The Big Story is a breezy podcast featuring a roundtable of AdExchanger editors talking about the biggest stories from the past week. It is available wherever you subscribe to podcasts.
When giants move, everyone takes notice.
This week on “The Big Story,” the AdExchanger team looks at some small but significant shifts in Amazon’s and Facebook’s ad offerings.
AdExchanger’s James Hercher revealed on Monday that Amazon is running a test in which agencies can use its search data to retarget off platform.
It’s the first time that Amazon search data is being let loose beyond the platform’s very high walls – though Amazon still has tight control, as the data can only be applied through Amazon’s DSP.
While this capability, should it be made generally available, gives advertisers a powerful set of intent signals that can be applied to the open web, it also reflects a change in Amazon’s philosophical approach to advertising. In tearing down silo walls, Amazon is becoming a true ad platform.
The AdExchanger team looks at what these changes portend not only in terms of benefits to advertisers, but also why Amazon appears to be making these moves now.
But Amazon isn’t the only big platform undergoing a reconfiguration. Facebook said, during its Q3 earnings call Tuesday, that it will start zeroing in on its Stories and Messaging products, as engagement with its news feed will likely decline over the next few years.
In other words, Facebook will soon start relying heavily on two products that, promising though they may be, are largely unproven. What are the risks and what are the potential rewards?
Tune into “The Big Story” to hear about a week of incremental changes that foreshadow potentially seismic transformations.
