Exclude Audience in Amazon DSP: The 2026 Exclusion Guide
Archit Arora
TL;DR
Key takeaways
An audience exclusion stops a DSP ad group from paying to reach people you already have: recent buyers, current viewers, CRM customers or a holdout.
Each ad group has up to ten include groups and one exclude group that applies to all of them; anyone in any excluded segment is removed.
Since July 2026, audiences in Performance+ and Brand+ are signals the AI can go beyond, but exclusions still apply independently.
Check exclusions with new-to-brand share by ad group, AMC overlap and de-duplicated frequency, not with ROAS.
Most Amazon DSP prospecting we audit isn't prospecting. It reaches last month's buyers and this week's detail page viewers, then reports their purchases as a strong ROAS.
Audience exclusions are the fix, and in 2026 they matter more than ever. This guide covers how to exclude audiences in Display, Video and Audio (DVA) campaigns today: what to exclude, how the logic works, how exclusions behave with AI campaigns, the setup, recipes by funnel stage and a worked example.
What Does It Mean to Exclude an Audience in Amazon DSP?
Excluding an audience in Amazon DSP means adding a segment to an ad group's exclude group, so nobody in that segment is eligible to see the ad group's ads, even if they match its include groups. Amazon also calls it suppression.
Targeting decides who you could pay for. Exclusions decide who you refuse to pay for, and that second decision is where most of the wasted budget sits.
If DSP is new to you, start with our explainer on what Amazon DSP is and how it works. This post assumes you run DSP and want every dollar to reach the shopper it was meant for.
What Changed for DSP Exclusions in 2025 and 2026
The exclusion settings themselves barely moved. What moved is everything around them: the audience builder, the campaign names, the AI campaign types and the way Amazon credits sales.
Date | What changed | What it means for exclusions |
|---|---|---|
Nov 21, 2025 | Simplified audience targeting: up to ten include groups and one exclude group | One exclude group now covers every audience combination in the ad group |
Jan 1, 2026 | New view attribution model for DSP ads in the Amazon store | Compare before-and-after exclusion tests on "all views" metrics if they cross January 1 |
Apr 2, 2026 | De-duplicated reach and frequency across accounts | You can see whether excluded people still get hit by other campaigns |
Jul 22, 2026 | Audience Signals in Brand+ and Performance+ | Included audiences guide the AI but don't fence it in; exclusions stay hard limits |
Sep 29, 2026 | Amazon Ads Agent; DSP campaigns become DVA campaigns | Orders are campaigns, line items are ad groups, creatives are ads |
Late Oct 2026 | DVA+ open beta in the US | Suppression lives in advanced settings; quick setup hands audiences to the AI |
Outside the US, DSP users keep the classic DVA flow for now. The exclude group works the same way in both.
Why Exclude Audiences in Amazon DSP?
We exclude for three reasons, and only the first is about saving money directly. The other two are about knowing what your DSP spend actually did.
1. Stop Paying for Recent Purchasers
A shopper who bought your 60-day supplement last week doesn't need a prospecting ad this week. Optimizing bidders love these people because they convert, so without an exclusion they soak up a share of impressions far above their share of the audience.
2. Stop Cannibalizing Your Sponsored Ads
Your current detail page viewers are already searching for you, clicking your Sponsored Products ads and buying. A DSP prospecting line that also reaches them adds cost to a sale you were going to win anyway.
It also double-counts. The DSP line claims the view-through sale and the search ad claims the click, so the account reports two sales for one customer.
3. Stop Inflating Last-Touch ROAS
Last-touch attribution credits the ad closest to the purchase. Ad groups that reach people already about to buy will always show the best ROAS, which is why unexcluded prospecting often looks like your best tactic.
Exclusions make the ROAS fall and the new-to-brand share rise. That's the point: the number becomes honest. Our post on Amazon DSP mistakes ranks missing purchaser exclusions as the second most expensive mistake we fix.
What Can You Exclude in Amazon DSP?
Anything you can target, you can exclude. In practice we use six kinds of audience, each built in a different place.
