Amazon Advertising API: A Comprehensive Guide (2025)

When you run dozens of Amazon ad campaigns manually, there is a lot you have to juggle with. Adjusting bids, analyzing performance, and reallocating budgets by hand are a few of them. It’s not just time-consuming; it’s inefficient.  

With Amazon’s advertising revenue surpassing $38 billion in 2023 (Statista), competition among advertisers is fierce. To stay ahead, businesses need a way to automate, optimize, and scale their Amazon ad strategies, and that’s where the Amazon Advertising API comes in.

The Amazon Advertising API enables brands, agencies, and developers to integrate directly with Amazon Ads, automate campaign management, and access real-time performance data. Whether it’s adjusting bids dynamically, pulling in-depth reports, or optimizing ad spend across multiple campaigns, the API offers a data-driven approach to advertising.

If you want to know how Amazon Advertising API works, the key benefits, and why businesses looking to scale their Amazon Ads should leverage it, this blog is going to provide you with all the information you need.

What is the Amazon Advertising API?

In simple words, the Amazon ads API is a programmatic interface that allows advertisers, agencies, and developers to manage and optimize Amazon ad campaigns at scale. Rather than adjusting your bids, generating reports, or modifying campaign settings manually through Amazon’s user interface, you can use the API to automate these tasks. This allows you to spend more time on strategic initiatives.

Who Can Use the Amazon Advertising API?

• eCommerce brands & Amazon sellers: If they are looking to optimize and scale their advertising.

• Advertising agencies: For managing Amazon Ads (for multiple clients).

• Developers & ad tech providers: It helps them automation and analytics tools.

• Data and analytics teams: Looking for real-time Amazon Ads data for deeper insights.

How the Amazon Advertising API Works

The API connects directly to an advertiser’s Amazon Ads account, allowing users to retrieve data, make campaign adjustments, and automate workflows programmatically. It follows a structured approach using API requests and responses to execute different functions.

Key Components of the API Workflow

1. Authentication – To use the API, businesses must authenticate via Amazon’s OAuth system, ensuring secure access to campaign data.

2. API Requests – Advertisers send requests to retrieve data (e.g., ad spend, impressions) or take action (e.g., adjust bids, modify budgets).

3. API Responses – Amazon returns structured data (typically in JSON format) containing the requested information or confirmation of action.

Here is an example workflow:

Consider an eCommerce brand that wants to automate bid adjustments based on campaign performance. Instead of manually changing bids every day, they can:

• Use the API to pull real-time ad performance data (e.g., ROAS, CPC, conversion rates).

• Set predefined rules (e.g., increase bids for high-performing keywords, reduce spend on low-performing ones).

• Send API requests to Amazon to automatically update bid amounts based on performance thresholds.

So, this level of automation allows advertisers to react in real-time, maximize ROI, and scale campaigns without constant manual intervention.

Benefits of Using the Amazon Advertising API

When it comes to running ads on Amazon, doing everything manually can slow you down and leave a lot of potential growth on the table. That’s where the Amazon ads API steps in. It helps brands work smarter, move faster, and stay ahead in a competitive marketplace.

Automated Campaign Management for Greater Efficiency

Managing bids, budgets, and keywords by hand can be a full-time job. The Amazon Advertising API takes these repetitive tasks off your plate, letting you automate important actions across campaigns. This not only saves time but ensures your campaigns stay sharp and responsive, improving overall efficiency and helping you get more from your ad spend.

Real-Time Access to Deeper Performance Insights

With the API, you don't have to wait for weekly reports or dig through dashboards. You get real-time updates on how your ads are performing from spend and impressions to conversions. Having this instant feedback means you can spot trends early, make smarter decisions on the fly, and fine-tune your strategy while it still counts.

Seamless Integration with Analytics and Reporting Systems

Running ads is just one part of the picture; understanding their impact is another. The Amazon Advertising API makes it easy to pull your campaign data into your existing business intelligence tools. Whether you use platforms like Saras Analytics or build your own dashboards, you can bring all your marketing data together, track performance in real time, and uncover insights that might otherwise stay hidden.

Scalability for Expanding Ad Investments

As your brand grows, so does the complexity of your advertising. The API is built to scale with you, allowing you to manage multiple brands, campaigns, and ad accounts without losing control. It helps keep your operations consistent and efficient, no matter how big your ad budgets or strategies get.

Enhanced Optimization and Budget Control

Every marketing dollar counts, and the API helps you make sure none of it goes to waste. You can set rules to automatically push more budget toward what’s working and pull back from what’s not. With dynamic adjustments based on real-time performance, your campaigns stay optimized, and your spending stays smart.

How to Access the Amazon Advertising API

To access the API, businesses must meet Amazon’s eligibility criteria, which may include:

• Owning an active Amazon Ads account with campaign management permissions.

• Applying for API access through Amazon’s developer portal.

• Demonstrating a use case that aligns with Amazon’s API policies (e.g., campaign automation, performance reporting).

