About Alexa Advertising ID

When you indicate that your skill delivers advertising and you provide a privacy policy, Alexa sends your skill a unique customer advertising ID and the customer preference for receiving interest-based ads. Use the Alexa advertising IDs to deliver interest-based ads and generate analytics. Alexa advertising IDs are available for custom skills, music skills, and video skills.

To use the advertising ID, your skill must comply with the Alexa Advertising ID Policy and the Alexa Skill Policy Requirements. Review these requirements before you access the Alexa advertising ID in your skill.

You must change your code to use Alexa advertising ID if your skill uses another identifier or tracking method to do any of the following items:

  • Deliver interest-based ads.
  • Collect data for user analytics.
  • Collect data to build profiles for advertising purposes.

Customer preferences for interest-based ads

Customers can choose to receive, or not receive, interest-based ads in Alexa skills. To manage preferences for interest-based ads, customers can change their settings in the Alexa app under Settings > Alexa Privacy > Manage Skill Permissions and Ad Preferences. Or, customers can manage advertising preferences online at Alexa Privacy Settings.

If a customer chooses not to receive interest-based ads, a skill can deliver ads, but these ads must not be interest-based. In addition, a customer can reset their advertising ID at any time.

Alexa advertising ID

For skills that deliver advertising, Alexa includes an Alexa advertising ID in each request to the skill. Amazon designed the advertising ID for Alexa advertising and analytics purposes. The advertising ID helps the skill keep track of ads already served to the customer so that the customer doesn't get the same ad every time. Requests from Alexa include the advertising ID in an object that enables customers to communicate to the skill their preference to receive interest-based ads.

The advertising object has two properties:

  • limitAdTracking – Customer preference for interest-based ads. Set to true when the customer opted out of interest-based ads. Set to false when the customer hasn't opted out of interest-based ads.
  • advertisingId – A customer-resettable, unique identifier that does not contain any information that directly identifies the customer.

The customer can change their preference or reset their advertising ID at any time. Alexa sends the latest values to the skill in the next request.

Add Alexa advertising to your skill

To update your skill to consume advertising ID and honor customer preferences, see Steps to Add Alexa Advertising ID to Your Skill.

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Last updated: May 29, 2024