Over the past year, Amazon has been making a strong effort toward increasing their ad revenue. This was done in a variety of ways including offering more types of ads, and increasing their effectiveness. According to their most recent earnings report, which covered the fourth quarter of 2017, their strategy is clearly working.
In the presentation, they reported a 60% increase in their ‘other’ revenue category, which is where advertising falls, along with branded credit cards. This growth brings their revenue in this section to $1.7 billion during the fourth quarter.
While advertising is still a small percentage of the company’s overall revenue, it is certainly good to see that it is growing quickly. If Amazon can continue to successfully move forward with their ad efforts, they could become a real ‘player’ in the digital ad world, which could help to break the duolopy that is currently held by Google and Facebook.
Having a third major player like Amazon enter the market could be beneficial for marketers, brands, and consumers. This added competition could also make it easier for second tier ad networks like Microsoft’s Bing to gain some much-needed traction.
Amazon has continued to state that advertising will be a major focus throughout 2018 and beyond. This is part of their larger efforts to attempt to turn a profit for their shareholders.