Who wouldn’t kill for a 19% growth quarter? Pretty much anyone in media or digital advertising.

So I’m not saying that Amazon’s otherwise gangbusters earnings announcement was anything to seriously worry about, except that Amazon’s red hot ad business grew 20% year-over-year the previous quarter… and Amazon has only added more ad inventory and revenue from Prime, which became ad-supported earlier this year.

It’s not easy to tell when Prime’s ad revenue exactly hits its earnings figures - but according to The Information, Amazon killed it during the recent Upfronts. So you might think that Amazon would see a bump in earnings.

Maybe all that Prime revenue gets recognized in Q4. Or maybe things are slowing down a tad for Amazon’s ad buisness? Or feeling some competition from other retail media networks?

Again, these growth numbers are stellar. And Amazon is far and away the leader in the RMN category. But this is a trend at least worth watching.

One thing I’m waiting for is Amazon - or really anyone in Retail Media - to talk about how much they’re making from going off network, as in selling ads all over the web using Amazon shopping data. As mentioned in TVREV’s new report on the sector, that’s the next frontier in the space. We’ll see.

Retail Media On CTV 2024

In our latest Special Report, we explore why Retail Media and Connected TV (CTV) are shaping up to be the next big opportunity for advertisers.

In Other News:

• Amazon shares pop on earnings beat, cloud growth - Annie Palmer [CNBC]

• Criteo trumpets Microsoft tie-up and further retail media opportunities as Q3 revenues slide - Ronan Shields [Digiday]

• The In-Store Retail Media Playbook - [Progressive Grocer]

• Meta’s Profit Rises 35%, Even as Spending Spree Continues - Mike Isaac [NY Times]

• YouTube Ad Haul Powers Alphabet Q3 Results - Dade Hayes [Deadline]