What to exclude | Where it comes from | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
Amazon audiences | The audience picker (in-market, lifestyle, interest, demographic) | Keep an awareness line off a segment that belongs to another line |
Purchasers by lookback | Purchases remarketing on your ASINs or brand, 7 to 365 days | Keep buyers out of prospecting and consideration |
Product viewers | Views remarketing on your ASINs, 7 to 90 days | Hand current viewers to remarketing instead of prospecting |
AMC custom audiences | A query in Amazon Marketing Cloud | Cart abandoners, high-value buyers, Subscribe & Save, holdouts |
CRM lists | Hashed customer lists through Ads data manager | Keep DTC customers out of acquisition |
Amazon Ad Tag segments | Visitors and converters on your website | Exclude site buyers from Amazon prospecting, or the reverse |
1. Amazon Audiences
Excluding an Amazon segment is rare but useful. If one ad group targets "IM - Running Shoes" and another targets a broader lifestyle segment, excluding the in-market segment from the lifestyle line keeps the two from bidding on the same people.
2. Purchasers by Lookback Window
This is the exclusion every account needs. Pick the purchases audience for the advertised products, or for your whole brand, and set the window to the repurchase cycle: 30 days for a consumable reordered monthly, 365 days for a mattress.
Amazon's remarketing and lookback guide describes setting windows by your own purchase cycle. Check the windows offered in your own account, as Amazon doesn't publish one list for DSP.
3. Product Viewers
Exclude recent detail page viewers from prospecting and consideration, so they get the remarketing message from the ad group built for them. Inside remarketing, exclude the 1 to 7-day viewers if Sponsored Display (now display ads in Amazon Ads Agent) already covers them.
4. AMC Custom Audiences
AMC (Amazon Marketing Cloud) audiences are the most precise exclusions available. Amazon has supported AMC audiences for DSP since May 2023, and they can target or exclude in any DVA ad group.
The builds we exclude most: cart abandoners (from the broad views line), high-value buyers (from everything but loyalty), Subscribe & Save subscribers and a random holdout. Our AMC custom audiences guide has the logic for each.
Two rules from Amazon's rule-based audience guide catch people out. An audience needs at least 2,000 people, and one left unattached to an ad group refreshes less often and eventually stops.
5. CRM Lists
Amazon says hashed advertiser audiences can be used "at no additional cost" and lists "excluding existing audiences" as one of their three uses. For a brand with a large DTC base, it's often the most valuable exclusion in the account.
Upload once through Ads data manager and the same list works in DSP and AMC. Match rates vary with the identifiers you send, so expect the matched audience to be smaller than the file.
6. Amazon Ad Tag Segments
The Amazon Ad Tag on your website builds audiences of site visitors and converters. Exclude recent site buyers from Amazon prospecting, or exclude Amazon buyers from a campaign that sends traffic to your site.
For UK and EEA visitors, Amazon requires a valid consent signal with the data you send. Brands that don't sell on Amazon rely on these segments most, as our guide to DSP for non-Amazon sellers explains.
Beyond audiences, DVA ad groups can also exclude locations, devices, domains and apps. Those are delivery exclusions: they decide where ads run, not who sees them.
How AND/OR Logic Works in DSP Exclusions
Amazon's November 2025 audience builder gives each ad group up to ten include groups and a single exclude group, with up to 500 audience segments in total. Amazon describes "OR/ANY logic within inclusion groups and AND/ALL logic for exclusions."
In plain terms:
Inside an include group, segments add up. "In-market cookware" OR "viewed premium kitchen brands" reaches anyone in either.
The AND connector narrows. Amazon's guide suggests starting with your broadest relevant audience, then using AND to require a second signal, such as a household income band.
The exclude group subtracts from everything. It applies across every include group in the ad group, so you set it once.
AND/ALL for exclusions means a shopper must clear every excluded segment. Anyone in any one of them is removed. Overlaps between excluded segments are only removed once.
That makes the eligible audience: (include group 1 OR include group 2 ...) minus (anyone in any excluded segment).
The exclude group can't be split by include group. If one combination should exclude 30-day viewers and another shouldn't, they belong in separate ad groups.
Check the forecast after each change. An exclusion that removes 15% of an audience can remove far more of its delivery, because the excluded people were the ones the bidder wanted most.
How Exclusions Work With Performance+, Brand+ and DVA+
AI campaign types changed what an included audience means. They didn't change what an excluded one means, and that is the most important thing to know about exclusions in 2026.
