Do YOU think GOOGLE is a bully? AMAZON LAUNCHING A FULL ATTACK on Google Ads Business (14)
Do YOU think GOOGLE is a bully? AMAZON LAUNCHING A FULL ATTACK on Google Ads Business
Amazon readying an attack on Google’s ad business
Retailer Developing Ad Sales Program in a Challenge to Google and Microsoft
Amazon has told potential ad partners that it may begin testing a new placement platform later this year.
That system could challenge Google's $50 billion-a-year advertising business and Microsoft Corp.'s, they added.
"Amazon could use the data it has about buying behavior to help make these ads much more effective," said Karsten Weide, an analyst at researcher IDC. "Marketers would love to have another viable option beyond Google and Facebook for their advertising."
Amazon has told potential ad partners that it may begin testing the new placement platform, dubbed Amazon Sponsored Links, later this year. The plan, these people said, is to make it easier for marketers to reach its nearly 250 million active users.
The two companies have increasingly been treading on the other's turf as they battle to be the first place that Internet shoppers go to hunt for products and services. Google, for instance, has been invading Amazon's e-commerce business with its product-listing ads and Google Shopping Express for delivery. Amazon has launched its own smartphone and also competes with Google in online storage services.
Amazon and Google declined to comment.
"Amazon knows a lot about how people are searching on the site and consumer preferences and histories. It can use that to tailor advertising in ways that probably nobody else can," said Reid Spice, vice president of media at digital agency iCrossing.
The people familiar with the matter said Amazon's offering would resemble Google's AdWords, the engine that Google uses to place keyword-targeted ads alongside Google search results and on more than two million other websites.
"Keyword" programs match a search phrase such as "running shoes" and show ads for a shoe retailer on the Web pages that the search delivers.
Amazon now displays several types of ads on its pages, including text-based keyword ads placed by Google and other third parties, as well as product ads that Amazon places itself. EMarketer estimates that Amazon will sell nearly $1 billion in advertising revenue this year, up from more than $700 million last year.
To displace the Google ads on its site, Amazon is building a tool to help advertising agencies buy in bulk for potentially thousands of advertisers, the people familiar with the matter said.
Amazon would face big hurdles trying to compete with Google to place its ads on other sites. AdWords launched in 2000, and with more than one million advertisers vying for ad space on the platform, prices get pushed higher—a big attraction for other publishers to use the system. Google says it paid more than $9 billion to outside websites in 2013.
For Amazon, more advertising offers the prospect of more revenue and potentially higher profit margins. Amazon remains primarily a retailer, buying goods from suppliers and selling them to customers with small markups. The company operates on notoriously thin profit margins, and frequently posts losses, as it invests for expansion.
Google's ad-supported business is highly profitable. It generated more operating profit in the first six months of this year than Amazon has since it was founded 20 years ago, according to researcher S&P Capital IQ.
As Amazon seeks to mimic Google's cash-cow business, Google itself has remade product ads on its site to look more like Amazon's, with images, prices and customer ratings.
Amazon is a big buyer of traditional text ads on Google, but doesn't buy the enhanced product ads. Industry analysts say Amazon doesn't want to share with a top rival details about products and inventory that are a requirement for running those ads.
From http://online.wsj.com/articles/amazo...ess-1408747979
Nice! Hope they will do better than Microsoft/Yahoo!
Definitely worth keeping an eye on this one - and Facebook's rumoured expansion of its ads business to third-party sites, too.
Could be a very exciting time to be buying traffic!
Very good thread. One thing immediately came to mind: The fact that amazon links get preferential treatment in organic search results. Experts have long suspected a secret deal between them, not sure if it was proven. Obviously, Amazon is willing to risk that in order to get juicier profits.
It's an interesting gamble from my uneducated point of view, because if truly threatened, I think Google could start sending less organic traffic to Amazon.
Amazon must feel very confident that it's become the de facto search engine for shopping, so much so that it's worth challenging Google.
Its time someone gets that bastard google of its high horse.
INB4 Amazon is penalized by Google for "spammy" SEO practices.
Originally Posted by iAmAttila
You have a secret crush on this company.
Originally Posted by cmdeal
Fascinating.
Read a few articles in biz mags about Amazon and how they roll.
They don't seem to give much of a crap about profit and operate
on razor thin margins, often taking extraordinary losses just to have
a presence or foothold in a market.
That could very easily translate into a dirt cheap traffic bonanza for
guys like us if we get in early.
Exciting times indeed.
@the_writer - That's a damn good point. The Bezos ethos of forcing competition out of the market by ignoring profits could be very, very good for us.
/me starts refreshing Techcrunch hourly looking for Amazon ad info...
You cant live comfortable, you gotta always go for that next step, and amazon is doing just that. I respect it!
So basically this new ad network of Amazon will allow marketers to target the Amazon search result pages?
Because the option to buy traffic from amazon product pages has already been avaialble for quite some time, right?
(http://services.amazon.com/product-a...w-it-works.htm)
Originally Posted by isdaron
1. Product Ads
These are ads that allow you to advertise products on your website. This is a lot like Google Product Listings. Anyway, these appear in search results, but also on actual product pages. In fact, there are a lot of products "from external websites" ranked high in Amazon. When you see "from external websites" on Amazon, that means the listing is a product ad.
Right now they are CPC based with no commission like a product sold through Amazon. Also, they convert like mad.
2. Promoted Amazon Listings
You can also promoted an Amazon listing if you want to. You will see in the sidebar of some searches and products a "sponsored result." These are clearly marked as sponsored and are sponsored Amazon listings.
Product Ad listings are not always marked clearly, that's why they convert so well.
Love a bit of heavy competition! Interesting read
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