Amazon Adds Sponsored Product Ads to Text-Message Orders in Its Alexa Shopping Agent
TLDR
Amazon's Alexa shopping agent now takes orders by text, and Sponsored Products ads will appear in those conversations, free to advertisers for now.
What this Amazon Ads rollout means for your accounts
- Status
- Rolling out
- Platform
- Amazon Ads
- Affects
- Sponsored Products, Alexa Shopping text ordering, auto-buy
- Who
- U.S. Amazon customers and advertisers
- Effective
- Not specified in the source
- Action needed
- Not specified in the source
Amazon's shopping agent began accepting orders by text message today for a small, invite-only group of U.S. customers, and Sponsored Products will appear inside those conversations. Per Digiday, the ads are free to advertisers for the time being, and purchases the agent completes on its own stay ad-free. Amazon plans to open the texting option to millions more customers over the coming weeks.
How we got here: earlier Amazon Ads coverage
- Oct 31Amazon Says Alexa for Shopping Users Spend 50% More per Order
Amazon says more than 400 million customers used Alexa for Shopping over 12 months, and US users spend 50% more per order; US advertisers pay for prompts within the assistant.
- Oct 30Amazon Ads Revenue Climbs 12% to Nearly $20 Billion in Q3 Earnings
Amazon reported Q3 revenue of $201.9 billion, and its advertising business generated almost $20 billion in the quarter, up 12% year over year.
- Oct 28Google Tests an Apple Messages Button on Sponsored Search Results
Google is testing an Apple Messages button on its Google Ads sponsored search results, alongside the message assets it has long shown on search ads.
- Sep 10Snapchat expands dynamic product ads to sponsored direct messages
Snapchat enabled dynamic product ads in sponsored direct messages to let retail brands showcase inventory ahead of the holiday season.