eMarketer Raises Amazon Ad Forecast

Just weeks after hitting $1 trillion in market cap, Amazon has reached another milestone: It has jumped to third place among US digital ad platforms, surpassing Oath and Microsoft for the first time, according to eMarketer.

The shift comes after eMarketer increased its projections for Amazon’s ad business in its latest US advertising forecast. The revisions are partly the result of strong organic growth in ad revenues, coupled with accounting changes that now classify some advertising services (previously classified as cost of sales) as revenues.

In 2018, Amazon will generate $4.61 billion in US ad revenues, higher than the $2.89 billion eMarketer had projected in March. That gives the ecommerce giant a 4.15% share of the US digital ad market.

Monica Peart, eMarketer’s senior director of forecasting. “Its strong handle on consumer purchase behavior sets it apart from Google and Facebook in the digital ad market, which has made the company an attractive option for advertisers.“

The jump in Amazon’s US market share is also partly due to consumers increasingly starting product searches on the site, rather than on Google. “That increased search traffic gives third-party sellers a reason to increase bids for keywords on Amazon,“ Peart said.

This year, Google and Facebook will control a combined 57.7% of US digital ad revenues (37.1% and 20.6%, respectively), down from 59.1% last year, as the overall digital advertising pie grows and smaller players capture a growing share.

eMarketer has also increased its projections for Amazon mobile. This year, Amazon will grab $1.61 billion in net mobile ad revenues, a 242% jump over 2017. That means Amazon now has a 2.1% share of the US mobile ad market.