Amazon published its third-quarter 2026 report on October 29: revenue rose 12% to $201.9 billion. The advertising business brought in nearly $20 billion (about $19.64 billion) according to the filing, also up 12% year over year.
Advertising revenue fell about 0.9% from the previous quarter, from $19.81 billion. Prime Day complicates the comparison: this year the sale ran in the second quarter for most major countries, while in 2025 it fell entirely in the third. In the report, the company estimates that without this shift, quarterly revenue growth would have been about 4 percentage points higher.
For the fourth quarter, Amazon expects advertising revenue to grow year over year in the "high teens", or 17–19%. The company gives no separate dollar forecast for advertising; total revenue is expected in the range of $240–247 billion.
The company names Amazon Ads Agent as the main driver of growth. It was shown a month ago at the unBoxed conference in San Francisco. The tool combines buying sponsored ads, display, video and audio in one interface. Advertisers can set up campaigns with text commands, and the system itself suggests and applies optimizations.
The update rests on two products. Full-Funnel Campaigns combine sponsored ads, display, video and streaming TV in a single campaign: advertisers set products, creative and budget, while AI picks channels and audiences. According to Amazon, in beta testing such campaigns delivered up to 67% higher return on long-term spend and 29% cheaper new-to-brand customers than manually configured campaigns. DVA+ combines sponsored display, sponsored TV and programmatic buying; advanced settings keep the bid, audience, placement and frequency controls familiar to DSP users.
The launch comes amid a lawsuit filed in August by the US Federal Trade Commission and 22 state attorneys general. They accuse Amazon of hidden markups in auctions: by 2024, Sponsored Products advertisers, according to the plaintiffs, paid their own winning bid in about 80% of cases, although the auctions were advertised as second-price. Amazon disputes the charges, and they have not been proven in court. The lawsuit concerns current auctions, not the new agent tool.