1. Audience Signals Since July 22, 2026
Amazon's July 2026 announcement says audiences you bring into Brand+ Prospecting, Performance+ Customer Acquisition and Performance+ Unified Consideration are "AI optimization inputs, not hard targeting constraints." The AI "retains full freedom to discover users beyond those segments."
The same page states: "Audience exclusions remain available and function independently of Audience Signals." Your include list is now a hint. Your exclude list is still a wall.
2. Performance+ Keeps Exclusions Under Your Control
Amazon's Performance+ guide lists "line item exclusions: exclude past converters/purchasers" among the controls you keep, next to device, location, dayparting and domain lists. Its FAQ confirms you can exclude purchasers "or other audience segments."
An AI line that can't see your purchasers or your CRM list will find your existing customers and report them as acquisitions. Adding both to the exclude group is the first thing we do on any Performance+ prospecting line.
3. DVA+ Quick Setup vs Advanced Settings
Amazon's DVA+ page compares the two modes. Audience targeting in quick setup is "AI-managed automatically"; advanced settings offer "full manual targeting, lookalikes, retargeting, suppression."
DVA+ was in extended closed beta in the US, with open beta expected from late October 2026 and general availability in 35 markets targeted for Q1 2027. If an ad group needs your own exclusions, build it in advanced settings or in the classic DVA flow.
Full-Funnel Campaigns run sponsored ads, display, video and streaming TV on one budget. They're available in the US (Amazon still labels them a beta on its product page), for advertisers who sell on Amazon. Before you move a prospecting budget there, check which exclusion controls the campaign type exposes in your account.
How to Set Up Audience Exclusions Step by Step
These steps follow the classic DVA flow in Amazon Ads Agent, then the DVA+ and Performance+ differences. Menu labels have changed several times this year, so look for the Audience section in the ad group's targeting settings.
1. Build the Audiences First
Create the exclusion audiences before the ad group. AMC audiences can take up to 48 hours to reach your account, and CRM uploads need time to match.
Name them so the window is visible: "EXCL - Brand purchasers 365d", "EXCL - PDP viewers 30d". Six months from now, someone will need to know what each one removes.
2. Open the Ad Group's Targeting
In the campaign, open the ad group (the old line item) and go to the Audience section of its targeting. In DVA+, open advanced settings first.
3. Set the Include Groups
Add the audiences you want to reach. Use OR inside a group for alternatives and the AND connector to narrow, and keep one funnel stage per ad group.
4. Add Segments to the Exclude Group
Add each exclusion audience to the single exclude group. For purchases and views audiences, pick the lookback window as you add them.
A typical prospecting exclude group holds four segments: brand purchasers (365 days), detail page viewers (30 days), the CRM list and the AMC holdout.
5. Check the Forecast
Compare the reach forecast with and without the exclude group. If reach falls by more than about a third, either your prospecting audience was mostly existing customers or the include groups are too narrow.
6. Launch, Then Verify
After two weeks, check new-to-brand share and frequency for the ad group. The verification section below covers what good looks like.
For Performance+ Ad Groups
Choose the tactic (Customer Acquisition, Remarketing or Retention), then add purchasers and the CRM list under exclusions. Any audiences you add as Audience Signals will guide the model, but only the exclusions are enforced.
Across Several Ad Groups
Repeat the same exclude group in every prospecting and consideration ad group. A purchaser exclusion on one line and not the next simply moves the waste.
Exclusion Recipes by Funnel Stage
The rule we follow: every stage excludes the stages below it and the purchasers it shouldn't pay for. These recipes match the funnel framework in our Amazon DSP targeting guide.
Stage | Target | Exclude | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
Awareness | Lifestyle, interest, life event, lookalikes of buyers | Brand purchasers (365 days), CRM list, detail page viewers (30 days) | Pay only for people who don't know you yet |
Consideration | In-market, product and category targeting | Brand purchasers (90 to 365 days), detail page viewers (30 days) | Viewers belong to remarketing |
Conversion (remarketing) | Detail page viewers (30 days), cart abandoners (AMC) | Viewers in the last 7 days (if Sponsored Display has them), purchasers (30 days), cart abandoners from the broad views line | Split the pool so each audience gets its own bid |
Loyalty | Past purchasers on the repurchase cycle, CRM list, brand halo | Purchasers inside the replenishment window | Don't sell a refill to someone with a full bottle |
Every stage | The AMC holdout | Keeps the incrementality test clean |
The Remarketing Build in Numbers
Our Amazon DSP retargeting guide works one remarketing ad group by subtraction. It starts with 60,000 detail page viewers in 30 days.
