The short answer
According to an Amazon notice to advertisers reported by PPC Land on November 3, 2026, Amazon will count Display, Video and Audio (DVA) display impressions on the Amazon Store only once the ad appears on screen, starting January 1, 2027. The notice says counted impressions on those placements will fall about 63% on average. Amazon hasn't published the notice. If it holds, reported CPMs rise and click-through rates jump with no change in delivery, so 2027 benchmarks need resetting.
Amazon is reportedly changing what counts as a display impression on its own store, and the change is big enough to break year-over-year reporting.
According to a notice to advertisers that PPC Land reported on November 3, 2026, Amazon will count Display, Video and Audio (DVA) display impressions on the Amazon Store only "once the ad appears on the shopper's screen," starting January 1, 2027. The notice says counted impressions on those placements "will be about 63% lower on average."
One caveat up front. PPC Land's source is a notice posted on LinkedIn by a marketing executive outside Amazon. Amazon hasn't published it on its own site or confirmed it publicly. We're writing about it now because, if it holds, January 2027 reports will look very different from January 2026's, and the time to plan for that is before the budgets are set.
What the notice says
As PPC Land quotes it, the notice reads: "Today, we count an impression when the ad starts to download to the shopper's device." That's known as count-on-download. From January 1, 2027, "we will count an impression once the ad appears on the shopper's screen."
The change applies to DVA display placements on the Amazon Store, "including the homepage, product detail pages, search results pages, and order pages." According to PPC Land, DVA is the name Amazon gave its display, video and audio product when it retired the Amazon DSP name at its unBoxed event on September 29, 2026. Amazon says its new Amazon Ads Agent "brings together what was formerly the DSP and Ads Console."
On the size of the drop, the notice says counts will be "about 63% lower on average," and that "placements lower on the page will see a larger decrease." It also says that in testing, advertisers saw return on ad spend rise and cost per action fall, though it gives no detail on the test.
According to PPC Land, the notice doesn't say whether invoices are calculated on the new count, and doesn't mention DVA video or audio, DVA on third-party sites, or sponsored ads.
What it does to your numbers
If the same spend buys the same delivery but only 37 of every 100 impressions get counted, every per-impression metric moves. The figures below are illustrative arithmetic, not Amazon's: they apply the notice's 63% average to a campaign whose spend and clicks don't change.
Illustrative
Reported CPM, same spend and delivery
A $5.00 CPM campaign before and after a 63% cut in counted impressions. Spend unchanged.
| Period | Value |
|---|---|
| Count-on-download | $5.00 |
| Counted on screen | $13.51 |
| Through December 31, 2026 | From January 1, 2027 (our read of the reported change) |
|---|---|
| Impression counted when the ad starts to download | Impression counted once the ad appears on screen |
| Reach and frequency include ads never scrolled to | Reach and frequency drop, most for lower-page placements |
| CPM and CTR comparable year over year | CPM up and CTR up with no change in delivery, so YoY comparisons break |
| Conversions per impression understated | Conversions per impression look better on the same results |
How this fits with other measurement changes
Amazon has already changed how it credits views in 2026. On January 1, 2026, it moved Store ads to a "shopping-signal enhanced last-touch" view attribution model for Sponsored Brands, vCPM Sponsored Display and Amazon DSP campaigns that serve on the Store. Click attribution didn't change, and 14-day "all views" metrics stayed available.
Google is making a related, but not identical, change. Its help page says Ad Manager and AdSense display impressions switch from count-on-download to begin-to-render "beginning February 17, 2027." Begin-to-render counts an impression when the ad "has started to render on the user's device," which doesn't require it to be on screen. Amazon's reported rule is stricter. So the two won't line up exactly, even after both have changed.
Display measurement changes, 2026 to 2027
Jan 1, 2026
Amazon view attribution update
Store ads move to shopping-signal enhanced last-touch for view-through credit.
Nov 3, 2026
Impression notice reported
PPC Land reports the notice after it's posted on LinkedIn.
Jan 1, 2027
Amazon counts on screen
DVA display on the Amazon Store, about 63% fewer counted impressions on average.
Feb 17, 2027
Google moves to begin-to-render
Ad Manager and AdSense banner display impressions.
Our read
We think the reported change is good for advertisers. An impression that loaded below the fold and was never scrolled to wasn't worth much, and counting only what's on screen brings Amazon's display numbers closer to what shoppers actually see.
The risk is in reporting, not performance. In February 2027, someone will look at January 2027 display CPMs, see them up roughly 2.7 times on the notice's average, and ask what went wrong. The fix is to agree before January 1, 2027 that display metrics start a new series, and to judge display on cost per outcome rather than CPM. It's one of the reporting traps we cover in our retail media audit checklist, and it's part of how we run Amazon DSP and AMC for clients.
What to do before January 1, 2027
Benchmark reset
- Ask your Amazon Ads contact to confirm the change in writing, and whether billing, not just reporting, moves to the new count.
- Export December 2026 DVA display data by placement so you have a clean last month on the old method.
- Split your 2027 reporting so Amazon Store display starts a new series on January 1, with no YoY comparison on impressions, CPM or CTR.
- Move display KPIs to cost per outcome: cost per detail page view, new-to-brand purchase or ROAS.
- Tell finance and leadership before year end that display CPMs will look higher in January 2027, and why.
- Ask how frequency caps are counted after the change. If caps follow the new on-screen count, a cap set on the old count may allow more ad loads than before.
Common questions
Is Amazon changing how it counts display impressions?
According to a notice to advertisers that PPC Land reported on November 3, 2026, yes. From January 1, 2027, Amazon would count a DVA display impression on the Amazon Store once the ad appears on the shopper's screen, instead of when it starts to download. Amazon hasn't published the notice or confirmed it publicly.
How much will Amazon display impressions drop?
The notice, as PPC Land quotes it, says impression counts on the affected placements will be about 63% lower on average, with bigger drops for placements lower on the page. That's a change in counting, not in how many shoppers see the ads.
Will Amazon display ads cost more in 2027?
Not necessarily. Fewer counted impressions for the same spend means a higher reported CPM, but the notice as quoted doesn't say whether invoices change. Ask your Amazon Ads contact whether billing follows the new count.
Which Amazon ads are affected by the impression change?
The notice covers DVA display ads on the Amazon Store, including the homepage, product detail pages, search results and order pages. PPC Land reports it doesn't mention DVA video or audio, DVA on third-party sites, or sponsored ads.
Sources
Everything above is drawn from these documents. Where a figure is ours, the text says so. Spotted an error? Our corrections policy says how we fix it.
- 01
- 02
- 03Begin-to-render impression counting for display ads
Google Ad Manager Help
- 04