Amazon Video Ads take 7 to 8 days. A Sume timeline render is $0.10/min

Amazon's own lead-time page lists 7 to 8 days of average production for an Amazon Video Ad with a custom layout, and every creative revision adds one more business day. If you want a Black Friday ad live on 2026-11-27, that is 54 days from today, so a first preview in mid-October is realistic only if you start now. Sume does not replace that Amazon service. What it gives you is a second path for the clips you control: a Timeline 1.0 render is priced at $0.10 per ceil(output minute), so a 30-second cut is $0.10 and a 61-second cut is $0.20.

The point of this page is the arithmetic of the calendar, not a promise about speed. Read the vendor numbers first, then decide which assets need a managed slot and which you can render yourself.

What Amazon says about the clock

The Amazon creative lead-times page splits a custom-layout video ad into 4 to 5 days to the first preview and 2 days of trafficking and QA, for 7 to 8 days on average. It also says that only Amazon work-time counts: the advertiser's own review and feedback turnaround is not included in the 7 day lead time.

Where a Sume render fits

Use a timeline render for the pieces that do not need the managed path: the same product clips, a different cut length for a marketplace or a social slot, or a fresh version after a price change. A Timeline job needs a Sume-hosted audio spine with a declared duration_seconds from 1 to 1800, and a video[] list of Sume-hosted clips or stills with on-spine start times. The first slot must start at 0.

There is no provider inference on this job: Sume's docs state that only worker ffmpeg runs. The price is flat per output minute, and the unbilled POST /v1/timeline-1.0/plan preflight compiles your program first so a bad start time fails before you pay.

A calendar you can check

Count back from the day you need the asset live. If the managed ad needs 8 days plus, say, 3 revisions, that is 8 + 3 = 11 business days of Amazon work alone, before your own review time, which Amazon says it does not count. A self-rendered cut has no such queue, but you own its quality: run a frame check before it ships.

Confirm the live rate with GET /v1/catalog; the docs say the catalog is the source for the current price.

• Start the managed Amazon request first; it has the longest fixed lead time.
• Render marketplace and social variants yourself from the same hosted clips.
• Re-render for a price change instead of waiting for a revision slot.