It excludes 18,000 who viewed in the last 7 days (Sponsored Display has them) and 5,000 who bought in the last 30 days, leaving 37,000 targetable shoppers. Those same 60,000 viewers are what the prospecting line in the next section excludes, so each shopper sits in exactly one ad group.
Holdouts Are Exclusions Too
An incrementality test is an exclusion with a purpose. Split an audience at random in AMC, for example 90% and 10%, target the larger part and exclude the smaller one everywhere, then compare purchase rates after four weeks.
Worked Example: Excluding Buyers From a Consideration Ad Group
Here's one month of a consideration ad group for an illustrative brand, before and after a proper exclude group. Follow the arithmetic in order.
Audience before. The ad group targets 1,200,000 in-market shoppers in your category.
Exclusions. 90,000 bought your brand in the last 365 days, 60,000 viewed your detail pages in the last 30 days and 30,000 more match your CRM list. Counting each person once, that's 180,000 people, or 15% of the audience.
Audience after. 1,200,000 − 180,000 = 1,020,000 targetable shoppers.
Where the money went. At $20,000 a month and an $8 CPM, the ad group buys 2,500,000 impressions. Before exclusions, the bidder put 35% of them, 875,000 impressions or $7,000, on the 15% who already knew you.
Result before. 640 purchases on a $50 order is $32,000 in sales, a 1.6 ROAS. Only 25% were new to brand: 160 new customers at $125 each.
Result after. The $7,000 now buys people who don't know you. Purchases fall to 470 and sales to $23,500, a 1.2 ROAS, but 62% are new to brand: 291 new customers at about $69 each.
The report says performance got worse. The business got 131 more new customers for the same $20,000, and the existing customers kept buying through remarketing, search and organic.
If you'd rather bank the saving, cut the budget instead. At $13,000 the ad group buys the same 1,625,000 impressions on new shoppers that it bought before the exclusions.
How to Check Your Exclusions Are Working
Exclusions fail quietly. An audience stops refreshing, a CRM list goes stale, or a new ad group launches without the exclude group, and nothing in the campaign report flags it.
1. New-to-Brand Share by Ad Group
New-to-brand is a purchase by someone who hasn't bought your brand in the previous 12 months, as Amazon's DSP reporting guide defines it. In the accounts we manage, a well-excluded prospecting ad group runs above 50% new to brand.
Under 30% means the exclusions are missing or broken. Remarketing should run low; that's its nature.
2. Overlap in AMC
Run an AMC overlap query: of the buyers exposed to DSP prospecting, how many also clicked a Sponsored Products ad or were in your purchaser audience? A heavy overlap means two channels are claiming the same people.
AMC also tells you whether an exclusion audience is still the size you think. Count it with `COUNT(DISTINCT user_id)` against the same logic every month.
3. Frequency for Excluded People
Since April 2, 2026, Amazon's cross-account reach and frequency reporting de-duplicates reach and frequency across DSP and sponsored ads accounts. Use it to check that recent purchasers aren't still seeing you eight times a week from other campaigns.
Exclusions and frequency caps solve different problems. An exclusion decides who is eligible; a cap decides how often the eligible see you. You need both.
4. Forecast Against Audience Size
If an ad group with exclusions still spends its full budget against a small pool, check the frequency. An audience can only absorb so many impressions, as the spend-ceiling math in our retargeting guide shows.
5. A Holdout Once a Quarter
New-to-brand share says who bought. Only a holdout says whether the ad caused it. Our full-funnel strategy guide covers how to read the result by stage, and if your test crosses January 1, 2026, compare on "all views" metrics.
Mistakes We See With DSP Exclusions
No purchaser exclusion on prospecting. The ad group buys your customers at prospecting prices and calls them a high ROAS.
Trusting Audience Signals to keep buyers out. Since July 2026 the AI can reach beyond your included audiences. Only the exclude group stops it.
Using quick setup where you need suppression. DVA+ quick setup manages audiences for you; suppression sits in advanced settings.
One window for everything. A 30-day purchaser exclusion on a mattress lets last month's buyers back in next month.
