Amazon Dents Google's Ad Dominance

By WSJ City 

Advertisers are starting to shift spending on search ads from Alphabet's Google towards Amazon.com.It shows how the online retailer is capitalising on becoming the top destination for consumers' product searches.

KEY FACTS

   -- WPP, the world's largest ad buyer, spent about $300m on behalf of its 
      clients on Amazon search ads last year... 
 
   -- ...and about 75% of that came from Google search budgets, according to 
      people familiar with the matter. 
 
   -- It spent $100m-$150m on Amazon search in 2017, the people said. 
 
   -- WPP spent above $3bn globally on Google search advertising last year, one 
      of the people said. 
 
   -- Omnicom said 20%-30% of what its clients spent on search advertising last 
      year went to Amazon search ads. 

Why This Matters

Amazon still has a long way to go to catch Google, which had 78% of the $44.2bn US search-ad market in 2018, according to research firm eMarketer. But the shift in spending follows a major change in shopper behaviour: 54% of people looking for a product now begin their search directly on Amazon, a jump from 46% in 2015, according to Jumpshot.

A fuller story is available on WSJ.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 05, 2019 03:33 ET (07:33 GMT)

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