Amazon's advertising segment reached $19.8 billion in Q2, up 26% year over year for the three months ended June 30 and ahead of analyst estimates. Sponsored product listings remain the largest offering and the primary growth driver — but live sports carried the narrative on this earnings call.
What Amazon executives emphasised was the performance gap for advertisers running across multiple sports categories rather than concentrating on one.
It is an old media-planning principle confirmed in a streaming context: spreading across properties reduces duplicated impressions and widens reach. Worth noting these figures come from Amazon's own platform data.
Amazon has built a substantial foothold in live sports, shoring up broadcast rights for leagues including the NFL, NBA, WNBA and NASCAR. CEO Andy Jassy told investors:
"We see continued growth and engagement in Prime Video ads and live sports. We introduced more than 30 new advertisers to the NBA in our first year, and inventory on 'Thursday Night Football,' NBA, WNBA and NASCAR all sold out."
Live sports also dominated the 2026 upfronts, where TV and streaming platforms broker ad-spending commitments for the year ahead. Amazon wrapped its upfront negotiations earlier this month, beating volume goals and posting year-over-year growth, Adweek reported.
The broader reshaping of sports ad spend shows up elsewhere too — see World Cup Ad Data Shows a Diversifying Sports Marketplace: Digital Up 26%, Mobile Apps Up 116%.
Non-sports content on Prime Video is drawing viewers and advertisers as well. "Off Campus," a romantic drama featuring partnerships with brands including Unilever's Liquid I.V., attracted 36 million global viewers in its first 12 days. "Elle," a prequel series to the "Legally Blonde" franchise, launched last month with a L'Oréal Paris sponsorship and co-marketing campaign.
Consumer willingness to accept ad-supported tiers underpins much of this, as covered in Consumers Are Warming to Ads: 69% Would Choose Ads to Save Money.
Amazon also promoted its AI marketing tools. Brands using Ads Agent, which automates campaign setup and tasks such as ad targeting, saw 8% lower cost per impression and 6% lower cost per acquisition, Jassy said. Ads Agent has expanded to 11 new countries in 2026.
Meanwhile Amazon raised expected capital expenditures for the year to $220 billion, $20 billion above previous estimates. Where other platforms took a beating over AI spending this earnings season, investors appeared more focused on gains elsewhere — including 36.7% year-over-year growth in the cloud segment.
Diversification is now a reach tactic. Concentrating budget in one marquee property means repeatedly hitting the same audience. Amazon's own data argues for spreading the buy.
Sold-out inventory is a pricing signal. An announcement that premium inventory cleared is also a forecast that next year's upfront will cost more. That is a reason to plan earlier, not later.
Read the automation gains soberly. Eight percent on CPM and six percent on CPA are real but not transformative. Treat Ads Agent as a way to reclaim operator hours rather than as a performance unlock, and expectations stay manageable.
$19.8 billion for the three months ended June 30, a 26% year-over-year increase that came in above analyst estimates.
According to Amazon, they achieved 2.3x higher unduplicated reach than single-sport advertisers. Multisport viewers also showed 12% higher spend and made 17% more orders.
Brands using Ads Agent saw 8% lower cost per impression and 6% lower cost per acquisition. The tool expanded to 11 new countries in 2026.
Amazon has secured broadcast rights for leagues including the NFL, NBA, WNBA and NASCAR, and said inventory for Thursday Night Football, NBA, WNBA and NASCAR all sold out.
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