Amazon’s post-cookie ad plan—how it thinks about alternative ad IDs and what it built instead

Amazon made its strongest pitch for post-cookie advertising on its ad platform yet, launching an ad targeting product that works without third-party cookies and other online identifiers. On Tuesday, the e-commerce and ad tech giant announced “Ad Relevance,” a generic-sounding name for a rather important product that Amazon Ads has been cooking up for some time to move beyond ad trackers. Amazon’s ads team also said it would not develop an alternative ad ID to replace cookies, which is an approach other demand-side platforms have taken, including The Trade Desk. “We’re making a specific point to say, ‘Hey, we don’t think replacing an ad identifier, like a cookie, with a new, single source of data, ad identifier is a viable solution,’” said Brian Tomasette, director of product for Amazon DSP, in an interview with Ad Age. “Our ad tech is no longer reliant on third-party cookies, and no single identifier, and we can still show relevant ads to all consumers.” The move comes as Google plans to shut down third-party cookies on Chrome by the middle of next year, which will affect how ads are targeted and measured in programmatic markets. Mobile devices are also losing data signals, with restrictions on how marketers can access information about the end users. Amazon has been designing its ad platform for a post-cookie world for years and chose to share its full plan at this week’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. “We think consumers who do not have cookies [attached to their browsing] and do not have an ad identifier want relevant ads anyway,” Tomasette said. “And we can deliver that.” Cannes Lions coverage See all of the Grand Prix winners here Top 5 Grand Prix campaigns Amazon has been developing its ad business on the back of its shopper data, which can be used to target ads across its properties, including its main e-commerce site and a recently launched Prime Video ads service. Amazon also has a demand-side platform, similar to Google’s Display and Video 360 and The Trade Desk, where brands place ads programmatically. Amazon has been updating its ad tech ecosystem in a piecemeal fashion, with integrations into Amazon Web Services, its cloud business. Amazon has cloud services for marketers and publishers. Google also has been developing its cloud services. These are computing environments where advertisers use data in secure settings to analyze their customers, segment them into audiences for ad campaigns and then measure sales. Google, meanwhile, is making wholesale changes to the programmatic advertising process with its plan to kill cookies next year. Without cookies, which were one way online marketers found audiences online, Google is developing its Privacy Sandbox. The new system is a highly restricted environment that controls what data advertisers and publishers can pull from web browsers. Amazon has been testing Privacy Sandbox, too, Tomasette said. But Tuesday’s announcement was a sign Amazon would make its DSP cookie-proof even before any deadlines set by Google. Cannes Lions 2024—see the Grand Prix winners Amazon has also been working on measurement products. In February, Ad Age reported on a team within Amazon called ID++, a unit that was trying to solve for addressability to improve the ability to target and measure ads even when there are fewer data signals. The new “ad relevance” product seems to accomplish some of those goals. In its announcement, Amazon claimed it could “extend addressability on up to 65% of previously anonymous impressions.” That means that if there were an audience of 100 non-cookied, or otherwise non-identifiable consumers, online, the ad relevancy system could illuminate 65 of them. Amazon also integrated the new product into Performance+, the AI-powered campaigns it launched in March. In Performance+ campaigns, machine learning helps define the right audiences and set objectives. Amazon followed Google and Meta into these AI-powered performance advertising tools that take over much of the campaign work. Google has Performance Max. Meta has Advantage+. “It’s our stance that we’re no longer relying on third-party cookies,” Tomasette said. “Or a single ad identifier. We’re rather relying on machine learning and AI to generate these results and drivers for advertisers.”

Amazon’s post-cookie ad plan—how it thinks about alternative ad IDs and what it built instead

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