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Amazon Sets Its Sights on the $88B Online Ad Market

nytimes.com

81–90 of 239 posts

Re: Amazon Sets Its Sights on the $88B Online Ad Market

#81
post #32

I heard at a talk a few months ago that if you are planning to build an app to sell to retailers, you should build it on any cloud except for AWS. This is because the large retailers are uncomfortable with giving any revenue to Amazon. I heard echos of this in the last paragraph of the post, but there's plenty of co-opetition going on as well.

Sort of. Some retailers have chosen to use other providers because they compete with Amazon. But anyone building a new app is a LONG way from that being a roadblock to success.

If it is a B2B app, maybe not that far :). But I agree, if you get to a certain size, you can move no matter where you start. I think it'd be an interesting angle displaying customer empathy though.

Re: Amazon Sets Its Sights on the $88B Online Ad Market

#82
post #6

This is my bear case for Google. Google offers the least precise targeting compared to Facebook and Amazon. Facebook knows more about its users because users tell it about themselves and Amazon knows more about purchasing habits of its users because of thier purchase and search history. If I’m searching for something with the intention on buying it, I am going to go to the specific site - like Priceline, hotels.com,…

I don't know. Google is still way ahead. > Google’s U.S. ad revenue is expected to rise $5 billion this year to $39.9 billion, while Facebook could rise $3 billion this year to $21 billion, according to eMarketer. Adwords is just so effective to find your customers. You won't beat `buy new headphones` type traffic on Amazon or Facebook.

I just searched for “buy new headphones” on Google with my ad blocker turned off.

It showed ads where I could get headphones from different web sites - where neither I nor most people have an account.

What’s more likely? That I am going to register for an account on “Under Armour” - the first site that appeared or that I’m going to go to Amazon where they already have all of my information,I’m an Amazon Prime customer and where I have one-click activated?

If Under Armour were smart they would have web based Apple Pay payments available to reduce friction.

Re: Amazon Sets Its Sights on the $88B Online Ad Market

#83
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I’m looking for headphones, wouldn’t it be more logical to start on Amazon? It’s not like Amazon is a site that people haven’t heard of. It’s the 4th most trafficked site in the US.

As long as your happy paying a premium in many cases for consistency. Certainly a lot of the marketplace stuff can be found outside of Amazon for cheaper as the merchant has an extra 15% to play with gong direct.

Most people are happy to pay a premium for the convenience - as evidenced by all of the third party merchants who sell on Amazon even though setting up a website to sell merchandise is trivial even for someone who knows nothing about websites.

Re: Amazon Sets Its Sights on the $88B Online Ad Market

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely not the case. The Google machine includes: Google Analytics, Adwords/Adsense, Doubleclick network, Android and store, Chrome Browser, Chrome OS, Maps/Streetview, Gmail, G-Suite, Youtube, Google Play, Google Fiber, Google Fi, Public DNS, all the various websites with 1st party cookies, connections to Salesforce CRM, and the recently announced Mastercard purchase data. Facebook and Amazon are nowhere close t…

All of that data is still just based on Google trying to “infer” interests which is not as accurate as people telling them about themselves. For instance, Facebook knows your relationship status as soon as it changes because most people tell them . Facebook knows where people like to eat because people check in. They know which events you are going to that are advertised on FB because you tell them “that you are inte…

google has your location they don't need you to checkin

Re: Amazon Sets Its Sights on the $88B Online Ad Market

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>as a potential advertiser you don't really get to use all that targeting when placing ads. you don't need to. since google is interested in providing you cheap relevant clicks, it will deliver them to you without exposing all the targetings. all the data available wil be utilized in choosing the right audience anyway.

This type of "trust us, we know what we're doing" targeting is typically less cost effective for advertisers. The fact it works at all is a technical achievement to be sure, but as far as Google goes I can vouch for the OP.

Well, if you are doing direct response advertising, you can mark (with utm source) and measure any kind of performance metric (CPA, average purchase price, whatever you can come up with), and if their clicks are not cost effective, you can stop buying them.

And if you do branding... branding is hard to measure anyway.

Note -- I'm not affiliated with google in any way, I just think their offering makes a lot of sense.

Re: Amazon Sets Its Sights on the $88B Online Ad Market

#87
post #22

This is my bear case for Google. Google offers the least precise targeting compared to Facebook and Amazon. Facebook knows more about its users because users tell it about themselves and Amazon knows more about purchasing habits of its users because of thier purchase and search history. If I’m searching for something with the intention on buying it, I am going to go to the specific site - like Priceline, hotels.com,…

If we're talking about data I think Google wins. Email is the activity stream of all your online purchases. Google analytics has the users' clickstream data. Google messenger and google+ gets the relationships the user has. Youtube gets entertainment data. Search is what is relevant to the custom at the moment of time. If I was Amazon, i'd look at buying mint from intuit to get all the banking data from users.

Google doesn't read your email for ads anymore so that is moot for them.

Re: Amazon Sets Its Sights on the $88B Online Ad Market

#88
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>as a potential advertiser you don't really get to use all that targeting when placing ads. you don't need to. since google is interested in providing you cheap relevant clicks, it will deliver them to you without exposing all the targetings. all the data available wil be utilized in choosing the right audience anyway.

But the initial intent still has to be there. If I sell shampoo noone's gonna see my shampoo PPC ad just because they email a friend to say they've got dry hair. They have to search for a shampoo-related keyword I'm targeting.

And then once I buy shampoo,Amazon can make a deal with the Shampoo manufacturer to send a branded Amazon Dash button for repeat purchases.

If they have an Alexa device, Amazon can get shampoo manufacturers to pay to be the default choice when someone says “Alexa, order more shampoo.”

Re: Amazon Sets Its Sights on the $88B Online Ad Market

#89
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of that data is still just based on Google trying to “infer” interests which is not as accurate as people telling them about themselves. For instance, Facebook knows your relationship status as soon as it changes because most people tell them . Facebook knows where people like to eat because people check in. They know which events you are going to that are advertised on FB because you tell them “that you are inte…

google has your location they don't need you to checkin

Not if I’m on an iPhone. They know the vicinity I’m in but they don’t know exactly which store I’m at if it is an area with a lot of stores nor do they know that I’m with my friends. I probably added them to the check in and/or tagged them in a picture.

Re: Amazon Sets Its Sights on the $88B Online Ad Market

#90
post #32

I heard at a talk a few months ago that if you are planning to build an app to sell to retailers, you should build it on any cloud except for AWS. This is because the large retailers are uncomfortable with giving any revenue to Amazon. I heard echos of this in the last paragraph of the post, but there's plenty of co-opetition going on as well.

There is a story from a year ago where Walmart was telling some of its vendors to not use AWS.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/wal-mart-to-vendors-get-off-ama...

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