Amazon unveils new ad tool for third-party retailers

Amazon Ads has launched a new service called Amazon Retail Ad Service, letting third-party retailers use its own ad tool in their online stores.  

The latest offering is a new service built on AWS that enables retailers to show “contextually relevant ads in the right place and at the right time” in search results, product pages and other areas of their site, Amazon said on Thursday.

Their customers can then click on an ad and complete their purchase in the retailer’s online store. This aims to enhance their shopping experiences and scale advertising using Amazon Ads' two decades of ad tech expertise.  

The service is currently in beta with multiple retailers, including iHerb, Oriental Trading Company, and Weee!, and launching with Tilly's with more retailers soon. 

Retailers will determine ad creative formats, where ads appear across their apps and websites, and how many ads are shown. They’ll also be able to determine what customers see after clicking on an ad, such as directing traffic to the product page, providing a ‘quick view’ of the product, or enabling the customer to add the product directly to their cart. 

As such, retailers can offer their advertising to brands already using Amazon Ads, providing retailers with a streamlined connection to advertisers. Advertisers will see available retailers in their Amazon Ads console or API integrations. They will then be able to create and manage their campaigns for each retailer and access reporting through existing workflows that are familiar to them.  

This centralised approach saves time and resources while expanding reach. Advertisers also benefit from the reassurance that comes with using “the same ad technology and machine learning models that drives their performance in Amazon’s store.” 

Participating retailers can also choose to make their advertising offerings available via the Amazon Ads console and APIs. “This makes it easy for Amazon advertisers to discover additional opportunities to scale their reach,” said Amazon.  

It also aims to simplify managing ad campaigns across multiple retailers with consistent reporting, enabling faster understanding of campaign performance and easier campaign optimisation. 

"Amazon Retail Ad Service helps retailers enhance their shopping experience with highly relevant advertising that guides customers through the shopping journey, helping their shoppers with product discovery and making informed purchase decisions," said Paula Despins, vice president of ads measurement, Amazon. "We’ve designed this to be a win for retailers, advertisers, and shoppers, and we look forward to seeing how it improves outcomes, drives sales, and enhances the shopping experience.”

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Back in October 2024, Amazon Ads unveiled a suite of new advertising capabilities such as simplified product launch and measurement solutions, to help advertisers optimise their media investments.

The launch highlights how Amazon Ads is making its insights more accessible and actionable for all advertisers across various ad products, according to the release.

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