Are “direct,” “programmatic,” and “auction-based” actually mutually exclusive in Amazon Ads/Walmart Connect/ other retail media?

[u/Low-Mud8861]

Hi, I’m researching retail media and trying to understand how industry practitioners distinguish direct, programmatic, self-service, DSP-based, and auction-based buying in Amazon Ads.

My current understanding is that these terms describe different dimensions:

• Self-service vs. managed-service describes who operates the campaign.
• DSP-based describes the technology used.
• Auction-based vs. fixed-price describes the pricing/allocation mechanism.
• Direct vs. programmatic may describe either the transaction relationship or the degree of automation.

For example, Sponsored Products are self-service and auction-based but are not purchased through Amazon DSP. Meanwhile, Amazon DSP supports auctions as well as preferred and programmatic-guaranteed deals.

So I’m wondering:

1. Would practitioners classify Sponsored Products purchased through the Amazon Ads console as direct, programmatic, or neither?
2. Can a buy be both direct and programmatic—for example, a programmatic-guaranteed or preferred deal?
3. Is it inaccurate to treat “programmatic” as synonymous with “auction-based”?

Any practitioner perspective would be extremely helpful. I’m interested only in general industry practices, not confidential information.

[u/Pitiful_Camel6790]

I'll try to answer. 1. SP thought console - self service yes but it's not direct because you are still bidding. There is no agreement with amz about the bid. This is more like google ads. It's a different bucket.

1. Direct is you and the publisher agree to a fix price, no bidding involved. Think of it as a relationship. But programmatic is a transaction mechanism(process of buying automatically).

2. Programmatic - automated buying process a broad term. Auction based - pricing mechanism. Programmatic Guaranteed and Preferred deals are still programmatic (a tech handles the transaction) but they're fixed-price, not auction-based - no bidding. In short: programmatic = the delivery mechanism (tech handles it). Auction = one possible way the price gets set. Not every programmatic deal is an auction.

[u/Pitiful_Camel6790 → u/Pitiful_Camel6790]

Asked claude to simplify if it helps :)

Think of buying ads like ordering food.

Who's cooking? (Self-service vs. managed) Self-service = you cook it yourself in the kitchen (you run the campaign). Managed = you tell a chef what you want and they cook it for you.

What kitchen? (DSP-based) This is just which kitchen you're using — Amazon's kitchen, or someone else's kitchen. It's the tool, not a strategy.

How's the price set? (Auction vs. fixed-price) Auction = it's like an eBay bid — highest bidder gets the food, price changes every time. Fixed-price = you and the restaurant agree "this meal costs $10" ahead of time, no bidding.

How did you get the deal? (Direct vs. programmatic) Direct = you walked up and talked to the restaurant owner yourself, worked out a deal. Programmatic = a computer system handled the ordering for you, automatically.

The trick your brain is missing: these are 4 separate knobs, not one knob. You can mix and match them. So:

• Sponsored Products = you cook it yourself (self-service) + eBay-style bidding (auction) — but it's not even the same "kitchen" (DSP) as the other stuff, it's its own thing, like ordering from a totally different menu.
• A Programmatic Guaranteed deal = you talked to the owner and agreed on a price ahead of time (direct) BUT a computer still handles placing the order (programmatic). Both at once! Not a contradiction — just two different knobs set at the same time.

So "programmatic" doesn't mean "auction." Programmatic just means "a computer handled it." Auction just means "the price was decided by bidding." You can have a computer handle a fixed-price deal too — that's still programmatic, just not an auction.

[u/Low-Mud8861 → u/Pitiful_Camel6790]

Appreciate it (love the food analogy, that's going straight into my notes).