Amazon Advertising is already the third largest online advertising platform, behind Google and Facebook. And in addition, the figures indicate that it will not stop growing in the coming years, so the time has come to take it into account in your marketing plans. Amazon Advertising harnesses the power of the world’s largest e-commerce platform to reach an audience that is ready to buy and deliver exactly what they are looking for. But can it overshadow the duopoly of Google Ads and Facebook Ads ?
Amazon Advertising and Online Advertising: What the Data Says
Last September, the research firm eMarketer surprised us with a study showing that Amazon Advertising is now the third largest force in the digital advertising market in the United States , after surpassing Oath and Microsoft. In addition, predictions indicate that its growth will double during this year. According to this study, Amazon Advertising will invoice 4,610,000 million during this year, which represents 4.1% of the digital advertising market. These revenues are expected to grow more than 50% annually until at least 2020. Consequently, their market share will increase to 7% , a figure that is far from threatening Google and Facebook but is very significant.
Amazon Advertising is emerging as a very interesting option for online marketers, due to its long-term projection and its evolving functionalities. Recently, the platform announced a simplified system for buying ads on and off its properties and new video ad formats.
The challenges of Amazon Advertising
Although the future looks very promising, the truth is that Amazon Advertising has a lot of work to do if it wants to face the leaders of the digital advertising market. In a recent Third Door Media study , marketers cited the following platform challenges :
- 46 % stated that the reporting system did not seem adequate to them.
- For 43%, platform optimization techniques are still insufficient.
- 34% said they found it difficult to get help from Amazon customer service.
- Other challenges mentioned were understanding the different advertising options, demonstrating their effectiveness and ensuring a sufficient budget.
On the other hand, Amazon Advertising poses unique challenges to brand security , which may make it unsuitable for some companies or categories. Many counterfeit or dubious products sneak into Amazon’s reseller system, which can raise concerns for brands about the placement of their ads.
Another challenge mentioned by the experts is the browsing experience and Amazon content . While Google and Facebook offer a privileged experience in this Buy Taiwan Consumer People Phone List regard, the Amazon platform and the way users use it make it more difficult to insert content naturally. Another point in favor of Google and Facebook is their ease of offering locally targeted ads and linked to physical stores , with options such as calling the store or even directions to visit it. Instead, Amazon necessarily moves in the realm of the global and the virtual.
Amazon Advertising for Small and Medium Businesses
According to a Marketing Land survey , small businesses are more likely to get the support they need from Amazon customer services (35%), compared to 2% of employees working in larger companies. Small businesses are also more likely to divert budget from other channels, such as search or social ads , to increase their investment in Amazon Advertising, which directly affects the market share of Google and Facebook.
Amazon appears to be showing special attention to SMEs, with solutions such as the launch of Storefronts . This platform is home to more than a million products from more than 20,000 American small and medium-sized businesses. Thanks to the multiple options available on Amazon, SMBs can offer a multi-channel shopping experience that was previously only available to large companies.
What Advertisers Need to Know About Amazon Advertising
Amazon Advertising is a pay-per-click advertising solution that allows you to place ads in different locations (on and off your site), use different options to segment your target audience , and pay only when users interact with your advertising. Although it is not the first option that we would consider when making social ads, the truth is that the potential reach of Amazon Ads is very interesting. The platform already has more than 300 million users, and in Spain it is used by 7 out of 10 Internet users.
For brands that already distribute their products organically through Amazon, paid ads can create very interesting synergies, as they reinforce product positioning.
Amazon Advertising locations
The first thing marketers should know is that Amazon Advertising allows you to place ads both within Amazon itself and elsewhere on the internet. In the first case, the brand benefits from obtaining highly targeted traffic, since users generally only visit the page when they have a strong interest in a specific product. This allows you to implement more aggressive strategies and improve conversion rates.
In the second case, we use Amazon DSP (formerly known as AAP or Amazon Advertising Platform), which is a programmatic solution to reach Amazon audiences elsewhere on the internet. In other words, we take advantage of the information that Amazon has about users and their buying habits and use it to segment campaigns on other sites with high precision. With Amazon DSP we can place ads on Amazon sites and applications, third party sites and ad exchanges. This platform has good security measures for advertisers, such as manual quality review of websites and bid evaluation in real time.
Amazon Advertising formats
In terms of Amazon Advertising formats, the system is constantly evolving, but we currently highlight the following solutions: Sponsored Ads, Display Ads, Video Ads, and Stores.
- Patricinated Ads
The sponsored ads include different subtypes, such as those sponsored sponsored products and brands. It is the most organic solution, since they are integrated into the product search itself. This format appears on search results pages and product pages and directs the user to the information page of the product in question or to the brand store. To launch a sponsored ad campaign in Amazo n, you just have to select the products you want to advertise, set a budget and choose the keywords, products and categories to segment them.
- Display ads
The display ads have the typical banner format, with different sizes and custom creatives. They appear both on Amazon’s own websites and applications and on third-party sites. Unlike the previous ones, they are also available for users who do not sell on Amazon. Amazon Advertising offers the option of creating self-managed display campaigns by the advertiser or leaving them in the hands of a team of experts on the platform.
- Video ads
Video ads work in a similar way to display ads , and can also be placed both within Amazon itself and on external sites, all using targeting options based on Amazon’s information about its visitors. They are a good complement to display campaigns, since they allow you to launch more impactful and emotional creatives and make visual demonstrations of the products.
- Stores
Finally, although it is not strictly an advertising format per se, Stores are an ideal complement to ads on Amazon. They are available to suppliers, sellers and Phone Number List agencies, and allow us to create a website for a brand on Amazon, with several pages and all the information about the products. They work through a simple content manager that allows you to upload videos, text and images without the need for programming knowledge.
To take full advantage of the potential of the Stores, the ideal is to combine them with ads directed to them from different locations inside and outside Amazon . In this way, we can control the entire customer journey and leave you in an optimal position to convert. To monitor the results of all these formats, Amazon Advertising includes its own measurement tools , which have exclusive information about the impact of ads on browsing behavior, brand image and sales, both on Amazon sites and on Amazon. third parties.