Amazon has fired the latest shot in the CTV wars, while advancing its sleeping-giant position in the field. This latest series of moves includes an analytics tool for attributing lower-funnel shopping outcomes to CTV ad campaigns; and a collaboration with iHeart to resell Amazon’s streaming inventory.
There’s a lot there, so let’s unpack it. Starting with the new measurement tool, it ties ad campaigns on CTV channels to shopping outcomes that result. Known as Outcome Optimizer, it utilizes Amazon’s vast array of shopping data to determine where CTV ad impressions led to consumer purchases.
Launch partners for Outcome Optimizer include Freewheel, a Comcast company, that will use it to tune programmatic guaranteed campaigns. And for ad inventory, media partners include Warner Bros Discovery and A&E Global Media, with more likely to follow. That translates to premium ad placements.
Outcome Optimizer makes sense, given a natural ability to connect the dots between Amazon’s evolving CTV ads business and its core business. In fact, this move points to a massive advantage that Amazon holds over other CTV providers, given its endemic first-party data as the world’s largest online store.
Sweeten the Deal
On to the second part of Amazon’s latest announcement, it has partnered with iHeart, as noted, to extend its sales reach for CTV advertising. This includes utilizing iHeartMedia’s 1,000+ ad sellers to push Amazon’s CTV offerings. iHeart reciprocally benefits by sweetening its bundles with those offerings.
To be fair, iHeartMedia has been selling Amazon’s streaming ad inventory for about three years. That primarily included Amazon Prime inventory, but it’s now expanded to reflect Amazon’s own growing list of CTV properties. These include Twitch, Amazon Music, Fire TV, and Alexa, with others likely to follow.
Beyond expanded sales capability for Amazon – and expanded ad offerings for iHeart – there’s a data play evident in this expanded relationship. This ties back to the Outcome Optimizer examined above, but is also broader, considering the ability to merge Amazon’s audience with iHeart clients’ audiences.
For example, Amazon’s vast audience data can be matched with iHeart’s first-party data (and that of its advertisers) for a much deeper view of consumers. And there are more media channels collectively in view, given Amazon’s video streaming channels and iHeart’s audio channels (think: podcasts).
One-Two Punch
Further carving out combined value for Amazon and iHeart, advertisers will be able to transact through either seller’s channels. That includes Amazon’s own DSP, as well as iHeartMedia’s new AudioGraph platform. Advertisers can show up in either destination to buy cross-channel bundles.
Those bundles will notably include broadcast radio. That last part is notable because audio has always been a tough sell due to its lack of measurable outcomes, especially at a time when lower-funnel advertising is growing in demand. This collaboration gives audio inventory more sales surface area.
In a broader sense, the Amazon/iHeart collaboration creates a larger front door for ad sales for both platforms. This could help Amazon more than it helps iHeart, given the lower ad fill rates normally seen in CTV. The relatively young medium has traditionally seen a supply/demand gap, though it’s slowly closing.
Altogether, Amazon’s latest move is a classic one-two punch. Outcome Optimizer creates a more attractive and ROI-rich offering to advertisers, while the deepened iHeart channel relationship beefs up its ability to sell ad campaigns. In other words, it strengthens two critical components: product and sales.
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