Amazon has cemented itself as a focal point of the ecommerce landscape. There is no overstating the power that Amazon has with consumers, with millions of people utilising the site either as a buyer or seller.

The platform has undergone many changes in 2020, as the marketplace constantly attempts to enhance the customer experience across Amazon owned sites. Changes have also focused on making the platform increasingly user friendly for businesses as well.

As part of those efforts, Amazon’s Demand Side Platform (DSP) has been introduced to more marketplaces this year.

While Amazon’s advertising console has traditionally focused on PPC (pay per click), Amazon’s DSP has significantly grown with more businesses signing up to achieve their advertising goals.

It provides advertisers with the tools to interact with customers through display adverts across their buying experience, engaging with the right audience at the appropriate time.

Advanced programmatic advertising solutions have allowed businesses to automatically buy ad inventory and media space in real-time through an automated bidding system.

There are several places that these adverts can be served, including;

• Amazon website – customers browsing the marketplace
• Prime Video
• Via Kindle – Kindle-specific advertising to reach readers on-the-go
• Via Fire TV – Targeted ads while users stream a wide variety of TV shows
• IMDB
• IMDB TV
• Approved third-party providers
• Apps

Market insights

While there are plenty of demand side platforms around, Amazon’s DSP has been growing at an exponential rate. There are several reasons why this growth has been so drastic, the main one being Amazon’s access to first-party data.

This data allows advertisers to leverage insights gleaned from customer browsing and buying patterns on Amazon owned and operated sites to better target their ads. These insights can cover anything from purchase history and search trends to shopper interests.

The DSP market is on course to continually grow at a swift rate, with Amazon’s DSP one of the key platforms driving this growth. Amazon’s data gives the platform significant advantages over rivals such as Sizmek or Oath.

Advertisers are quickly forming a strong allegiance to Amazon, due to its wealth of data and the ability that gives to pinpoint specific audiences to achieve business goals.

The next major driving force for Amazon’s DSP is not only Amazon marketplace, but its other owned and associated platforms such as Audible, Fire TV, IMDb and Prime Video.

Expanding its landscape has allowed advertisers to increase their reach as well as branch out with different ad formats such as in video and streaming.

2020 has been a difficult year for the vast majority of businesses thanks to the fallout from the global coronavirus pandemic. With more people staying at home due to lockdown measures, business operations are having to change.

Traditional methods of marketing are struggling and with lockdowns being introduced across Europe once again, some  routes to consumers are no longer viable, marketers must improvise and adapt in order to be successful.

We have seen record numbers of businesses close, pay cuts, job losses as well as the fear of the pandemic itself which has naturally affected the market.

Ad spend in the UK is significantly down as a whole, however, digital ad spend has grown which signals there is light at the end of the tunnel. E-commerce is a major factor behind this spend, with online sales having soared this year.

Amazon Prime membership has significantly increased during this time, with next day delivery as well as value in other services Amazon offers.

Prime Video is now a huge part of Prime services, providing great value for Amazon customers. In some months of 2020, time on streaming sites rose by a third compared to last year. Every action that customer performs on Amazon, whether it is watching a movie, searching for an actress, liking a particular show, is recorded.

This data can later be leveraged by advertisers through Amazon’s DSP and with the expansion of the platform it is exactly the thing marketers need to push on in Q4 of 2020.

The Key benefits of Amazons DSP

There are many benefits of using Amazon DSP:

Efficiency and inventory – Utilising Amazon’s DSP is an effective way to deliver adverts in premium positions such as on Amazons website or third party sites as well. The platform provides great tools to measure and optimize performance to achieve advertising goals.

Develop brand awareness – A significant consideration for brands who want to increase their reach and following. Amazon DSP helps businesses strengthen their existing presence and improve visibility. Brands that want to increase their discoverability can achieve this goal utilising Amazon’s DSP.

Enhancing consideration – As a brand, if you have gained awareness but are still struggling to drive traffic due to external market factors, Amazon DSP can help. Using display adverts can increase consideration amongst your target audience, diverting traffic from your competitors to your brand’s products.

