Amazon bullish on Prime Video ads

Q1 ad sales at Amazon were up 24% year-over-year to $11.824m, representing just over 8% of total net sales.

Why it matters

Other parts of Amazon’s business may be bigger, but advertising remains an important contributor to profitability in North America and internationally, CFO Brian Olsavsky told an earnings call. 

Takeaways

• Ad growth was primarily driven by sponsored products, “supported by continued improvements in relevancy and measurement capabilities for advertisers”, said CEO Andrew Jassy.
• Amazon sees continued “significant opportunity” in sponsored products as well as in “areas where we’re just getting started like Prime Video ads”.
• Jassy believes that Prime Video ads offer brands value “as we can better link the impact of streaming TV advertising to business outcomes like product sales or subscription sign-ups, whether the brands sell on Amazon or not”. 

Key quote

“I think advertisers are excited about being able to expand their ability to advertise with us in video beyond Twitch and Freevee to Prime Video shows [and] movies” – Andrew Jassy, CEO at Amazon.

Sourced from Seeking Alpha, Amazon