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How Amazon Ads Is Reshaping Contextual Advertising

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The media landscape is changing thanks to the looming phaseout of third-party cookies and changes being made by smartphone manufacturers. The largest demand-side platforms, meanwhile, are each tackling addressability differently. This makes it more difficult for decision-makers to plan their road maps, which they are working on as we speak.

Here at Amazon Ads, we are focused on solving for the future of addressability without sacrificing relevancy while continuing to meet the needs of consumers. This means we’re building products that are already familiar to advertisers. One of our key differentiators, however, is that we’re combining those products with all the unique capabilities that Amazon Ads can offer.

Take contextual advertising, which is experiencing a reemergence.

Context strengthens reach

Results from our new Contextual Targeting product, which is currently in beta, underscore that brands don’t need mobile ad IDs or cookies to drive performance. In early tests, one CPG company saw a more than a 65% increase in reaching previously nonaddressable audiences, or those that did not have mobile ad IDs or third-party cookies, according to a case study Amazon Ads released at the CES conference earlier this month.

The CPG company added that reaching these incremental audiences translated into a 20x return on ad spend, or ROAS, for the company – from $.59 to $12. It also saw a 45% uptick in reaching audiences running Firefox, Safari or iOS.

And because our content exists all over the world, we’ve made Contextual Targeting effective not just on the Amazon storefront but also on third-party websites through our relationships with publishers and leading ad exchanges. That’s a first.

Contextual Targeting is now also paired with our signal-based marketing. This means that, when running ad campaigns, advertisers can use Amazon signals rooted in our first-party retail, entertainment and digital experiences, without cookies or mobile ad IDs, at scale.

A brand selling digital watches, for example, may see more conversions advertising on car review websites – and not apparel websites – with Contextual Targeting. While it’s early days, our take on contextual advertising is showing promise in building the future of addressability.

For more articles featuring Sam Cox, click here.

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