Amazon increases ad market share at expense of Google, FB
Inc.’s advertising business is gaining faster than expected in a market dominated by Facebook Inc. and Google.
The world’s biggest online retailer will generate $4.61 billion in US ad sales this year, which represents 4.2% of the total digital ad market, EMarketer Inc. estimated Wednesday in a report. The research firm previously projected Amazon’s ad revenue this year would be $2.89 billion. The revised number reflects an accounting change by Amazon as well as increased demand, EMarketer said.
Google and Facebook remain the dominant digital advertising companies, with a combined 58% of the $111 billion market, slipping from 59% in 2017, according to EMar- keter. Amazon is closest to customers at the moment of purchase compared with Google and Facebook, which are better for building brand recognition, EMarketer analyst Mon- ica Peart said. Amazon is an attractive place for online merchants to advertise because many product searches begin on the site, not on Alphabet Inc.’s Google. More than half of the products sold on Amazon come from third-party merchants who pay the e-commerce company a commission on each sale.
The large number of products on the site and competition from millions of merchants compels them to advertise. Amazon’s shopping marketplace has increasingly become a pay-to-play environment, with the best placement going to paid advertisers as opposed to those offering the lowest prices.
The growing advertising business has helped propel Amazon’s stock to new highs, with investors viewing the sector as a more profitable revenue source than the Seattlebased company’s main e-commerce business. Amazon shares have surged 66 percent this year.
Amazon’s push into the grocery business also is helping increase ad sales because bigspending companies like Procter & Gamble Co. and Coca-Cola Co. want to maintain brand recognition on the site, even if their products don’t lend themselves to online sales, said Timothy Seward, CEO of e-commerce marketing firm ROI Revolution.
SEATTLE:Amazon.com