Amazon’s ad business grows 123 percent in third quarter, to $2.5b

In the past few months, Amazon took a major step in consolidating and simplifying its ad products, merging everything into one platform called Amazon advertising so advertisers can buy everything in the same place.

Marketers now see Amazon as a part of the triopoly, although the company’s overall advertising prowess lags far behind the other two legs of the triopoly, Google and Facebook. Google parent Alphabet, which reported that CPC on Google properties is down 28 percent, had total revenue at $34 billion for the quarter, with the majority of that being advertising. Facebook reports third-quarter earnings next week.

Amazon’s ad business, which some estimates project will reach $50 billion in the next decade, is still a small part of Amazon’s overall business, which was $56.6 billion this quarter. Perhaps because of that, both buyers and brands still have gripes about how slowly the platform is improving. They report that the company still has a way to go with the basics, with somewhat rudimentary toolsets, campaign data and some inconsistencies with how ads are bought and what data you get back.

According to data by Teikametrics, which helps brands advertise on Amazon, 32 percent of revenue for brands that sell on Amazon is now driven by advertising on Amazon. And brands have increasing ad spend overall on Amazon by 250 percent since the third quarter of 2017.