Amazon Tops in Online Ad Spending

E-commerce mainstay Amazon.com has occupied the top overall online advertiser spot for eight of the past nine weeks, leading the retail segment, says a new industry research report.

In fact, the report from Jupiter Media Metrix ad measurement firm AdRelevance says Amazon.com has run holiday-themed ads totaling over half-a-billion impressions each week since October.

Apparently the strategy is paying off. Amazon said today that its Holiday Delight-O-Meter has surpassed 25 million units, with 11 days still remaining in the holiday shopping season. Found on the Amazon.com Welcome page and updated continuously, the Delight-O-Meter counts the number of units ordered from Amazon.com sites worldwide starting Nov. 2.

Aiming to capitalize on the brand recognition it has built this year, Amazon is focusing holiday online ad efforts on direct marketing appeal, with 70 percent of the retailer’s top 10 online ads touting free shipping, AdRelevance said, adding that the company bought 4 million impressions per direct marketing ad versus 750,000 impressions per branding ad.

Amazon is now the No. 1 advertiser on four of the top five sites it advertises on: MSN, AOL.com, Netscape and Juno. For the week ending Nov. 27,

“AdRelevance data suggest that a growing list of enterprising companies is mastering the (online ad) medium in stealth mode,” said Charles Buchwalter, vice president of media research for AdRelevance.

“With each passing week, it appears that Amazon is distancing itself from the pack by operating on all cylinders and employing a unique two-tiered branding and direct-marketing online advertising strategy,” he said. “If their recent online ad campaigns pay off, Amazon will be well on its way to achieving single-company e-tail dominance — and their current strategies will serve as the standard for how to win big in the online world.”