The briefing
Two changes this week ask growth leaders to revisit how they buy media and how they measure it.
- Amazon is collapsing its demand-side platform and ads console into one AI-first product called Amazon Ads Agent. Announced at unBoxed on September 29, 2026, it introduces Full-Funnel Campaigns and renames the DSP to DVA (display, video and audio). A new default buying type, DVA+, leans on automation while keeping a manual toggle. Rollout is staged, not instant.
- Google Analytics now pulls app conversions into its cross-channel conversion reporting and attribution. Posted September 29 on Google's What's new page and reported September 30 by Search Engine Journal, the update consolidates web and app into one view. But it does not equalize how credit is assigned, and several limits matter before you trust the numbers.
The through-line: both vendors are consolidating fragmented surfaces into unified, automated systems. That simplifies your workflow and quietly moves more control to the platform. Read the staging and the limits before you change budgets.
Amazon merges the DSP and ads console into one agentic platform
What changed. At its unBoxed event on September 29, 2026, Amazon Ads said it is unifying its demand-side platform and its ads console into a single AI-first platform called Amazon Ads Agent. The platform spans sponsored ads; display, video and audio; and a new campaign type called Full-Funnel Campaigns. The product formerly known as Amazon DSP is being renamed DVA, for display, video and audio. This is reported by Amazon's own newsroom and corroborated by independent coverage from AdExchanger and Marketing Dive.
The default setup for new campaigns is DVA+, which uses Amazon's Brand+ and Performance+ systems to optimize toward a chosen objective. An "advanced settings" toggle preserves the traditional DSP-style manual controls for teams that want them. So automation is the new front door, with manual buying kept behind it.
The evidence and dates. The announcement date is September 29, 2026. That is the date of the unBoxed reveal, not a general-availability date for every feature. The staging matters:
- Full-Funnel Campaigns is described as available now to all US advertisers.
- DVA+ begins rolling out in late October and continues through year-end.
- The expanded conversational capabilities, including media planning, AI targeting and natural-language analytics, are in beta across 20 marketplaces and roll out over the coming months.
Full-Funnel reporting shows standard metrics such as impressions, clicks and sales, plus new-to-brand and long-term sales metrics, according to Amazon's newsroom.
Why it matters for growth leaders. For years, Amazon's DSP and its self-serve ads console were separate tools with separate logins, logic and reporting. Merging them into one platform lowers the operational friction of running full-funnel programs on Amazon. If Full-Funnel Campaigns works as described, a team could plan upper-funnel video and lower-funnel sponsored placements under one objective rather than stitching them together by hand.
The strategic shift is the default. When DVA+ becomes the standard new-campaign experience and manual controls move to an "advanced settings" toggle, the path of least resistance becomes letting Amazon's models allocate and optimize. That is efficient. It also concentrates more buying logic inside Amazon's black box, which is the same tradeoff growth teams are already weighing with Google's automated buying. We covered that pattern when the Google Ads AI Max auto-upgrade went live and what it flips on by default.
Limitations to hold in mind.
- The performance figures Amazon cited, including a dog-treat brand case study and a 25%-plus unique-customer lift from natural-language targeting, are vendor-supplied case studies. They are not independently verified and should be treated as illustrative, not as a forecast for your account.
- Most features are staged. DVA+ and the conversational tools are not generally available everywhere today. Do not plan Q4 on capabilities that are still in beta or mid-rollout.
- A rename is not a capability change by itself. DSP becoming DVA does not mean your existing buying logic has changed; confirm what actually shifts in your console before you alter setups.
- Marketplace coverage varies. Conversational features are in beta across 20 marketplaces, so availability outside the US may differ.
Practical action. Audit where your Amazon spend sits today across sponsored ads and the DSP, and decide now whether you want DVA+ automation or the manual toggle as your default when it reaches your account in late October. Keep at least one manual-control reference campaign so you can compare automated allocation against a known baseline. This is the same digital-shelf discipline we outlined in The Digital Shelf: SEO on Marketplaces You Do Not Own, extended to paid.
GA4 adds app conversions to cross-channel reports, with credit rules that do not match the web
What changed. Google Analytics now supports app conversions in its cross-channel conversion reporting. The update was posted September 29, 2026 on Google's What's new page and reported September 30 by Search Engine Journal.
Specifically, app conversions are now included in three places:
- the performance report,
- attribution analysis, and
- the attribution models report.