Steps to Obtain API Credentials

1. Sign up for an Amazon Advertising account if you don’t already have one.

2. Apply for API access via Amazon’s developer portal.

3. Authenticate using OAuth to generate API credentials.

4. Integrate the API into your existing analytics or campaign management systems.

Amazon Advertising API Tiers

Amazon offers different levels of API access, depending on the business type:

• Self-Serve API Access – This is for advertisers managing their own campaigns.

• Advanced API Access – This one is for agencies, ad tech providers, and large-scale advertisers requiring deeper integrations.

Features of the Amazon Advertising API

Running ads on Amazon at scale isn't just about launching campaigns. It’s about managing them smartly, reacting to real-time data, and reaching your customers exactly where they are. That’s where the Amazon Advertising API gives you the flexibility, precision, and speed you need to stay competitive.

Ad Types Supported

The Amazon Advertising API supports a full range of ad formats, letting you design campaigns that match different goals.  

For example, if you’re launching a new product, Sponsored Products can help you target specific keywords and appear directly in search results, boosting visibility when it matters most.  

If you want to strengthen brand awareness, Sponsored Brands lets you feature multiple products under your logo. For example: a customer searching for "running shoes" and seeing your full product line neatly displayed at the top.  

Sponsored Display ads are perfect for retargeting; like showing an ad to someone who viewed your product but didn’t purchase. And for brands ready to extend beyond Amazon, DSP integration allows you to place programmatic ads across thousands of websites, apps, and even streaming services, reaching shoppers wherever they browse.

Performance Reporting and Insights

Getting accurate, real-time data can be the difference between scaling a winner and wasting budget. With the API, you can retrieve up-to-the-minute metrics on impressions, clicks, conversions, and ad spend. For example, if you notice a spike in clicks but no increase in purchases, you can immediately tweak your ad copy or landing page instead of waiting days to react.

Custom reporting lets you focus on what matters to your business; whether that’s measuring first-time buyer conversions or analyzing the long-term value of repeat customers. You can also use advanced attribution models to understand how your ads impact sales over the entire customer journey, not just at the last click.

Campaign and Bid Management

At scale, manually adjusting bids is simply not practical. The API lets you automate this based on performance thresholds you set. For instance, if a certain keyword consistently delivers a cost-per-conversion under your target, you can automatically increase its bid to capture even more traffic.  

You can also set dynamic rules for budget allocation. It can be like shifting spend toward campaigns with the highest return on ad spend (ROAS) during peak shopping hours. Instead of micromanaging every campaign, you build smart systems that optimize themselves, saving time while squeezing more value from your budget.  

How Much Does the Amazon Advertising API Cost?

Well, Amazon does not charge for API access, but businesses must consider other costs:

• Ad Spend – Any campaign managed through the API incurs advertising costs.

• Infrastructure Costs – Developers, API management, and cloud services.

• Third-Party Analytics Tools – Solutions like Saras Analytics for API data extraction and reporting.

Estimating ROI on API Investment

By automating campaign management and improving efficiency, businesses can:

• Reduce wasted ad spend through better optimization.

• Increase revenue by focusing on high-performing ads.

• Improve decision-making with real-time insights.

Unlocking the Full Potential of the Amazon Advertising API with Saras Analytics

While the Amazon Advertising API provides powerful automation and data access, many businesses struggle to fully leverage its potential. Managing Amazon Ads manually can be inefficient, leading to:

• Data silos – Advertisers rely on multiple tools and platforms but lack a unified view of performance.

• Limited insights – Standard reports provide surface-level data, making it difficult to uncover deep trends.

• Operational inefficiencies – Manually adjusting bids, budgets, and campaign settings is time-consuming and prone to errors.

Saras Analytics helps businesses overcome these challenges by offering seamless data integration, real-time insights, and advanced analytics for Amazon Ads. Here are some of the key benefits of using Saras Analytics for Amazon advertising:

1. Centralized Reporting for Deeper Insights

Saras Analytics consolidates Amazon Ads data into a single, unified dashboard, eliminating the need to manually compile reports from multiple sources. Advertisers can:

• Track performance across multiple campaigns, brands, and marketplaces in one place.

• Visualize trends with interactive charts and KPIs.

• Identify areas for optimization, such as high-performing keywords or underutilized ad placements.

2. Automated Data Pipelines for Easy Integration

Manually exporting and analyzing Amazon Ads data can be cumbersome. Saras Analytics provides:

• Pre-built connectors to automatically pull Amazon Ads data into BI tools like Looker, Tableau, and Power BI.

• Automated data pipelines to refresh performance metrics in real time.

• Seamless integration with other eCommerce and marketing data sources, ensuring a holistic view of ad performance.

3. Advanced Analytics for Optimized Ad Spend

Basic Amazon Ads reports provide metrics like impressions and clicks, but Saras Analytics goes deeper by offering:

• Predictive analytics to forecast ad performance and optimize spend.

• Custom attribution models to track how Amazon Ads contribute to overall revenue.

• Budget optimization tools that highlight inefficient spending and suggest reallocations for better ROI.

Discover how Saras Analytics can help you unlock deeper insights from your Amazon Ads.