Amazon DSP advertising... it’s not just for brands who sell physical items on Amazon.com. If you watched Thursday Night Football last year, you would have noticed all kinds of "non-endemic" brands who ran ads.
Why? Because Amazon has 2 extremely compelling attributes for brands in any industry vertical:
- Rich audience targeting based off 1P data that goes far beyond the basic demographics and interests from other platforms, into actual shopping behavior.
- Unique ad inventory. Advertisers looking to target audiences on Thursday Night Football, Twitch, Freevee, Audible, etc - can only access these placements through Amazon. Users must be logged in to these properties, which allows for very precise user matching.
The result is a unique way to buy media that leverages insights on consumer behavior that are unique to Amazon in a safe advertising environment.
But what do these ads actually look like?
I created an explainer video about Amazon DSP for non-endemic brands (those who don't sell products on Amazon) - because we know brands are missing out on a big opportunity to build awareness and consideration at scale, while being super-targeted.
Here’s the video, and below I’ll also share some screenshot examples of non-endemic ads we’ve seen “in the wild” on Amazon’s properties and third party networks.
Why is Amazon focusing on non-endemic advertisers?
Amazon’s advertising business is very lucrative, with profit margins potentially being even higher than AWS, according to tech analyst Benedict Evans.
I wrote in 2022 in an article for Forbes how Amazon heavily positioned its ads capabilities toward non-endemic brands at its annual advertising conference, Unboxed.
Examples of advertising by non-endemic brands on Amazon’s DSP
Here are 3 examples of ads running on Amazon’s DSP by non-endemic brands, with some notes from us on what targeting options these brands may be using within the DSP.
Example 1: Customer behavior and demographic segments could inform targeting for GoDaddy
- Based on subscriptions and behavior amazon knows what kind of business their customers are likely in
- GoDaddy could also be targeting lifestyle and demographic segments like: certain age range, specific lifestyle group, certain income level
Example 2: Great inventory on Twitch for some demographic groups Apple could be using the following audience segments to get in front of their ideal customer on Twitch.
- Males
- Gamers - who are 57% of the US population
- Reach Gen X,Y, Z and Alpha
- Interested in games, toys, cars
Example 3: Hyundai as a non-endemic advertiser on Amazon
Hyundai was reported to take out a big Amazon advertising media buy for the 2023 Thursday Night football. Ad Age shared that the car maker is targeting younger workers with its most recent ad campaign - something that’s easy to accomplish with Amazon’s audience targeting abilities. Hyundai in a statement said the Amazon deal will “ultimately double its advertising reach for the football season.”
Amazon actually has a lot of DSP targeting options for the automotive category.
Hyundai could be targeting people:
- In-market for auto parts/accessories
- Luxury car owners
- Customers of a certain age range
- Customers of a specific lifestyle group
- Customers of a certain income level
- Unique Amazon and 3P audiences can be reached
Example 4: Pharmaceutical brand tapping into customers seeking pain relief on Amazon
This streaming TV ad, which ran on Amazon’s Freevee, could be shown to a very targeted audience based on Amazon’s 1P data.
Amazon’s DSP allows specific parameters to be searched used to target people seeking pain relief, as shown in this screenshot.
