Amazon Has Built a Real-Time Bidding Ad Platform, Which Could Be Introduced in Q1 2013
Amazon is a lot of things, but could the e-commerce giant become a major online advertising player in 2013? Word is Amazon has built its own real-time bidding platform, which enables the company to retarget its users across the Web based on browsing and purchase habits on Amazon-owned properties. “Given Amazon’s recommendation engine and general deal-closing prowess, the company’s data should have advertisers drooling,” writes Tim Peterson at Adweek. Amazon has been offering real-time bidding to advertisers earlier this year, but as early as the first quarter of 2013, the company will unveil a self-serve real-time bidding platform for media buyers.
The company seems willing to give buyers the ability to create targeting segments but doesn’t appear ready to hand over more personal data, such as customer names and individual buying histories. This ad platform could be a boon for Amazon’s thin margins and could enable the company to price products and shipping even more aggressively. The inventory for these ads will come from a mix of Amazon owned-and-operated properties, ad exchanges and direct publisher relationships.
Industry leaders seem to be excited about the closed-loop nature of Amazon’s ad platform, which will have data on conversion that the likes of Google can’t match.
Peterson notes that Amazon has “an opportunity to shift up the funnel, to go after demand-generation ad budgets (i.e. branding dollars) by using its audience data to package targeting segments.”
The online ad market has been warned.
