When you think of big digital advertising businesses the usual suspects come to mind; Facebook, Google, niche chart-based newsletters etc.. You might not have immediately thought of Amazon, but last year the e-commerce giant pulled in over $15bn in advertising revenue, making up more than 10% of the US digital ad market (data from eMarketer).
Searching differently
Shoppers that used to begin their product search on Google are now increasingly starting on Amazon. Amazon realized this a number of years ago and began to sell ads, putting promoted products further up the page. We tested out just how much advertising they sell with a simple test.
We went to Amazon and searched for "tablet". The first row of 4 tablets were a sponsored section, as were the next 2 products as we scrolled down. The one after that was an "Amazon's Choice" product, which conveniently was the Fire tablet... which is an Amazon brand. So effectively the first 7 products we saw were either promoted directly, or were an Amazon product.
Also in the news: Amazon workers in Alabama look unlikely to form a union (more in snacks below).
