The news
Amazon opened DVA+ to all US advertisers on October 24, 2026. DVA+ is the Display, Video, and Audio campaign flow inside Amazon Ads Agent, the company's unified advertising platform announced at unBoxed on September 29. It takes three formats that used to be planned and bought separately, including Sponsored Display, Sponsored TV, and programmatic display, video, and audio, and runs them as one campaign with one budget and one objective.
The setup is four steps: choose an objective, select products or a brand URL, review AI-generated creatives, and set a budget. From there, DVA+ handles targeting, inventory selection, format allocation, bidding, creative generation, and continuous optimization. It is powered by Brand+, which identifies audiences, and Performance+, which optimizes toward outcomes. Advertisers who want manual control can use advanced settings, which keep audience targeting, deals, frequency caps, and bid strategies in human hands. Domain-level reporting shows where every impression served, by publisher, format, and geography.
Amazon plans to expand internationally through the fourth quarter of 2026, with general availability across 35 markets targeted for the first quarter of 2027, and API access targeted for the same quarter. That makes the current window a genuine early-adopter period for US brands, not a permanent beta.
Why it matters now
Timing is the whole story. DVA+ opened weeks before Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which means brands can test it with real holiday traffic rather than theorizing about it in January. Early beta data reported alongside the launch claims 67% higher long-term ROAS and a 29% drop in new-to-brand customer acquisition cost versus managing the channels separately. Treat those numbers with the right caveat: they come from Amazon's own internal data, not independent measurement. They are a reason to test, not a promise.
There is also a useful contrast inside the same platform. Full-Funnel Campaigns, the other new campaign type in Amazon Ads Agent, is already available to US advertisers, and Amazon's case study for dog treat brand Canine Naturals reported 41% of sales from new-to-brand shoppers over 206 days. DVA+ is the programmatic sibling: less about one AI-planned funnel, more about unifying the upper- and mid-funnel formats that used to eat hours of trafficking and reconciliation.
The operator's take
The pitch for DVA+ is simplification, and simplification is real value when a team is stretched thin in Q4. One budget, one objective, and one reporting view beats three disconnected campaigns that each need their own pacing checks. But simplification is not the same as abdication. When the agent picks the audience and sets the bid, someone on the team still owns the objective, the budget, and the stopping rule. Write those down before launch, not after the first invoice.
Three practical rules for a first test:
1. One objective, one product line. Do not launch DVA+ as a catch-all for the whole catalog. Pick a hero product line with enough margin to absorb a learning period, and give it a single goal, such as new-to-brand reach or consideration, so you can judge it cleanly.
2. Approve the creative yourself. The creative agent generates assets automatically, and Amazon reports up to 71% more product coverage and up to 15% sales growth for advertisers using its generative creative tools. That is useful leverage, but generated creative still needs a human eye for brand voice, claims, and pack-size accuracy before it serves.
3. Build a holdout. If you can, keep a comparable product line or geo on your existing setup for the same period. Amazon's numbers are directional, and your own incrementality read is the only one that matters for renewing the budget in January.
What to do this week
If you advertise on Amazon and sell in the US, check whether DVA+ is available in your account, and if it is, scope one test campaign before Black Friday traffic peaks. Set the objective and budget in writing, approve the creative, and decide in advance what success looks like and when you will pull the plug. Brands that learn the tool now will enter the Q1 2027 general availability window with benchmarks, while everyone else is still reading the announcement.
The Starren Group helps brands plan and run Amazon advertising, from full-funnel strategy to programmatic testing. If you want a second opinion on where DVA+ fits your Q4 plan, get in touch.
