Amazon’s move to build a dedicated Prebid adapter marks a turning point in ad tech, signaling the dominance of open-source header bidding and a new era of interoperability.
Amazon announced Wednesday it’s building a dedicated Prebid adapter. The move signals that Prebid has firmly established itself as the industry standard.
For years, header bidding has been a battleground of competing technologies and approaches. Google famously built an alternative in Open Bidding that let it avoid competing directly with other SSPs in Prebid header bidding setups.
In contrast, Amazon’s release of a Prebid adapter cements its embrace of the open-source Prebid ecosystem. As far as Amazon is concerned, the Prebid “war” is effectively over.
Amazon getting on board with Prebid also marks a full-circle moment for industry veterans who’ve long advocated for the open-source solution. Stephanie Layser, global head of publisher ad tech solutions at Amazon Web Services (AWS), recalled just how controversial the idea of Amazon interoperating with Prebid once was.
“In 2016, I got fired from a job because I mentioned to [AdExchanger’s] Sarah Sluis that A9 wouldn’t interoperate with Prebid,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “Our CEO got a note from Amazon and used it as an excuse to let me go.”
After that, Layser returned to consulting, helping companies implement Prebid and consistently driving 20%-40% increases in revenue, she wrote. Eventually, she joined News Corp to scale the same efforts across its business units. When she later joined AWS, she didn’t let the topic go.
“I brought it up to whoever would listen to me,” Layser wrote on LinkedIn. “Luckily I came across Scott [Siegler, Amazon’s director of publisher services], who I am pretty sure pushed for this because he knew it was right, but also because he wanted me to leave him TF alone. :)”
Amazon Joins the Prebid Movement
What does Amazon joining Team Prebid mean in practical terms?
By integrating a Prebid adapter directly into its offering, Amazon Publisher Services is bridging demand from Amazon’s DSP with publishers that are using Prebid’s header bidding wrapper. This integration could enable seamless bid requests and responses between the two sides, allowing publishers to tap into Amazon’s vast demand pool without sacrificing Prebid’s flexibility and transparency.
Amazon’s adapter relies on server-to-server bidding, which reduces latency and improves auction efficiency. Amazon’s Prebid Server implementation on AWS aims to ensure scalability, security and real-time analytics, all wrapped in a streamlined workflow for publishers.
This means faster auctions, better bid management and, potentially, higher yield for publishers.
The New Era of Header Bidding
Amazon’s Prebid adapter also unifies the header bidding ecosystem. Instead of fragmented solutions, publishers have a clear path to integrate Amazon demand through a trusted, open-source framework supporting multiple demand partners.
In the broader context of the ad tech industry, Amazon is shifting toward collaboration rather than competition, with open standards and interoperability taking the lead. For publishers, that means less complexity, more control and better monetization opportunities.
In short, Amazon building a Prebid adapter is a major milestone for the industry. Prebid’s open-source approach has won the day, and everyone is invited to the table.