Amazon eating into Google's ad share in the US: Report

According to an eMarketer forecast, Amazon is fast growing as a platform for advertisers, with search ad revenue predicted to grow to $7.09 billion this year, a growth rate of 30 per cent.

While Google is expected to continue to dominate the market with a 73 per cent share worth $40.33 billion, the same could drop to 70.5 per cent by 2021 according to the report, while Amazon’s increases to 15.9 per cent.

The search ad market in the US grew by nearly 18 per cent in 2019, with total spending at $55.17 billion. Google had a 73.1 per cent share of the market, followed by Amazon at 12.9 per cent, Microsoft at 6.5 per cent, Verizon Media at two per cent and Yelp at 1.8 per cent.

The study cited polls saying that “most product searches now begin on Amazon”. In the report, eMarketer’s principal analyst Nicole Perrin said, “Amazon’s ad business has attracted massive increases in spending because advertisers can reach consumers during product queries, a time when they’re ready to buy,” adding that “Amazon has also rolled out better measurement and targeting tools, making it even more attractive for advertisers.”

The report added that Walmart, Target, eBay and Pinterest were also increasing their search shares at the expense of Google and the other top five players.

In digital ad spending overall, Google, Facebook and Amazon controlled 70 per cent of the market according to a June, 2019 report by eMarketer. The platforms for spending vary between the three, with Facebook controlling 83 per cent of social ad spending and Amazon having 47.1 per cent of Over The Top (OTT) users (shared with YouTube, which has 96.2 per cent—with interlap between the two).

In 2018, global ad spending on social media exceeded that of print for the first time, according to Zenith’s Advertising Expenditure Forecast.