Ross Walker is a Paid Media Team Lead at Acadia.
Danilo de Castro Alvares is a Retail Media Manager at Acadia.
On November 1st Amazon introduced premium supply on DSP to automate inventory selection. This will automatically include Echo Show, Fire tablet, Fire TV, IMDb, Twitch, and whole markets as baseline selections for advertisers. Previously advertisers had to manually select the inventory options they wanted included in their campaigns. Advertisers will have the option to opt out of this automatic selection.
The move is likely a tactic for Amazon to sell inventory that advertisers aren't typically choosing. And while expanding certain brands' campaigns to new inventory areas may prove beneficial, brands should review their current campaign planning before letting Amazon select all their placements.
Strategies for Handling the New Inventory
We see two strategies brands can take with this new Premium Amazon Display Supply update. The first would be to let it run and analyze the performance impact, then decide which inventories to keep or remove. This approach would let brands explore new inventory options they may have never considered and see if any of them make an incremental impact.
The second, more cautious approach, is to deactivate the new selections initially and test them one by one. This method is recommended for more budget-conscious advertisers. We’re all for testing placements, but not all brands have the luxury of testing their budget to see ‘if it will work’. If this sounds like your brand, then the one-by-one approach makes the most sense. The change also presents an opportunity for mid-size or challenger brands to easily test new inventory types they haven't tried before, such as Twitch or audio inventory.
Impact on DSP Campaigns
The news of Premium Amazon Display Supply was announced at Amazon’s unBoxed event in September. Amazon also announced a new campaign type ‘Performance+’, currently in beta, that has a very similar feel to Google’s P-Max. Essentially you give Amazon a budget, CPA and a campaign goal and it creates and fully runs a campaign for you selecting inventory allocation and ad types.
The additional inventory options will allow the Performance+ AI algorithm the space it needs to test and learn which placements work best for each individual brand. P-Max has been Google’s big paid advertising push in the last couple of years so it makes sense that Amazon would follow suit. This campaign type could make it easier for Amazon to spend campaign budgets but will require careful management to understand what inventory is being used.
Advice for Brands
Like with all new product offerings from Amazon, brands need to do one thing first. Brands should be proactive in asking their advertising partners about which inventories are working best for them. Many brands may not realize how much of their DSP spend goes towards Amazon-owned properties versus third-party sites. Doing so will help brands understand their breakdown and can help increase their reach and potentially bring customers back to Amazon from off-platform locations.