Amazon Makes Major Changes to Advertising Platform

When it comes to advertising on Amazon, it can seem as though the landscape is constantly changing and evolving. With solution names like Amazon Media Group, Amazon Marketing Services, and Amazon Advertising Platform, it can be hard for brands to understand how these specific products can help boost Amazon success. On September 5, the Amazon team simplified their advertising offerings under the umbrella of Amazon Advertising to address this confusion and make it easier for brands to take advantage of the growing suite of Amazon advertising services.

The SupplyKick team recently went through a rebrand ourselves where we introduced a new consultative advertising service dedicated to helping brands increase performance and ROI with Amazon advertising solutions. Below, Chris Waflart , Product Marketing Manager at SupplyKick will answer some pressing questions about this major Amazon platform change.

Q: What is the background behind Amazon making this change?

A: The simplest answer here is to streamline advertising offerings for sellers. In their press release, Amazon recognizes that by developing multiple advertising strategies and channels for sellers, they created a pretty complex, confusing suite of offerings. By simplifying the Amazon Advertising platform, brands can engage with these products and tools more readily. This, of course, is the second aim of the overall change, which is to increase ad revenue for the Amazon platform. By making it easier for brands to set up and maximize ROI with Amazon Advertising products, Amazon is setting itself up to increase revenue. This is not the first time we’ve seen a large brand consolidate product offerings to benefit both itself and its users. Just look at Google – the online search giant simplified disparate tools like Google Adwords, Google Keyword Planner, and more into Google Ads.

Q: How will the new Amazon Advertising products impact Amazon sellers?

A: For most sellers leveraging Amazon ads currently, things won’t change too drastically in the short term. The biggest thing most brands will have to remember is that the names of some prominent advertising features will change. Moving forward, Headline Search Ads will be called Sponsored Brands (which makes sense, because sales are actually attributed at the brand level), the Amazon Advertising Platform will be called Amazon DSP (to better represent the capabilities of this ad buying tool), and Amazon Marketing Services will now be called Advertising Console.

Outside of these name changes, the biggest impact will be felt in Amazon’s premium advertising options, such as display ads on third-party sites. Brands and sellers can now utilize customizable brand creatives to drive traffic to their product detail pages, as well as track insights to make better long-term strategic decisions. Other ad channels such as Sponsored Products, video ads, and stores are also included under this new Amazon Advertising umbrella.

Q: In your opinion, will this be a successful change for both Amazon and brands?

A: At SupplyKick, we believe this will be a successful change off the bat for high-volume sellers. The simplification of the Amazon advertising process is a welcome upgrade for brands that are overwhelmed with the constant stream of new product releases and changes. Long-term success for both sides, however, depends on the effectiveness of the new solution offerings. Amazon Advertising comes on the heels of a new beta solution release called Amazon Attribution that delivers on-demand reporting and sales impact analysis across media channels outside the Amazon platform so brands can optimize media campaigns and truly realize how consumers are engaging with their premiums ads.