If your Amazon DSP campaigns are not spending or underdelivering, the issue is rarely random.
In most cases, your campaigns are entering auctions but failing to win impressions, and without the right visibility, it becomes difficult to understand why.
The Amazon DSP Delivery Troubleshooter is built to solve that problem. It shows exactly where opportunities are breaking down across bidding, targeting, creative compatibility, and inventory access.
Instead of guessing, you can identify whether the issue is within your control or driven by external factors, then make informed adjustments based on real data.
Understanding the Amazon DSP Delivery Troubleshooter Tool
Amazon provides this feature to address the lack of transparency in deal inventory auctions. It tracks every time a line item misses a bidding opportunity and assigns that miss to a specific category.
These categories are then split between demand-side issues, which are controlled by your campaign settings, and supply-side issues, which involve external factors or publisher requirements.
You can see some of these insights in your order’s main dashboard, in the Missed opportunities card. But accessing their detailed breakdown is best for diagnosing DSP underdelivery.
Related article: Amazon DSP Retargeting Explained: How to Reach Shoppers Who Didn’t Buy
When to Use the Amazon DSP Delivery Troubleshooter
The Delivery Troubleshooter becomes most valuable when campaigns are not pacing or delivering as expected.
Use this tool when:
- Campaigns are underdelivering against budget
- Impression volume is lower than expected
- Spend is inconsistent across line items or deals
- Performance drops after bid or targeting changes
- You are unsure whether the issue is bidding, targeting, or inventory access
In these situations, the Troubleshooter provides clarity on where delivery is breaking down so you can respond with the right adjustments.
How to Access Missed Opportunities in the DSP Console
To see these metrics, you must scroll down and change the configuration of the column:
Click on Customize columns:
Then, scroll down and look for missed opportunities:
Once these columns are active, the data appears as nested rows. You can click on an individual order or line item to see a breakdown of performance for each specific deal.
The DSP Delivery Troubleshooter cannot be applied at the order level. It only works on specific line items within an order, which means diagnosis must happen at the most granular level of the campaign structure.
This granular view allows you to see which specific websites or deal IDs are causing the most missed opportunities within a larger order.
Related article: Amazon DSP Reporting Guide: How to Read Reach, Frequency, Recency, and NTB
Analyzing Demand and Supply Side Missed Bid Reasons
The Delivery Troubleshooter categorizes missed opportunities into demand-side and supply-side factors. Understanding the difference is key to diagnosing the issue correctly.
Demand-side issues are driven by your campaign settings. These include audience mismatches, location restrictions, frequency caps, and creative incompatibility.
If demand-side issues dominate, the problem is internal. This typically means your targeting is too narrow or misaligned with available inventory.
Supply-side issues come from the publisher or exchange environment. A common example is “bid below deal floor,” where your bid does not meet the minimum required to compete in the auction.
If supply-side issues dominate, the problem is external. In these cases, increasing bids, expanding deal access, or adjusting inventory sources may be required.
This distinction helps you avoid overcorrecting in the wrong direction and focus on the lever that actually impacts delivery.
Common Missed Bid Reasons
Amazon traffic quality filters protect advertisers from invalid traffic, but aggressive filtering can also reduce delivery. The troubleshooter can reveal when traffic-quality issues prevent the order from getting more impressions.
Here’s Amazon’s whole list of Missed Reasons you can add as columns:
The troubleshooter not only identifies bidding issues. It also highlights mismatches across several campaign parameters, including:
- Audience targeting
- Location targeting
- Product category targeting
- Creative size compatibility
- Amazon traffic quality filters
These signals indicate that impressions were available, but the campaign’s targeting settings prevented the bid from qualifying.
If a campaign shows strong impressions but weak sales performance, the issue may not be targeting or bids. Instead, the creatives themselves may be underperforming.
The troubleshooter helps surface this indirectly by ruling out other metrics.
Related article: Amazon FBA Costs Explained: How Fees, Inventory, and Velocity Impact Profitability
How to Act on Missed Opportunities Data
The Delivery Troubleshooter highlights where issues exist, but the next step is translating that data into action.
Use the following framework to guide adjustments:
- If “Bid below deal floor” is high
Increase bids or evaluate whether the deal aligns with your cost structure - If “Audience mismatch” appears frequently
Expand or refine targeting to better match available impressions - If “Location mismatch” is limiting delivery
Reassess geographic targeting and remove unnecessary restrictions - If “Creative size mismatch” appears
Upload additional creative formats that align with available placements - If traffic quality filters are limiting impressions
Review inventory sources and brand safety settings
Changes should be tested incrementally. Monitor performance metrics such as CTR, conversion rate, and ROAS before scaling adjustments.
