Amazon Ads: How a $56B Engine Is Reshaping Grocery Media

Amazon’s ad engine no longer sits on the sidelines of its retail business; it is the growth story. In 2024, the company’s advertising services line climbed from $11.8 billion in Q1 to $17.3 billion in Q4, finishing the year at $56.2 billion and pacing a $69 billion run-rate. That single line now dwarfs the entire U.S. retail-media universe, which Grocery Doppio pegs at roughly $54 billion in 2024; of that total, only $8.5 billion comes from grocery sector media networks.

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Amazon’s $56.2 billion ad haul therefore exceeds the whole RMN market and is growing almost two percentage points faster than U.S. digital ads overall. Amazon wins because it closes the loop: a Fresh-store screen impression, a Prime-Video pre-roll and a Sponsored Product click all flow into Amazon Marketing Cloud, where brands see SKU-level ROAS within 48 hours instead of waiting weeks for third-party scans. Add Nova- and Bedrock-powered creative tools that crank out dozens of video or audio variants in minutes, and even mid-tier CPGs can afford Prime-time reach backed by cart-level proof.

For grocery executives, that matters twice over. High-margin ad dollars subsidise same-day fulfilment and micro-hub expansion, keeping delivery fees low, while CPG partners finally get the closed-loop attribution 93% of them say they need to justify bigger budgets. The result? Campaigns like Nestlé Purina’s Fresh end-cap test 14% same-store lift and 2.3× ROAS that move product today and sharpen demand forecasts tomorrow. 

In other words, Amazon’s retail-media flywheel doesn’t just earn revenue; it bankrolls the faster, leaner grocery operation its rivals are still struggling to build.

Where The Dollars Came From

Amazon’s surge wasn’t the result of one lucky holiday. Each quarter stacked higher than the last, $11.8 billion in Q1, $12.8 billion in Q2, $14.3 billion in Q3 and a record $17.3 billion in Q4. Three factors drove the climb: the decision to open Prime Video to advertisers (instantly adding NFL, Premier League and prestige-series inventory), a relentless expansion of Sponsored Products and Display across Fresh aisles, and a data advantage that lets brands see transaction-level return on ad spend within forty-eight hours. Every impression, on a product page, a connected-TV slot or a Fresh end-cap screen lands in Amazon Marketing Cloud and is matched to the UPC that scans at checkout.

‍Why Grocery Benefits First

For grocers, the story is less about media theory and more about margin math. High-70% ad margins subsidise razor-thin grocery economics, funding $9.99 unlimited delivery and same-day micro fulfilment hubs. At the same time, Grocery Doppio’s AI study projects that smarter marketing alone can unlock $19.3 billion in value across the sector by 2030, second only to supply-chain savings.

At the same time, the closed loop solves a pain point called out in Grocery Doppio’s latest survey: 87 percent of U.S. grocers say linking digital and in-store touchpoints is “critical,” yet only 69 percent feel their current in-store media even begins to differentiate them from third-party platforms.

Amazon’s ability to prove item-level ROAS in days, not quarters, closes that gap.

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How AI Turns Creative Speed into Spend Velocity

Late-2024 saw Amazon layer its own Nova foundation models onto an AI Creative Studio that converts a single hero image into dozens of six-second video or audio variations in minutes. What used to cost a mid-tier CPG five figures and six weeks now runs on autopilot and plugs straight into Sponsored Products or Streaming TV. By stripping friction from production, Amazon broadens the advertiser base and fills more of its growing inventory, reinforcing the revenue flywheel while giving smaller grocery brands national quality at regional-brand budgets.‍

Case Proof - Nestle Purina

While Amazon hasn’t yet published KPI results for its new in-store Fresh screens, a public Amazon Ads case study shows what closed-loop measurement can do online and in-app. Nestlé Purina, working with Zenith UK, unified Sponsored Ads and DSP buys and queried performance in AMC. Despite a 30% lower budget, Purina posted a 138% sales lift, 661% ROAS jump, and 390% conversion rate gain in the first month. Those dollars helped Amazon sharpen demand forecasts, cut spoilage, and keep pet aisles fuller proof that ad spend can fuel operational wins.

CPG Appetite is Ready

Grocery Doppio finds 93% of CPG leaders want digital-plus-store attribution; only 3% say incremental RMN budget is a barrier. Amazon already delivers that linkage and will scale it further as Prime Video ads and generative creative expand, part of eMarketer’s forecast for $69.3 billion in Amazon ad revenue in 2025.

With the retail media stakes rising and Amazon setting the pace, the question isn’t whether to engage, it's how fast you can build a plan that captures both the margin and the measurement upside. 

Want a custom playbook that plugs your assortment into this $56 billion engine? Reach out to the Grocery Doppio team and let’s map the numbers to your shelf.