeply but I have no loyalty to it. I've spent the last year talking to teams making this switch. This is what I've collected.
Most teams considering the move can see reasons to try Amazon DSP but nobody wants to be the one who pushed for a migration that created six months of problems. Fair enough. So here's what gets better, what gets worse, and what nobody mentions until you're already committed.
Where Amazon DSP has a real advantage
Amazon lets you build audiences from what people actually browse, add to cart, and buy. First party purchase data. No other DSP has it. If your product sells on Amazon, you also get closed loop attribution without needing a pixel. That combination alone can justify the switch for endemic brands.
Platform fees are lower too. Amazon DSP runs 4% to 8%. The Trade Desk typically charges 12% to 15%. For Programmatic Guaranteed deals, Amazon can go as low as 1%. On $100,000 monthly spend, that difference covers a junior planner's salary. TTD's stock crashed 38% in a single day in August 2025, partly because of this pricing pressure.
Streaming inventory has caught up. A year ago this was Amazon's biggest gap. Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, Max, Roku, and Spotify are all accessible through Amazon DSP now. Combined with Prime Video, Amazon Music, Twitch, and Fire TV, the inventory argument against Amazon has mostly gone away.
The old $50k/month minimums are gone for most advertisers. You can start smaller and scale.
Where The Trade Desk still wins
Ignoring this part would waste your time.
Reporting is more intuitive on TTD. Amazon's standard reporting covers the basics, but anything deeper requires Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), which runs on SQL style queries instead of point and click dashboards. If your team is used to TTD's reporting interface, expect a learning curve. AMC is powerful once you know it. Getting there takes time.
Conversion tracking outside Amazon is also simpler on TTD. If you don't sell on Amazon, setting up Amazon's ad tag and Conversion API is harder than TTD's equivalents. Most teams struggle with implementation, and messy tracking leads to messy attribution. This is the single biggest operational headache I hear about.
TTD lets you set impression caps and frequency targets directly. Amazon DSP is entirely budget based. You can't set impression level caps the way you can on TTD. New betas are rolling out to address this, but it's not fully there yet.
And if you need digital out of home (billboards, bus shelters, mall screens), TTD's inventory is significantly deeper. Amazon's options here are very limited.
The parts nobody warns you about
Getting creatives approved on Amazon is painful, especially for healthcare, legal, finance, or anything remotely sensitive. I dealt with this firsthand on Amazon's ad policy team. The review process is thorough but slow. Plan your creative timelines with extra buffer.
The system and resellers will suggest Amazon inventory even when you're running campaigns for products that don't sell on Amazon. Everyone is still adjusting to the idea that advertisers come to Amazon DSP for reasons other than Amazon's exclusive placements. It's getting better, but expect some friction.
The interface is learnable but frustrating. TTD users typically find the core concepts similar. The navigation and workflow are different. Amazon is transitioning to a Campaigns to Ad Groups structure (similar to TTD), but not all reports and interface elements reflect this change yet. Give it 2 to 3 weeks.
Amazon support gets noticeably worse during Q4 and Prime Day, exactly when you need it most. Peak season inventory for Prime Video also disappears or gets expensive during these windows.
Hidden fees exist on both sides. Amazon hides Digital Services Taxes from your ROAS numbers. TTD hides many more fees too, just structured differently. Neither platform is fully transparent here.
Who should actually consider this switch
The strongest case is for teams where at least two of these are true:
You sell products on Amazon and want closed loop attribution without pixel headaches
You need access to Amazon's shopping data for audience building
You're already buying streaming inventory and want to consolidate into fewer platforms
Your media spend is large enough that the fee difference between 4% and 12% matters operationally
If your business doesn't touch Amazon's ecosystem and your TTD setup is working, the switch creates more friction than value.
Before you commit
If you want to see what an Amazon DSP campaign would actually look like before touching the platform, VICTOR.AD generates a complete media plan in minutes. No signup required.
And if you'd rather see the platform itself before deciding, you can open the real Amazon DSP interface on a free test account, nothing spent.
If your team is already planning DSP, this covers how agencies are using it. If you're starting from zero, this one explains the basics.