Amazon extends reach of Sponsored Products ads

Amazon is making cost-per-click ad campaigns on its site available on a number of new apps and websites.

The e-tail giant is placing ads from companies participating in its Sponsored Products program on digital platforms including Pinterest, BuzzFeed, Hearst Newspapers, Raptive, and Ziff Davis brands such as Lifehacker and Mashable.

Sponsored Products ads will automatically show up on select properties when Amazon thinks a customer is likely to be interested in a product, based on relevant page context, the campaign, and established cost-per-click parameters. Advertisers using Sponsored Products do not need to take any action to appear on these sites or apps.

At launch, campaign reporting will be available in the Sponsored Products placement report, which can be downloaded in the report center. Amazon says it will start small, learn, and expand as its sees opportunities to enable discovery and purchase.

As with other Sponsored Products promotions, all ads will link to the Amazon product page, enabling customers to move from discovery to browsing or buying in one or two clicks. Sponsored Products only appear when advertised items are in-stock, and include Amazon shopping attributes such as Prime delivery promise, ratings, and pricing information.

Amazon actively assists third-party brands to sell on its e-commerce platform with at least 150 tools and services. In another effort to increase the functionality of its advertising offering, in fall 2022 the company beta tested co-branded Buy with Prime social media ads, which it funds and manages, to help participating Buy with Prime sellers reach shoppers on Facebook and Instagram and drive traffic to products on their direct-to-consumer (DTC) sites.

“Sponsored Products has always been about helping customers discover products they may love,” said Colleen Aubrey, senior VP, Amazon Ads products and technology, in a corporate blog post. “We’ve been building and evolving Sponsored Products in our store for more than 10 years, leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms to show advertising that’s highly relevant for customers, and therefore highly effective for the advertisers that choose to use it. We are excited to now apply what we’ve learned about connecting customers and products in meaningful ways to a range of great websites and apps.”

“We’re excited to enter this next phase of our third-party partnership with Amazon Ads to bring more shoppable content onto the platform along with a great consumer buying experience,” Martha Welsh, chief strategy officer at Pinterest, said in commentary emailed to Chain Store Age. “Shopping on Pinterest has never been easier. Now through our partnership, advertisers on Amazon are able to have their products appear in our search results, making ads on Pinterest even more relevant and actionable. Shopping is one of the top requests we receive from our users – more than 50% of users say they come to Pinterest to shop – and we’re continuing to deliver more ways to go from inspiration to action. We’re in the early stages of testing right now and seeing encouraging results.”  

[Read more: Pinterest partners with Amazon to launch third-party ad program]