Amazon reported Q2 2026 results after the bell Thursday, and the advertising numbers are worth a close read if you're a brand seller. Advertising services revenue came in at $19.8 billion, up 26% year-over-year. That's an acceleration from the 22% growth rate Amazon posted in Q2 2025, meaning the ad business didn't just hold steady. It got faster.
For context, Amazon's overall revenue grew 20% in the same period, to $200.6 billion. Advertising is outpacing the rest of the business, which is not a coincidence.
Andy Jassy's prepared statement mentioned advertising alongside AWS and delivery speed as the quarter's highlights. For a quarter where Amazon crossed $200 billion in total revenue for the first time, that's a notable co-billing. Amazon doesn't flag things in CEO statements unless they want you to pay attention to them.
The Ads Agent Data Is Worth Noting
The Q2 press release included a specific performance claim for Ads Agent, Amazon's AI-powered campaign management tool. According to Amazon, advertisers using Ads Agent see 8% lower cost-per-impression and 6% lower cost-per-acquisition compared to advertisers who don't. Amazon also expanded Ads Agent to 11 new countries so far in 2026.
These are Amazon's own numbers, so treat them as directional rather than independently verified. But the direction is consistent with what you'd expect from a tool that automates targeting and bid management: reduced waste per impression, and lower cost to acquire a converting customer. The 11-country expansion suggests Amazon is moving this from US-first to a global standard feature, not a test.
For brands managing campaigns manually, or working with agencies that haven't adopted AI-assisted campaign tools, this is a benchmark worth knowing. If the average Ads Agent user is running 6% lower CPA, that gap compounds across a full year of spend. You can read more about how we approach Amazon advertising management, including how we evaluate which automation tools are moving the needle for our clients.
Third-Party Seller Services and What the Revenue Mix Says
Third-party seller services revenue, the segment that includes marketplace commissions, FBA fees, and related services, came in at $46.8 billion for Q2, up 15.9% year-over-year. That's a healthy number, and it confirms the marketplace is growing. It also grows alongside advertising revenue, because more active sellers means more advertisers competing for placements.
The relationship between seller services growth and advertising growth is worth keeping in mind when you're thinking about bid dynamics. As the seller base expands, so does the pool of advertisers bidding on the same keywords. The 26% advertising growth Amazon reported isn't coming from a fixed advertiser pool spending more. A meaningful portion comes from new advertisers entering the platform, which changes the competitive landscape for everyone already there.
The Q3 Guidance Caveat
Amazon's Q3 guidance calls for revenue between $197 billion and $202 billion, which works out to 9% to 12% year-over-year growth. That came in below some analyst expectations, and shares pulled back slightly in Thursday after-hours trading before recovering. The company noted that the comparison is complicated by Prime Day timing: Prime Day ran in Q2 this year for most major markets including the US, so Q3 won't have that tailwind.
Amazon noted that Q3 year-over-year growth would be nearly 400 basis points higher if you adjust for the Prime Day timing shift. That's a meaningful adjustment, and it means the underlying trajectory is stronger than the headline guidance implies. For sellers planning ad budgets around Q3 and Q4, the platform's demand isn't slowing. The comparable period is just harder because Prime Day moved.
The full picture from Q2 is that Amazon's advertising business is healthy, growing faster than the platform overall, and deploying AI tools that are showing measurable efficiency improvements. For brand sellers, that means the platform is getting more competitive at the same time as it's getting more automated. If you want to think through what the Q2 numbers mean for your specific ad strategy heading into Q4, schedule a call with the team and we'll work through it together.