Amazon poised to launch new retargeting ad product — [report]

Amazon is continuing its aggressive move into digital advertising, with the apparent launch of its own retargeting product. According to Bloomberg, the company is about to introduce a new display advertising offering. While the details are not entirely clear, Bloomberg asserts the new Amazon program will compete with similar offerings from Google and Criteo. It’s currently being tested and will be a PPC-auction product, according to the report. Recently, Amazon stopped buying product listing ads (PLAs) on Google. What’s not clear is whether Amazon-based remarketing will run on third-party sites and/or whether Amazon will effectively sell PLAs to merchants at auction rather than placing them “for free.” According to eMarketer estimates, Amazon is playing a major role in the growth of native ads outside of social media. A recent report from the firm projects that “non-social native will grow more than 80 percent this year to $8.71 billion.” Amazon’s advertising business, which it currently lumps into the category “other,” grew 60 percent year over year in 2017 to $1.7 billion. The company’s CFO, Brian Olsavsky, was very bullish about the outlook for Amazon’s ad business in its most recent earnings call. The Seattle-based company is seen as one of the few viable challengers to “the duopoly.”