Why Amazon is ‘pushing hard’ to reach mid-tier brands
Analysis
Amazon’s demand-side platform (DSP) has been updated to include new frequency cap controls and reporting with the aim of simplifying frequency management.
A new feature will allow advertisers to better manage frequency caps across multiple campaigns, channels and devices, including by capping ad frequency at a household level.
Ads on Amazon Prime Video, which launched at the start of the year, had previously been criticised as having suboptimal frequency capping in the immediate period after its launch.
However, Megan Pagliuca, Omnicom Media Group’s chief activation officer, called Amazon DSP’s new frequency cap insights report “the most thought-through report we have seen among all DSPs”.
AI audio tools
The announcement came as part of a broader suite of innovations announced at Amazon’s annual unBoxed event in Austin, Texas just weeks after several new ad formats were announced at its UK Upfronts presentation.
Apart from frequency capping tools, other developments include a new user experience for Amazon’s DSP, which is now equipped with new insights cards and machine-learning recommendations for tweaking campaign performance.
Amazon Ads is also launching an ads data manager and enhancements to its AI-driven performance platform, Performance+.
Elsewhere at unBoxed, Amazon ads introduced a new AI creative studio and “Audio generator” — two new generative AI tools aimed at “lower[ing] creative barriers” for advertisers.
Amazon Ads already offers AI image and video generators, and is now adding generative AI audio tools to the mix. The AI creative studio, meanwhile, is aimed at organising Amazon Ads’s various AI tools in a single application.
Full-funnel focus
The innovations are aimed at driving full-funnel reach via stream-lined campaign planning and optimisation across Amazon’s ad properties, be it on its online store or Amazon Prime Video.
Kelly MacLean, vice-president of Amazon DSP, said of the announcements: “The digital advertising landscape is rapidly evolving, with streaming TV becoming mainstream and full-funnel, cross-channel reach and measurement taking center stage. We’re inventing ad tech that makes it easier for all advertisers to navigate this evolution with precise reach, deeper insights, and direct measurement.”
Amazon’s Marketing Cloud also received a new slate of updates, enabling advertisers to now join their first-party data with Amazon’s own signals to better activate against target audiences. Additional new AMC solutions include a “high value solution” and an “optimal frequency solution”.
In addition, Amazon Ads is launching conversion path reporting in the UK market as an open beta at an unspecified date in 2025.
“We’re increasingly seeing that AMC-generated insights are quickly becoming table stakes for agencies operating in the Amazon space,” said James Spiers, head of product at Havas Market, Havas Media Group’s retail arm, told The Media Leader.
“However, we have seen that uptake on the brand side has been slower so far. The no-code interface will hopefully prompt more brand side sales and marketing teams to start leveraging AMC data themselves.”
Spiers added Amazon is “pushing hard to make the DSP formats more accessible to mid-tier brands” and that he expects the new frequency capping “will be a big boost to advertisers implementing across Amazon’s ad formats.
“The AMC has introduced much greater transparency and insight into metrics like repeat exposure and ad touchpoints along the path-to-purchase, making metrics like ad frequency far more front of mind for advertisers,” he added. “The launch of new formats (including Prime Video ads) has further highlighted this as an area to watch.”
Prime Video’s average ad-supported monthly reach in the UK totals more than 19m users. Prime Video users have also been found to spend 36% more on Amazon.co.uk compared with the average Amazon customer.
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