Excluding too much. Ten overlapping exclusions on a small prospecting audience leave nothing to deliver. Check the forecast.
Letting AMC exclusion audiences go stale. An audience not attached to an ad group slows its refresh and eventually stops.
Exclusions in some ad groups, not all. The waste just moves to the ad group without them.
How We Run DSP Exclusions in Adbrew
Everything above works directly in Amazon Ads Agent. The hard part is keeping the same exclude groups, windows and holdouts consistent across every ad group, every month, and often across several brands.
Adbrew is an agentic retail media management platform for Amazon and Walmart, and DSP runs in it next to Sponsored Ads, AMC and Marketing Stream:
DSP with our team. Run Amazon DSP through Adbrew's seat, or connect the DSP account you already have, with our team helping plan the exclusion structure.
[AMC audiences without SQL](https://adbrew.io/amc-amazon-marketing-cloud-tool/). Build recent purchasers, high-value buyers, cart abandoners and holdout splits from templates, then send them to DSP to exclude or target. The same audiences power audience bid boosting in Sponsored Ads.
Automation you can read. Rules you set on bids, budgets, audiences and frequency caps, with the thresholds and lookbacks you choose, and every change logged.
[Adbrew Intelligence](https://adbrew.io/adbrew-intelligence). Ask for "every DSP ad group with new-to-brand share under 30% this month" or "overlap between DSP prospecting buyers and Sponsored Products clickers," and an agent builds it from your data.
More than 5,000 brands, agencies and aggregators use Adbrew, and customers average a 46% decrease in ACOS. K2 Health used AMC through Adbrew to lift conversions 20.28%.
Exclude First, Then Judge DSP
Most "DSP prospecting doesn't work" verdicts we hear come from ad groups that were never really prospecting. Fix the exclude group first, and the numbers you judge DSP on start telling the truth.
Want a second pair of eyes on your exclusion setup? Book a demo with our team and we'll walk through your DSP ad groups and AMC audiences with you.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I exclude an audience in Amazon DSP?
Open the ad group in your Display, Video and Audio campaign, go to the Audience section of its targeting and add the segment to the exclude group. Each ad group has one exclude group that applies to all its include groups. In DVA+, exclusions (Amazon calls them suppression) are in advanced settings.
What audiences should I exclude from Amazon DSP prospecting?
Exclude purchasers of your brand over a window that matches your repurchase cycle, often 365 days, plus detail page viewers from the last 30 days, your hashed CRM list and any AMC holdout. Viewers belong in remarketing, and existing customers belong in loyalty campaigns.
Do exclusions still work with Performance+ and Brand+?
Yes. Since July 22, 2026, audiences you add to Brand+ Prospecting and Performance+ Customer Acquisition or Unified Consideration are Audience Signals that the AI can go beyond. Amazon says audience exclusions "function independently of Audience Signals," so excluded people stay excluded.
How does AND/OR logic work in Amazon DSP audiences?
Segments within an include group combine with OR, and the AND connector narrows a group by requiring a second signal. One exclude group applies across every include group, and Amazon uses AND/ALL logic for it: a shopper must be outside every excluded segment, so anyone in any one of them is removed.
Can I exclude AMC audiences in Amazon DSP?
Yes. AMC custom audiences can be used to target or exclude in DSP ad groups. Common AMC exclusions are cart abandoners from broad remarketing, high-value buyers from prospecting, Subscribe & Save subscribers and random holdouts. An AMC audience needs at least 2,000 people and can take up to 48 hours to appear.
How many audiences can I exclude in an Amazon DSP ad group?
Since Amazon's November 2025 update, each ad group supports up to ten include groups and one exclude group, with up to 500 audience segments in total. In practice, four or five well-chosen exclusions cover most prospecting ad groups.
Can I exclude my existing customers from Amazon DSP?
Yes. Upload a hashed customer list through Ads data manager, which Amazon says costs nothing extra, and add it to the exclude group. Add Amazon purchases audiences for your brand too, because many existing customers buy on Amazon under different identifiers than your CRM holds.
How do I know my Amazon DSP exclusions are working?
Check new-to-brand share by ad group (a prospecting line under 30% usually has broken exclusions), run an AMC overlap query between DSP-exposed buyers and Sponsored Products clickers, and use de-duplicated reach and frequency to confirm excluded people aren't still heavily reached by other campaigns.
