Amazon is gearing up to launch a paid search platform in an effort to make money off the traffic to its eCommerce site and enhance relationships with brands and advertising agencies.
According to a report, citing comments that Seth Dallaire, VP of global ad sales at Amazon Media Group, made at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview conference in New York last week, Dallaire said: “There’s an expectation from people who visit Amazon [that] they’re going to find anything they want. If you have the confidence that we’re going to meet that expectation, you might just come to Amazon to start that search.”
The report noted that Amazon has plans to monetize branded searches for products it doesn’t sell on its website as well. Take automobiles, for one example. While Amazon doesn’t sell cars, auto marketers can create product pages on Amazon that provide customers with the information they need to make a buying decision, including reviews and enabling the ability to set up test drive appointments. “We don’t sell cars, but we know customers have an expectation that they’ll be able to consider a car or read about customer experiences on Amazon,” Dallaire said, according to the report.
In addition to monetizing search, Dallaire said Amazon can share consumers’ reviews of low-consideration products, such as paper towels, with companies so that the marketers can hawk their products better on Amazon. The report pointed to Angle Soft toilet paper made by Georgia-Pacific as one example. There are more than 5,000 customer reviews that Amazon can share with Georgia-Pacific. “There’s a lot of marketing lessons we can take from that that Georgia-Pacific can use to market and introduce new products,” Dallaire said, noting that, thanks to Amazon Echo and Alexa, its voice-activated personal assistant, the search can be expanded to include voice.
