Amazon now 3rd-biggest digital ad seller in US

• Amazon is set to bring in $4.61 billion from digital advertising this year, according to a new estimate from eMarketer.

• That only represents 4.1 percent of US digital ad spending.

• In surpassing Oath and Microsoft, Amazon is now the front-runner to challenge Facebook and Google.

Amazon will surpass Oath and Microsoft to become the third-largest digital ad seller in the US behind Facebook and Google. That’s the latest from research firm eMarketer, which predicts Amazon’s ad growth will more than double this year.

As eMarketer notes, the change in projection — up 60 percent from March — is due to a combination of an accounting change and a 10 to 12 percent increase in stronger-than-expected ad revenue growth.

The firm expects Amazon ad revenue to increase by more than 50 percent per year through at least 2020. The duopoly’s share is pegged to shrink from 57.7 percent in 2018 to 55.9 percent in 2020, while Amazon’s share is expected to grow from 4.1 percent to 7.0 percent.

While Amazon has a long way to go to truly rival Google and Facebook’s ad earnings, its ad business is still relatively young, with lots of runway ahead. Earlier this month, Amazon announced it is making it easier for advertisers to buy ads on and off its properties. It’s introducing more video advertising formats and provides advertising options both on and off its owned and operated properties.

Related reading

• Analysts say Amazon’s advertising business will surpass AWS by 2021

• Amazon streamlines ad products under new Amazon Advertising brand

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media's Editor-in-Chief, managing day-to-day editorial operations across all of our publications. Ginny writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, she has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.