Commentary

Amazon Predicted To Report Much Faster Ad Growth

Amazon’s fourth-quarter results -- expected on Thursday at the close of the stock-trading day -- should show plenty of growth in Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Products, and Sponsored Display Ads, as well as its demand side-platform. 

Digital agency Merkle expects Amazon to announce that advertisers spent 63% more on Amazon Sponsored Products during the fourth quarter of 2019 compared with the year ago, as they saw sales produced by the format rise 106%.

Amazon ad-spending growth had slowed in late 2018 as advertisers sought out a higher return on investments from the platform. Those ROI gains continued into into the last quarter of 2019 even as ad-spending growth has accelerated.

Tinuiti sees similar numbers. The digital agency, which has expertise in Amazon's ad platforms, released fourth-quarter 2019 numbers based on its client base, which heavily buys media on Amazon. The agency suggests that among its clients, Sponsored Brands grew from 19% in the third quarter of 2019 to 27% in the fourth, mostly driven by a 38% year-over-year (YoY) increases in clicks.

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From its own work with advertisers and Amazon, the performance data of Tinuiti's clients show sales during the fourth quarter grew at a 43% pace -- even faster than previous quarters. The share of Sponsored Brands conversions that were new to the brand rose from 58% in the third quarter to 60% in the fourth.

Only time will tell whether Tinuiti’s analysts are on target. They estimate marketers spent about 30% more during the quarter on Amazon Sponsored Products. Sponsored Brands now account for 13% of Amazon search format spend, up from 12% in the prior quarter.

New Sponsored Brands inventory, which the company introduced in August 2018, significantly expanded the available inventory for the format. Ads that land on the top of page, which have always existed for Sponsored Brands, now account for 88% of spend.

Growth is not limited to the U.S. Spend for campaigns targeted outside of the United States grew 45% for Sponsored Products and 39% for Sponsored Brands, as these campaigns continued to outpace U.S. growth.

Sponsored Display ads, which were formally announced in September 2019, spent about 2% as much on them as Sponsored Products during the quarter.

Tinuiti’s report also reveals that growth of Amazon’s Demand-Side Platform (DSP)/ Amazon DSP grew 44% from the third quarter to the fourth in 2019. New-to-brand share of purchases attributed to the DSP rose from 71% in to 78%, respectively. It appears that holiday shoppers were more willingness to purchase from brands they haven’t bought from in the recent past.

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