As audiences continue to shift to streaming, the opportunity to connect with deeply engaged viewers has never been more critical. At the UpFronts, Amazon announced their Prime Video’s ad-supported monthly audience has reached more than 130 million in the U.S., with engagement increasing to 37% in monthly viewing hours. 88% of those consumers also shop on Amazon.
Amazon is continuing to push the boundaries, blending entertainment and commerce in ways that other platforms simply can't match. Here’s a closer look at three game-changing ad formats you’ll want to know about.
AI Contextual Pause Ads (Launching Q4 2025)
Imagine enjoying The Summer I Turned Pretty and watching a scene for a beach party on a summer evening. You pause the show to grab a snack and see an ad appear for beachwear, sunscreen or even a summer vacation rental. That’s the promise of Amazon’s new AI Contextual Pause Ads. This ad format uses artificial intelligence to understand the context of the content being paused, delivering hyper-relevant ads that match the mood and themes on screen.
Why It Matters: This is a significant leap for advertisers looking to make deeper emotional connections with viewers. It’s about catching audiences in moments when they’re already deeply invested in the content, potentially leading to higher brand recall and more meaningful interactions. Given the sheer scale of Amazon’s audience, this could be a powerful tool for brands looking to maximize their reach without compromising on relevance.
Shoppable Ads for Amazon Products (Launching Q3 2025)
For brands selling on Amazon, the new shoppable CTV ad format is a direct path to conversion. While there is currently ad-to-cart functionality that can be added to video ads, it leaves a bit to be desired. These ads allow viewers to add featured products to their Amazon cart with a simple click, streamlining the path from awareness to purchase. The best part of this updated add-to-cart functionality? These ads leverage real-time Amazon shopping signals, like Prime shipping info, reviews, and dynamic pricing, making them an incredibly powerful tool for driving direct sales.
Why It Matters: This format could be a game-changer for advertisers looking to bridge the gap between brand awareness and direct sales. With Amazon’s massive reach, this format offers a unique way to connect with audiences at the perfect moment of intent. Plus, the updated add-to-cart functionality with product-specific information is likely to lead to more informed add-to-carts, with a higher likelihood of an ultimate purchase.
Shoppable Ads for Off-Amazon Brands (Launching Q3 2025)
Amazon isn’t just focused on its own ecosystem. This new format brings the power of interactive CTV ads to brands that don’t sell directly on Amazon. Instead of an “add to cart” button, these ads offer tailored calls to action like “subscribe,” “book now,” or “learn more.” This flexibility allows brands to drive meaningful engagement, even if they’re selling through their own channels or other third-party platforms.
Why It Matters: This is a smart move by Amazon to capture a broader range of advertisers. It acknowledges that not every brand wants to sell directly on Amazon but still values the reach and insights the platform provides. For brands looking to expand their footprint without being tied to a single marketplace, this could be a powerful new channel for growth.
Complete TV
As the streaming landscape becomes more fragmented and competitive, advertisers are facing a critical challenge: how to effectively plan, manage, and measure their TV ad spend across multiple platforms. Amazon's answer to this challenge is Complete TV, a powerful new tool within Amazon DSP that aims to simplify and supercharge TV buying for advertisers.
What is Complete TV?
Complete TV is a first-of-its-kind capability that allows TV buyers to manage their holistic streaming TV buys, including both upfront and scatter budgets, across Prime Video and premium streaming publishers. This AI-powered platform offers real-time pacing insights, automated budget allocation, and powerful performance analytics to help advertisers maximize their reach and eliminate media waste. In short, it’s a unified solution for an increasingly complex media landscape.
Key Features of Complete TV:
- Maximized Audience Reach: Complete TV helps advertisers achieve up to 95% addressability, leveraging Amazon’s Ad Relevance technology to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time. It’s a sophisticated way to manage reach and frequency across both linear and streaming channels.
- Interoperable with Existing Tools: Whether you prefer to work within Amazon’s Ads Planner or your own proprietary technology, Complete TV integrates seamlessly, allowing you to input budgets, audience signals, and upfront rates for precise budget allocation across multiple publishers.
- Advanced Performance Analytics: Complete TV provides deep insights into campaign performance, including publisher reach, audience overlap, brand lift, and top conversion paths, thanks to Amazon’s robust analytics capabilities. This data can be further analyzed in the Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) for a truly holistic view of campaign impact.
- Cost Efficiency: Complete TV is designed to reduce costs at every step, with industry-leading low fees—0% for programmatic guaranteed (PG) deals on Amazon properties and just 1% for PG deals on premium streaming publishers. This means more of your budget goes toward reaching your audience, rather than being eaten up by platform fees.
Why It Matters: For advertisers, the stakes have never been higher. As streaming continues to outpace traditional TV, brands need smarter tools to reach high-value audiences without blowing their budgets. Complete TV offers a critical advantage by combining the scale of Prime Video with the precision of Amazon’s AI-backed insights. This means less media waste, more efficient budget use, and a clearer picture of true business impact. In a world where every impression counts, the ability to optimize reach and frequency across platforms isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a necessity.
What This Really Means for Your Brand
With over millions of monthly ad-supported viewers in the U.S., Amazon is doubling down on the future of CTV advertising, and these new formats are a big part of that strategy. Whether you're a brand looking to drive direct sales or one seeking deeper audience connections, these ad formats offer a wealth of opportunity. The future of advertising is about blending content and commerce in a way that feels natural and intuitive — and Amazon is clearly leading the charge.