Amazon’s advertising business recently grew larger than Oath and Microsoft. In doing so, Amazon became the third-largest seller of advertisements, which has prompted discussions about whether the company may eventually grow larger than the industry’s two largest platforms, Google and Facebook.
Search Engine Land maintains that Amazon is likely to continue to grow rapidly. According to a study by Search Engine Land’s parent company Third Door Media, one third of surveyed marketers say they plan on shifting a portion of their budgets for search marketing to Amazon paid advertising.
The study also found that many marketers plan to invest in staff positions and technology tied to advertising on Amazon, including the company’s search group, Amazon Marketing Services (AMS).
The increased interest in Amazon by marketers is occurring as the company is aggressively working to enhance its services. Just recently, Amazon reportedly told certain marketing executives that it was expanding its retargeting services to include search retargeting through its demand side platform (DSP), reports Ad Exchanger.
Amazon already offers retargeting, but only pitches advertisements to shoppers who have viewed product pages or have made purchases. With the new service, Amazon will pitch advertisements based on individuals’ Amazon search activities and the marketing content will follow consumers across the internet. The idea is to pitch advertisements based on shoppers’ intentions to make purchases.
Amazon is also working to monetize data from its own e-commerce platform and from Amazon Web Services, which is a cloud computing platform used by many high profile companies that are as varied as Kellogg's, Comcast and the Major League Baseball, reports Ad Age.
To do so, Amazon is building “clean room” technology intended to allow the company to use data from multiple websites for marketing while complying with strict policy regulations. The clean room is intended to help marketers benefit from better understandings of consumers’ shopping paths and improve data analysis and analytics.
Amazon also has other resources that it is developing, such as its video platform Fire TV and Twitch, which streams video gaming and other forms of video entertainment. It also has IMDB, which shows video ads, and provides publisher services that distribute advertisements on websites that Amazon doesn’t own.
Even though Amazon has many strengths, marketers say room for improvement exists, reports Marketing Land. In another Third Door Study of Amazon, 46% of marketers said inadequate reporting was an issue and 43% said inabilities to optimize marketing initiatives was an issue.
Matthew Biboud-Lubeck, VP of consumer engagement strategy at customer data platform Amperity, meanwhile, maintains that Facebook and Google continue to have a competitive advantage among advertisers who need content-rich advertising. That’s especially true for providing high quality video advertisements.
In the same article, Collin Holmes, CEO at reputation manager Chatmeter, said Google and Facebook are also appealing when it comes to advertising for local businesses. About 90% of purchases still occur in stores, so consumers often depend on local business listings to find retailers or to get directions, Holmes explains.
Some marketing agencies and advertising networks may fear the growth of Amazon, but the rise of the company as an advertising platform is actually providing opportunities, says Dentsu Aegis Network Chief Executive Officer Jerry Buhlmann.
He maintains that firms such as Dentsu, WPP, Publicis Groupe SA and Omnicom Group can provide brands with impartial advice on allocating budgets among Google, Facebook, Amazon and other platforms. He adds that Dentsu has been buying agencies that specialize in advertising on Amazon.