How Amazon and TikTok are expanding the reach of creator ads with programmatic

Amazon and TikTok recently unfurled advertising products that will expand the reach of influencer content through programmatic advertising, which heralds the rise of creator-made ads from phones to billboards. The hope is the platforms will help measure these ads and finally connect content to commerce, according to advertisers. Last week, Amazon Ads and GroupM Nexus, the performance arm of GroupM, announced a deal to run creator-generated ads on and off Amazon, including in search results. The partnership, which leans on GroupM Nexus’ creator firm The Goat Agency, highlighted the fact that creator agencies are increasingly using retail media channels to expand the reach of campaigns and to tie them to sales. Meanwhile, TikTok announced it would serve ads programmatically to digital billboards. “I think we’re seeing some convergence really in terms of capabilities,” said Dafydd Woodward, global chief operating officer at The Goat Agency, which WPP acquired this year and is now part of GroupM Nexus. “Amazon with its search capabilities, and it’s also obviously very much a commerce platform, and TikTok Shop is going to come at us quicker than we realize, and obviously there’s a search capability there.” More: Historic agency names disappear in WPP’s agencies merger Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2023 Ad spending, rankings and analysis for the top 100 advertisers Click here The Goat Agency’s deal with Amazon takes influencer-based ads and runs them through Amazon’s demand side platform, the ad network that reaches third-party publishers online; the ads also appear in Amazon search results. That puts user-generated influencer content into display ads that pop up while consumers shop Amazon. The Goat Agency has worked with hundreds of brands, including Nivea, Olay and Dell. Creator agencies, including Influential and others, have used programmatic ad platforms to serve influencer ads across the internet for years, but the industry is evolving. The rise of TikTok has made viral commerce a goal for many brands who want to ride creator popularity to product sales. Meanwhile, Amazon and other major retailers have developed media networks to distribute ads with targeting and measurement built in. Now, consumers are seeing more ads that mimic the personal touch of TikTok videos with links to destinations, including Amazon store pages, websites and TikTok Shops. “For many years we’ve been distributing influencer content across DSPs, but our partnership with Amazon kind of takes that to the next level and allows us to tie influencer content, that has the social look and feel, to sales on the Amazon site,” Woodward said. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Measurement potential The measurement and performance aspect of influencer content is key. The ad industry had a hard time quantifying the impact of creator-based campaigns, because the metrics were often limited to vanity stats, such as likes and followers. Now, the platforms and creator agencies offer more shoppable ad units, which link back to retail landing pages, offering more data about sales results. Amazon and other retailers have that connection to the points of sale online and in stores. TikTok is still working on its measurement potential. Last month, TikTok announced it would open its first “self-attributing network” next year to report conversions when an ad on its app drives an action by the consumer. TikTok had claimed the power of its ad platform was underappreciated and not picked up by standard measurement. TikTok also rolled out TikTok Shop last month widely in the U.S., which opens storefronts from merchants inside the app. “Shop right now [is] focused on the SMB [small- and medium-size business] side,” Ray Cao, TikTok’s managing director, global head of product strategy and operations, told Ad Age. “We are helping them to understand how to be leveraging creators and also become an advertiser.” TikTok also counts Walmart as a major retail partner, Cao said. Walmart has been using social media apps, including TikTok and X, formerly Twitter, to test livestream shopping events. TikTok also is developing its search functions, and in August it opened ad inventory to all brands to appear in results. TikTok’s interest in search was a recognition of the fact that consumers are finding new products when they scroll their never-ending video feed on the app. Amazon has benefited in part from people seeing a catchy product on TikTok and then coming to its storefront to buy it. “Think about just the expected behavior of seeing an influencer talk about something on TikTok and then a lot of people start closing TikTok and going to Amazon,” said Samantha Bukowski, global head of commerce at GroupM Nexus. Read more about creators and influencers Amazon has storefronts, which brands manage, where they post product details, images and videos. Amazon Stores are spaces where more influencer content could post, too. “We’re certainly seeing demand from clients for creator content to live on their stores, live on their storefront,” Woodward said. “And that’s part of the value that we’re adding. We are ensuring that we have the rights to that content so that clients can use it in that environment.” This week, Amazon Ads is hosting unBoxed, its annual marketing event where its executives will meet with agencies and brands to discuss new ad formats and ad tech. ‘Get people's attention with relevant content, wherever they are’ Marketers are experimenting more with programmatic ad platforms to serve creator content with shopping links because it performs better, according to Rachel Tipograph, CEO of MikMak, an e-commerce marketing tech firm. “We’ve seen brands have as high as 50% conversion within shoppable media when using influencer creative.” Amazon may not have an edge over TikTok when it comes to creators, though it is trying to develop more programs with social features, such as Amazon Live and affiliate programs with popular online personalities who curate storefronts. Amazon does have the retail media advantage, it owns the live streamer Twitch and it has a demand-side platform. Amazon’s DSP “has the advantage of leveraging Amazon’s massive data insights, which makes targeting in general really precise,” said Craig Elimeliah, chief creative officer at agency Lippe Taylor, “which in my mind it 100% makes sense that it would be especially useful for creator commerce where a highly engaged, niche audience is the target.” TikTok meanwhile is targeting a whole new category of ad inventory through programmatic with its recent digital billboard deal. TikTok ads will hit everywhere from movie screens to out-of-home displays through ad tech partners including Adomni, Raydiant and Loop TV. “The line between online and offline is blurring,” said Alejandro Donzis, CEO and co-founder of Beeyond Media, a digital out-of-home programmatic ad platform. “Whether it’s an influencer's shoppable post or a digital billboard in the city, the goal is the same, to get people's attention with relevant content, wherever they are.” The benefits of outdoor are “dynamic content adjustments, hyper-targeted campaigns, measurable impact and seamless integration with other channels,” Donzis said. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here ~ ~ ~CLARIFICATION: GroupM Nexus announced the partnership with Amazon Ads, which includes working with The Goat Agency, GroupM Nexus’ creator firm. An earlier version of this story did not clearly define the relationship between the WPP agencies involved.

How Amazon and TikTok are expanding the reach of creator ads with programmatic

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