Digiday+ Research: Advertisers diversify their use of DSPs, to Amazon’s benefit

It’s an appropriate time for this kind of move. Amazon’s DSP has seen a growth in advertisers’ use of and preference for the platform over the last year and a half, as others such as The Trade Desk and Google have lost some clout with advertisers.

This is according to a Digiday+ Research survey of 100 brand and agency professionals conducted in Q3 2025.

Digiday’s survey found that advertisers’ use of Amazon’s DSP has grown significantly in the last 18 months. In Q1 2024, just over one-quarter of brand and agency professionals (29%) said they had used Amazon’s DSP in the past 12 months. In Q1 2025, that percentage was up to exactly half (50%).

Meanwhile, advertisers have pulled back from The Trade Desk: 55% of brands and agencies said in Q1 2024 that they had used TTD in the past 12 months, compared with 39% who said the same in Q3 2025. Advertisers’ use of Google’s DSP has remained steady, though. Fifty-eight percent of advertisers told Digiday in Q1 last year they had used Google DV360 in the past 12 months, compared with 54% who said the same in Q3 this year.

Adobe and Criteo also saw notable jumps in advertisers’ use of their DSPs since the beginning of last year: 28% of brand and agency pros said in Q3 2025 said they had used both Adobe and Criteo DSPs in the last 12 months, up from 13% for both platforms in Q1 2024.

For Amazon, specifically, advertisers’ use of the company’s DSP will likely see further growth. Digiday’s survey found that advertisers’ preference for Amazon’s DSP has also grown significantly since the beginning of last year.

In Q1 2024, just 3% of respondents to Digiday’s survey said if they had to choose only one DSP to work with, they would choose Amazon. In Q3 2025, that percentage reached nearly one-quarter (22% of brand and agency pros said this). This puts Amazon’s DSP in second place in terms of advertisers’ preferred DSPs, just behind TTD.

Speaking of TTD, this year’s survey marks the second consecutive year that advertisers ranked it as their most-preferred DSP — but its first-place finish in Q1 2025 came by a much slimmer margin than in Digiday’s Q1 2024 survey. In Q1 of last year, just shy of half of advertisers (45%) said if they had to choose one DSP, it would be TTD. In Q3 of this year, barely more than a quarter (26%) said the same.

Interestingly, advertisers’ preference for Google’s DSP also saw a big drop over the last 18 months. In Q1 2024, more than a third of brand and agency pros (36%) said Google DV360 would be their choice if they had to choose just one DSP to work with. In Q3 2025, just 17% of advertisers said the same.

These results are likely driven by the fact that Amazon has made changes to its DSP to strengthen its status among advertisers, all while those same advertisers have been seeking more competition in the DSP space — which has historically been dominated by Google and TTD.

In fact, Digiday’s Q3 2025 survey found that more than one-third of brand and agency pros (37%) said they agree somewhat or strongly that the changes to Amazon’s DSP have been enough to cause them to reconsider spending more of their programmatic ad dollars with the platform. (Just 13% of respondents said they disagree somewhat or strongly.)

Meanwhile, over half of advertisers (56%) said in Q3 of this year that they agree somewhat or strongly that there needs to be more competition for Google DV360 and TTD from the likes of Amazon’s DSP, specifically. (Just 11% said they disagree somewhat or strongly with this.)