SP-API vs. Amazon Ads API

By Nestor Sartoretto Published September 10, 2026 Updated September 10, 2026 6 min read

They are two different APIs, with two different registrations, for two different parts of your business. Anyone who has worked on an Amazon integration knows that "connecting the API" is not one thing: connecting orders and inventory is the SP-API; connecting ad campaigns is a whole other API, with its own credentials.

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What each API covers

The SP-API covers the selling operation as a whole: orders, shipments, payments, inventory, pricing, listings, and financial reports. The Amazon Ads API covers only advertising campaign management (Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display) and the performance reports for those campaigns. There is no data overlap: neither replaces or directly extends the other. They are parallel systems.

Different registration paths

To use the SP-API, the app registration is tied to a Seller Central or Vendor Central account. To use the Ads API, access is granted by Amazon Advertising itself and does not necessarily require a Professional seller account. You can get access with a regular Amazon login, as long as it is authorized to use the advertising API.

Authentication: similar, but not the same

Both are built on OAuth via Login with Amazon (LWA), but with different history and requirements. Until October 2, 2023, the SP-API also required requests to be signed with AWS Signature Version 4 using AWS IAM credentials. Amazon removed that requirement on that date, and today you only need to include the LWA access token in the authorization header (Authorization: Bearer <token>), with no AWS signing. The Ads API never required AWS signing: it has always relied only on the LWA OAuth 2.0 flow, which produces five credentials: Client ID, Client Secret, Access Token, Refresh Token, and Profile ID.

The Ads API Profile ID

One detail with no direct equivalent in the SP-API: every account-specific call to the Ads API needs the Amazon-Advertising-API-Scope header, containing the Profile ID, an identifier for the advertiser account in a specific marketplace. You get the Profile ID by calling the /v2/profiles endpoint. In practice, an account selling in multiple marketplaces (US, Canada, Mexico, etc.) has a different Profile ID per marketplace, and every campaign call must declare which profile it applies to.

What this means in practice

A tool that manages both inventory/listings and Ads campaigns, like most Amazon management platforms, has to integrate the two APIs separately, with distinct authorization flows and no token sharing between them. It also means an authentication failure on the Ads API does not affect order syncing through the SP-API, and vice versa: the failure points are isolated.

How EcomVision helps

EcomVision integrates the SP-API and the Amazon Ads API separately, each with its own authorization and token renewal flow, so the Amazon Ads & Campaigns module and the operations modules (inventory, financials, listings) keep working independently even if one of the two needs to be re-authorized.

Update notice: authentication requirements, scopes, and endpoints for both APIs change over time. Always check each API's official documentation for current behavior.

Sources

Nestor Sartoretto

Founder of EcomVision · view profile →

Frequently asked questions

How does the scope of the SP-API differ from the Amazon Ads API?

The SP-API covers the selling operation as a whole: orders, shipments, payments, inventory, pricing, listings, and financial reports. The Amazon Ads API covers only advertising campaign management: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and their performance reports. They are two separate systems with no data overlap.

Do I need a Professional seller account to use the Amazon Ads API?

Not necessarily. Access to the Amazon Ads API is granted by Amazon Advertising and does not require a Professional seller account as a prerequisite. You can get access with a regular Amazon login, as long as it is authorized to use the advertising API. The SP-API, on the other hand, is tied directly to a Seller Central or Vendor Central account registration.

Do both APIs use the same kind of authentication?

Both use OAuth via Login with Amazon (LWA), but in different ways. Until October 2023, the SP-API also required signing requests with AWS Signature Version 4 and AWS IAM credentials. That was removed, and today the LWA token in the authorization header is enough. The Ads API has always relied on LWA alone, but it requires an additional Profile ID (from the /v2/profiles endpoint) sent in the Amazon-Advertising-API-Scope header to identify the advertiser account and marketplace for each call.