Amazon DSP in July

July brought one of the bigger quality of life changes to streaming deals in a while, Netflix quietly finished its journey from custom deals to ordinary inventory, and the Q4 calendar started taking shape. Here is what changed, and what we shipped in VICTOR.AD to go with it.

New in VICTOR.AD

Is that inventory on Amazon DSP?

A client asks if a publisher is available through Amazon DSP in their market. Now you can answer on the call: the inventory map covers every publisher and format, country by country, across streaming TV, online video, display and audio.

Simpler deal filters

Browsing deals in the planner now filters directly by Programmatic Guaranteed, Preferred Deals and Private Auction. CPMs and the margin you add on top are clearer and easier to adjust.

Frequency caps now enforce on streaming deals

Amazon switched this on worldwide on 15 July, automatically wherever a cap is already set. Frequency management on deals has been an implementation headache for years: caps were counted in some lanes and quietly ignored in others.

Caps now count and enforce across Private Auction, non guaranteed, and Programmatic Guaranteed bought through 1P, APD and ADx. For Programmatic Guaranteed from other SSPs, Netflix included, the cap counts but the publisher still controls delivery, so it is not enforced there yet. Full announcement notes.

Netflix as plain regular deals

Netflix started as custom deals only, then came to the proposals interface, and is now available as regular deals: no minimum spend, some allowing Amazon audiences but not all. Base CPMs get a bit worse as you go down that list, so the easiest route is also the priciest.

Here is the full walkthrough of buying Netflix through Amazon DSP.

Prime Big Deal Days: 6 and 7 October

Update, 15 September: Amazon has now confirmed the dates, 6 and 7 October.

Still a rumour, not confirmed by Amazon. If Q4 plans are on your desk, that is the date to build flights around for now. VICTOR.AD does the allocation for you: pick the event in the schedule step and it suggests the right dates and spreads budget across the timeline, as shown in this walkthrough.