2018 was the most momentous year for Amazon, and they’re now the third largest seller behind Google and Facebook, with 4% of the total market share. They are categorized as “other” in terms of earnings, but they’ve grown so much. Many people are spending a lot more, and there is more spending within the budget for next year. What does that mean for advertisers though? Well, you’re about to find out the changes, and what they mean.
First, is their unified branding and systems. Amazon Media Group, Amazon Marketing Services, and Amazon Advertising platform are now under one umbrella brand, and they’re known as Amazon DSP. What that means, is that the seller platform is more consolidated, and it allows for a business emergency. What this means for advertisers is that it allows for more functionality within the brands, and a more consolidated selling system.
Amazon’s interface and API also saw some major updates. While they still lag behind Google, there are so many improvements this year, with enhancements to the UI, and the API being the two biggest ones. The UI is now easier to manage the search accounts, and you can look at reports, and even filter the date ranges. It also allows advertisers to have portfolio budgets across many campaigns. The PAI is significant because it allows integrators to build the tools that give opportunities for managing accounts and updating. There is now parity between the seller and vender central with the API on the search query and purchase reports, and it integrates into an internal bidding tool for client campaigns on a major scale.
Finally sponsored brands now has gained inventory. They now show near the top of the search results, and the ad units are on the lefthand side of the desktop, and they’re every 13th slot on mobile, which is a huge change for many people who sell. It delivers higher CTR since sponsored products and product display ads allow for more performance, and it brings more placement on the search pages. This is probably the biggest benefit to most advertisers. There are more impressions, which may cause the CTR to fall, but many times, it creates a large gain for the brands and allows to give them more of an opportunity to show ads with multiple products, and a good ad copy to entice the customer. Plus, there is more hybrid marketing, and many times, there is now more optimization to maximize visibility, which is a huge change.
Amazon is going to constantly change more and more in this next coming year, and you have to be ready for these changes. You can get ready by following the trends, reading a bit more on this, and ultimately, finding out for yourself just what is going on, and hat you need to do in order to be ahead of the game as a seller, and o really optimize your sales through the use of Amazon as well.
