Amazon is allowing other websites to utilise its ad technology for their own stores.
TakeAway Points:
- Amazon is letting other retailers use its homegrown advertising tools to run sponsored ads across their own websites.
- The service is designed to make it easier for other retailers to run targeted ad campaigns on their online stores.
- Ring is partnering with fire safety product maker Kidde to launch a connected smoke alarm.
- The companies will launch two models in April, along with a $5-per-month smoke monitoring subscription service.
Amazon’s advertising business expansion plan
In recent years, Amazon has been a major player in online advertising, with businesses paying high prices for premium placement on the retailer’s websites.
The new offering, called Amazon Retail Ad Service, allows companies to show “contextually relevant ads in the right place and at the right time” in search results, product pages and other areas of their site, Amazon said Thursday.
It’s initially available for U.S. retailers, which will pay fees based on usage levels. Prices weren’t disclosed.
Amazon in 2022 began breaking out ad revenue in its quarterly earnings reports, showing that the business had become a significant contributor to the company’s top and bottom lines. Ad revenue in the latest quarter came in at $14.3 billion, third to Alphabet and Meta in digital advertising.
That’s still much less than the sales Amazon generates from online stores and cloud computing, which came to $61.4 billion and $27.4 billion, respectively, in the quarter that ended in October.
The bulk of Amazon’s ad revenue comes from sponsored product advertisements, which are keyword-targeted ads that let brands promote certain items. Amazon has stuffed more of these sponsored items into search results and product pages over time. It also generates some ad revenue through streaming.
With Amazon Retail Ad Service, users will be able to customize the design, placement and number of ads shown across their sites, as well as use Amazon’s ad measurement and reporting tools.
Amazon’s Ring announces smart smoke alarm as CES tech-palooza kicks off
Amazon’s Ring is partnering with fire safety product maker Kidde to launch a connected smoke alarm, the company announced Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The companies plan to launch Kidde smoke and carbon monoxide alarms that integrate Ring’s home security technology and can deliver alerts to the Ring mobile app. The Kidde Smart Smoke Alarm with Ring will cost $54.97, while the Kidde Smart Smoke and CO Alarm with Ring will cost $74.97. Both products will ship in April.
As part of the launch, Ring will also roll out a $5-per-month subscription service that gives users access to round-the-clock professional monitoring and emergency dispatchers.
Amazon acquired Ring in 2015 for a reported $1 billion. The home security company is primarily known for its video doorbell devices, which allow users to record activity in front of their homes, though it has expanded to include a portfolio of products ranging from camera-equipped floodlights to flying security camera drones.
Amazon doesn’t disclose unit sales for its Ring division, but Ring and rival home security company SimpliSafe comprise one-fifth of the U.S. market for professional monitoring systems, according to data from market research firm Parks Associates. Ring CEO Liz Hamren, who took the helm from founder Jamie Siminoff in March 2023, told Bloomberg in May that the company “recently” became profitable.
Users aren’t required to subscribe to Ring Home, the company’s program that enables video recording storage and other security features, in order to access the new smoke alarm service.