Driving purchases – Purchases can be encouraged and enhanced through Amazon’s DSP. Amazon’s first-party data allows businesses to re-engage with prospects that have viewed or interacted with a product in the past. Not everyone who clicks on a product will purchase it the first time. Brands eager to maximise their brand recall can retarget customers that have signalled buying intentions. Utilising display adverts also businesses to reconnect with consumers, reminding them of the product to encourage conversions.

The targeting functionality of Amazon’s DSP includes a variety of options:

• Brand halo remarketing – to help retarget Amazon visitors who have looked at other products sold by the brand.
• Similar product remarketing – ensuring brands reach Amazon shoppers who have searched for similar products.
• Pixel-based retargeting – for shoppers who have visited the brand’s social media pages or website.
• Product remarketing – to retarget customers who have looked at products but didn’t make a purchase.
• Prime Video targeting – To target Amazon Prime members that have shown specific interests through their interactions.

Audience Builder

A key tool that Amazon’s DSP offers advertisers is the audience builder which allows your engage audiences at the top of the funnel, as well as retarget audiences at the bottom of the funnel.

Now advertisers can utilise the audience builder to understand how customers have consumed content on Prime Video and promote relevant products to them. Knowing how Prime subscriptions have exploded this year, Amazon DSP has doubled down on its efforts to leverage Prime Video more effectively.

The audience builder is a great tool to really hone in on a target audience and engage with customers across the buying funnel. With DSP, you can capture the attention of audiences who are new to the brand through display advertising, as well as retarget shoppers who have previously engaged with your brand or storefront but didn’t purchase.

Amazon’s first-party data allows advertisers to target customers who have displayed an interest in a particular actor, a TV series or movies, too. This provides businesses with a unique opportunity to advertise related products or services to people who have similar interests, who are more likely to convert.

Using Prime Video data

We have touched upon the benefits of Amazon’s DSP and how businesses can leverage data to achieve advertising and business goals. Shown above are the various tools businesses can use to target audiences that have shown specific interests. With the example listed above, this audience group would be very interested in Marvel, especially the Avengers.

Example 1

Example 2

Both of these brands can use DSP tools to serve the audience with specific adverts, developing awareness of these products as well as driving consideration.

The audience has shown a specific interest in the Marvel films, and will hopefully engage with the products wherever the advertiser chooses to serve these adverts.

One of the main benefits of Amazon’s DSP is that display adverts pull the audience to your product. Developing creatives that are eye-catching and engaging can aid the customer journey, pulling shoppers along the path from browsing to purchase.

Of course, not every individual in this audience who has watched the Avenger movies, or shown an interest in ‘Chris Evans’ will be captivated by these products, however, there is an opportunity to develop these campaigns to achieve results.

Prime Video insights will allow advertisers to grow their campaigns. It provides marketers with the opportunity to get creative and introduce customers who are new to brand, driving them down the buying funnel. In the above example, it focused on Marvel and the Avengers. The scope for marketers and brands alike is huge.

As a publisher, or even a homeware brand, data and information contained within Amazon’s DSP can aid in campaign decisions. If you are aware there is an audience that has interacted with ‘James Martin – Home Comforts’ (Cookery show), you would assume they have a passion or interest in cooking. Using these insights to introduce audiences to your brand will create more touchpoints and aid in brand awareness,

A final example of how advertisers can become creative. You use DSP to discover an audience has watched ‘All or Nothing: Dallas Cowboys.’ This would indicate that the audience has an interest in American Football.

Retailers such as ‘Wilson’ who provide products in the American Football category can utilise this data, gaining insight into specific audience trends to tailor campaigns around and accurately decide where their budgets should be placed to ensure the best ROI for their Amazon advertising campaigns.

Summary

With Amazon’s DSP becoming more efficient, advertisers can leverage multiple tools to guarantee they are serving adverts to the correct audience and not wasting budget.

Utilising audiences that have interacted with particular TV programmes and movies will allow advertisers to gain a deeper insight into their interests and serve them with adverts that are more likely to convert.

Prime Video targeting should be introduced to campaigns to generate awareness, driving consideration in these audiences that have shown an interest in a particular niche. These can be built out to reach a relevant audience, aiding in new to brand sales as well as enhancing established remarketing campaigns for the product.

Sign up for Amazon DSP: https://advertising.amazon.com/en-gb/solutions/products/amazon-dsp