Diagnosing Issues Is Only the First Step
The DSP Delivery Troubleshooter helps advertisers understand why bids are not resulting in impressions, but it does not prescribe a universal solution. The goal of this tool is not to eliminate all missed opportunities. Campaigns can still perform profitably even when missed opportunities appear. It’s up to you to decide when it’s worth optimizing, and when it isn’t.
Each missed opportunity reflects something different, such as targeting settings, bid competitiveness, creative compatibility, or publisher requirements. The appropriate response depends on the advertiser’s goals, budget strategy, and campaign structure.
Related article: Amazon DSP Optimization: How to Reduce Wasted Ad Spend With Audience Overlap Exclusions
For this reason, the tool performs best when used for diagnosing and monitoring. Once the underlying reason is identified, advertisers can evaluate potential adjustments and monitor their impact over time.
In practice, optimization often involves testing changes incrementally and reviewing performance metrics such as CTR, conversions, and ROAS before making further adjustments.
The key takeaway is that the DSP Troubleshooter highlights where issues exist, but the strategy for addressing them will vary by advertiser.
Key Takeaways
The Amazon DSP Delivery Troubleshooter provides visibility into why your campaigns are not winning impressions, but interpreting that data correctly is what drives performance.
Key points to keep in mind:
- Missed opportunities indicate where bids are failing, not necessarily where performance is broken
- Demand-side issues point to campaign settings such as targeting and creative
- Supply-side issues reflect auction competitiveness and inventory access
- Not all missed opportunities need to be fixed to achieve strong performance
- Optimization should be tested incrementally and measured against conversion and revenue metrics
Used consistently, the Troubleshooter becomes a reliable way to monitor campaign health and guide smarter optimization decisions over time.
Related article: How to Fix an Amazon Multiple Account Violation and Save Your Business
Amazon DSP Delivery Troubleshooter FAQs for Campaign Optimization
What is the Amazon DSP Delivery Troubleshooter and when should it be used?
The Amazon DSP Delivery Troubleshooter is a diagnostic tool that shows why your line items are not winning impressions in the auction. It should be used when campaigns are underdelivering, not spending budget, or showing inconsistent impression volume across deals and audiences.
Why is my Amazon DSP campaign not spending its full budget?
Underdelivery typically happens when your campaign enters auctions but fails to win bids. This can be caused by low bids compared to deal floors, overly restrictive targeting, limited inventory access, or mismatches between your targeting settings and available impressions.
How do I know if underdelivery is caused by bidding or targeting issues?
The Delivery Troubleshooter separates missed opportunities into demand-side and supply-side reasons.
If most missed opportunities are demand-side, the issue is likely targeting, audience selection, or campaign settings.
If supply-side reasons dominate, the issue is typically bid competitiveness or deal availability.
What does “bid below deal floor” mean in Amazon DSP?
This means your bid is lower than the minimum price required by the publisher or private marketplace deal. Even if impressions are available, your campaign will not qualify unless your bid meets or exceeds that floor.
Should I try to eliminate all missed opportunities in my DSP campaigns?
No. Missed opportunities are a normal part of DSP campaigns. The goal is not to eliminate them entirely, but to understand whether they are limiting performance. Many campaigns perform efficiently while still showing a high percentage of missed opportunities.
What are the most common demand-side issues in Amazon DSP?
Common demand-side issues include audience mismatch, location targeting restrictions, frequency caps, and creative incompatibility. These are all controlled by campaign settings and can be adjusted directly within your DSP strategy.
What are the most common supply-side issues in Amazon DSP?
Supply-side issues are driven by external factors such as publisher requirements, deal access, and bid floors. The most common example is bidding below the deal floor, but it can also include inventory limitations or exchange-level restrictions.
Can creative issues affect DSP delivery?
Yes. If your creative sizes or formats are not compatible with available inventory, your campaign may miss eligible impressions. Even when delivery is strong, poor creative performance can still limit CTR and conversions.
What should I do after identifying missed opportunities in the Troubleshooter?
Once you identify the dominant missed opportunity reasons, test changes incrementally. This may include adjusting bids, expanding targeting, updating creatives, or modifying deal access. Monitor performance metrics such as CTR, conversion rate, and ROAS before scaling changes.
Does fixing underdelivery always improve performance?
Not always. Increasing delivery without maintaining efficiency can lead to wasted spend. The goal is to balance delivery with performance, ensuring that additional impressions contribute to conversions and revenue, not just reach.