Earned & Paid
Companies · Retail/Tech

Amazon

Advertiser Ad platformAMZN

Amazon spent $23.5B on advertising and marketing in fiscal 2025, up 9.8% on the year before and +114% since 2019. That's 3.3% of revenue, less than in 2019: the business outgrew its marketing.

$23.5Bmarketing spend, FY2025
+9.8%vs the year before
3.3%of revenue (-0.6 pts vs 2019)

Marketing spend by year

2016: $5.00B2017: $6.30B172018: $8.20B2019: $11.0B192020: $10.9B2021: $16.9B212022: $20.6B2023: $20.3B232024: $21.4B2025: $23.5B253.3%

Bars: advertising and marketing expense, $B (10-K). Line: spend as a share of revenue.

Advertising services, by quarter

2023Q3: $12.1B2023Q4: $14.7B2024Q1: $11.8B2024 Q12024Q2: $12.8B2024Q3: $14.3B2024Q4: $17.3B2025Q1: $13.9B2025 Q12025Q2: $15.7B2025Q3: $17.7B2025Q4: $21.3B2026Q1: $17.2B2026 Q12026Q2: $19.8B2026 Q2

From each 10-Q and 10-K; fourth quarters are the full year minus nine months.

Revenue and margin

2014: $89.0B2015: $107B152016: $136B2017: $178B172018: $233B2019: $281B192020: $386B2021: $470B212022: $514B2023: $575B232024: $638B2025: $717B2511.2%

Bars: revenue, $B (10-K). Line: operating margin. Years where the filing's revenue line isn't comparable are left out of the line.

Say vs do

We found no statement about the size of Amazon's marketing budget on its earnings calls or in its 10-Ks, so here is its record against its peers.

What they said

No statement about the size of its marketing budget.

What they did

YearMarketing spendChangeShare of revenue
FY2025$23.5B+9.8%3.3%
FY2024$21.4B+5.4%3.4%
FY2023$20.3B-1.5%3.5%
FY2022$20.6B+21.9%4.0%
FY2021$16.9B+55.0%3.6%
FY2020$10.9B-0.9%2.8%

In interviews, its leaders made 206 statements about marketing: 25 argued for investing in brand and 3 for cutting.

How we check: a statement gets a verdict only when it's clearly about the size of the whole company's marketing budget over a full fiscal year; we compare it with the advertising and marketing expense in that year's 10-K. Statements about one quarter, one brand or channel, or the mix between brand and performance can't be checked against annual filings.

What they say about media

The marketing channels it talks about using for itself on earnings calls and in its 10-Ks and 10-Qs, since 2019; counts are statements, not spending.

Sponsorships & athletes 3× since 2022Retail media 1× since 2022Affiliate & lead gen 1× since 2021

What they see in the market

What its leaders and filings say about the ad market: its own ad business, or the channels advertisers use, since 2019; counts are statements, not spending.

Retail media 46× since 2019Connected TV & streaming 28× since 2019AI in marketing 13× since 2021Programmatic & display 10× since 2019Measurement 5× since 2020Sponsorships & athletes 4× since 2022Creative campaigns 1× since 2026Paid search 1× since 2023CRM, loyalty & first-party data 1× since 2022Audio & podcasts 1× since 2022

In the news