Amazon.com Inc. on Friday announced plans to buy the ad-serving technology and personalized ad-creation tools from Sizmek Inc., a bankrupt advertising technology vendor.
Amazon is buying Sizmek’s Ad Server, which helps advertisers place spots around the internet and measure their effectiveness, and Sizmek Dynamic Creative Optimization, a tool that helps retailers and other marketers use data to personalize ads.
In adding Ad Server, which competes directly with Google’s Marketing Platform (formerly known as DoubleClick), and an ad creation tool, Amazon is bolstering its fast-growing advertising business, says David Zapletal, chief innovation and media officer at advertising technology vendor Digital Remedy. “This makes Amazon one step closer to competing against user data-enriched companies like Facebook and Google,” he says. “Amazon’s trove of proprietary data now gives brands an innovative way to target consumers without much friction.”
While Amazon’s digital advertising business is still small compared with Google’s and Facebook Inc.’s, it is rapidly gaining market share. The company’s “other” revenue segment, which is mostly advertising, grew 34% to $2.72 billion in the first quarter compared with a year earlier. Google’s advertising business grew 15% in the same period, the slowest pace since 2015.
In announcing the deal, Amazon says its advertising unit, Amazon Advertising, and Sizmek share “many mutual customers.” The two Sizmek units will operate separately from Amazon Advertising for the time being.
Amazon is No. 1 in the Internet Retailer 2019 Top 1000.
Favorite