Conversion attribution settings can also be adjusted independently for app conversions. On the surface, this consolidates web and app into a single attribution view, which many teams running both a site and an app have wanted for a long time.
The evidence and dates. The release-entry date on the What's new page is September 29, 2026. Search Engine Journal reported it September 30. The primary documentation page for the What's new feed does not show a publication date for the entry, so treat that page as undated primary documentation and lean on the explicit release-entry date for the event.
The limits that change how you read the numbers. This is where interpretation matters, and Google's documentation lists several constraints. The following are our reading of what Google states, labeled as interpretation where it is interpretation.
- Not every property has it yet. Google says the feature may not be available to every property and is still expanding. Confirm it is live in your property before you rely on it.
- Cross-channel budgeting stays web-only. The projection and scenario-planning tools remain web-only. App conversions enter the reporting and attribution views, not the budgeting tools.
- App conversions always use Google paid channels. Google's attribution settings documentation states app conversions "always use Google paid channels." This is the most consequential limit. On the web, the Paid and organic channels setting lets conversions earn organic and direct credit. That setting does not apply to app conversions. Interpretation: this means web and app conversions are not credited the same way inside the same report. Organic and direct touches can earn credit for web conversions but not for app conversions, which will skew any side-by-side read of channel contribution. Neither Google page states whether this will change.
- The performance report only shows conversions shared with a linked Google Ads account. So the main beneficiary is advertisers importing app conversions into Google Ads, not teams looking for a neutral, platform-agnostic view.
- Some reports still rely on key events rather than conversions. That inconsistency means you need to know which metric a given report is counting before you compare across reports.
Why it matters for growth leaders. A unified web-and-app attribution view sounds like progress, and in workflow terms it is. But a shared view with different crediting rules can mislead. If you compare web and app channel performance in the same report without knowing that app conversions only ever credit Google paid channels, you will understate organic and direct influence on the app side and overstate paid's role there.
That is a familiar trap. We have made the case before that attribution in an AI-mediated, multi-touch world rewards people who read the crediting rules, not just the dashboards. This update is a clean example: the reporting got broader, the underlying model did not get uniform.
Keep clicks and impressions distinct. Full-Funnel and attribution reporting both mix metric types. Clicks are not impressions, and conversions are not key events. Where a report's counting method is unclear, treat it as unknown rather than assuming it matches the web.
Practical action. If you run both a site and an app, check whether app conversions have reached your property, then document the crediting difference for anyone who reads your attribution reports. State plainly that app conversions always use Google paid channels and that organic and direct credit applies to web only. If you import app conversions into Google Ads, this change is most useful to you; validate that the conversions showing in the performance report are the ones shared with your linked Google Ads account.
What to do next
Prioritized, concrete steps for this week:
- Confirm your Amazon default before late October. Decide whether DVA+ automation or the manual "advanced settings" toggle is your intended default when it reaches your account. Do not let the default decide for you.
- Protect a manual baseline on Amazon. Keep one manually controlled reference campaign so you can measure automated allocation against a known comparison.
- Treat Amazon's case-study numbers as illustrative. Do not model Q4 targets on the dog-treat case study or the 25%-plus lift figure. They are vendor-supplied and unverified.
- Check GA4 for app conversion availability. Verify the feature is live in your property rather than assuming it is on.
- Document the GA4 crediting difference. Write it into your reporting notes: app conversions always use Google paid channels; organic and direct credit applies to web only; budgeting stays web-only.
- Reconcile metric types. Flag which reports count conversions versus key events, and keep clicks separate from impressions in every readout.
- Brief your stakeholders. Tell leadership that both changes consolidate surfaces and shift more logic to the platform, so the dashboards are simpler but the assumptions underneath need a closer read.
Sources and dates
- Introducing Amazon Ads Agent, your AI-powered ad platform, Amazon Ads newsroom, published 2026-09-29, accessed 2026-10-01.
- Amazon Ads And The Amazon DSP Get An Agentic Rebrand, AdExchanger, published 2026-09-29, accessed 2026-10-01.
- How Amazon is streamlining ad buys across multiple formats with AI, Marketing Dive, published 2026-09-29, accessed 2026-10-01.
- What's new in Google Analytics, Google Analytics documentation. Publication date not shown; checked 2026-10-01
- Google Analytics Adds App Conversions To Cross-Channel Reports, Search Engine Journal, published 2026-09-30, accessed 2026-10-01.
