Bringing ad buyers and sellers closer together with Amazon Publisher Services

June 23, 2020

Zach Schapira
Team Lead, Advertising Technology Product Marketing

Beginning with our first header-bidding integrations in 2012, and through the launch of Amazon Publisher Services (APS) in 2016, publishers have consistently looked to Amazon’s advertising business for solutions to help them more effectively monetize their quality inventory, improve their user experience, and access unique and unified demand through a transparent auction. We continually work hard to be a valuable partner for our publisher customers.

In Advertiser Perceptions’ H1 2020 SSP report, publishers ranked APS #2 across nearly every category, including overall usage, likelihood to recommend, and future consideration. Publishers that demonstrated a preference for APS cited our pricing, transparency, and service as key advantages. Eric Meixner, VP of Advertising Operations at Whitepages, said, “After upgrading to Transparent Ad Marketplace’s multi-slot integration (an APS service), we saw a 20% increase in revenue without having to compromise our user experience.”

Meanwhile, our advertiser customers have also benefited from this progress. They’ve been telling us for years that when it comes to digital ad supply, they want a more transparent, trustworthy, and independent solution with lower fees and better performance.

APS has helped that vision become a reality. Today, APS includes tens of thousands of high-quality websites and mobile apps throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. It also includes ad-enabled apps on Fire TV and a growing list of Streaming TV apps through other streaming services. We analyzed spend and performance patterns on Amazon DSP, and have integrated the most impactful sites and apps for our advertisers across all customer types and verticals. Collectively, these sites and apps now make up over two-thirds of spend across all third-party supply sources on Amazon DSP.1

And when advertisers buy inventory from these publishers directly through APS, they typically see better outcomes:2

  • Regardless of the channel or device, inventory from APS does not carry a supply fee when accessed through Amazon DSP, which on average helps our advertiser customers secure 10% lower clearing prices versus accessing the same publishers through third-party exchanges.
  • Additionally, having a direct integration with publishers also helps improve bidding optimization, leading to a 25% increase in average viewability rates on APS compared to the same sites and apps on third-party exchanges.
  • Together, these benefits drove 28% lower viewable CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) and 25% higher ROAS (return on ad spend) for our advertisers through APS (compared to the same sites and apps on third-party exchanges), and contributed to APS becoming the largest supply source for Amazon DSP based on total spend and impression volume worldwide.

We’re proud of the progress we’ve made so far, and are excited to continue innovating on behalf of our customers.

If you’re interested in partnering with Amazon Publisher Services, please contact us here.

If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of buying Amazon Publisher Services inventory, contact us here.

1Based on total spend volume worldwide. Data as of June 2020.
2Based on web and mobile app display data from trailing three full months, March-May 2020. All data is aggregated worldwide and may vary by region.