Amazon Now the No. 3 Ad Platform
While Google and Facebook continue to operate as a pseudo duopoly commanding almost 60% of ad dollars, Amazon has recently become the distant 3rd player (surpassing Oath). While 4.7% share seems small comparatively, Amazon is just getting started from an ad perspective as they previously were primarily focused on the retail part of their business. We expect to see their share exponentially grow in the coming years.
Implications:
- Amazon presents itself as yet another walled garden that won’t talk to other walled gardens, which hinders any advancements in the attribution space
- Beyond any Whole Foods Market Prime Shopper data, Amazon’s data set remains primarily online based (including Amazon Fire Stick and Kindle) vs. offline
- Inherent biases exist, even more so than Google and Facebook, since Amazon will own the entire customer chain (from audience data to ad inventory to retail sales)
Opportunities:
- More and more, online shopping behaviors can inform almost any audience/lifestyle target (including offline behaviors and preferences)
- Since the ad tech is still in the early stages (functionality, etc.), advertisers can grow with (and hopefully inform) the platform
- Despite being only #3 in ad spend, Amazon’s position as #2 in top of funnel research means it is not just a lower funnel sales tactic but key to driving awareness and education with a large audience
