Amazon Eats Into Google’s Search Share; IBM Sells Marketing And Commerce Software

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Search Wars 2

Amazon is eating into Google’s search market share. WPP, the world’s biggest ad buyer, spent $300 million on Amazon search ads last year, 75% of which came directly from clients’ Google search budgets, The Wall Street Journal reports. Omnicom said 20% to 30% of Google search budgets shifted to Amazon last year. Amazon is still well behind Google, which controls 72% of the market, according to eMarketer. But while most search budgets moving to Amazon are from CPG marketers selling their goods on the platform, non-endemic marketers, like auto and pharma, see opportunities to buy into Amazon video and category search ads. “The shift from Google to Amazon search is simple; Amazon has the audience, the transaction and the loyalty to Amazon Prime, which clients can capitalize on,” says Shane Atchison, CEO of Wunderman Thompson North America. More.

IBM Offloads Marketing Tech

IBM is selling its marketing platform and commerce software to Centerbridge Partners, a private equity firm, which plans to turn it into a standalone commerce and ad tech company. The deal is expected to close in mid-2019, and no price tag has been disclosed. Read the release. The assets include capabilities acquired as part of IBM’s Silverpop acquisition, as well as tools in the “Watson marketing” portfolio (not to be mistaken with IBM Watson), Martech Today reports. The IBM assets Centerbridge is acquiring “will deliver a modern, comprehensive portfolio of solutions to meet the CMO’s biggest challenges across marketing and advertising.”

Revenue Channels

A recent Android TV update puts sponsored links for OTT apps on the home screens of certain Sony, Xiaomi and NVIDIA smart TVs. The new OTT channel placements were first spotted by XDA, a mobile software developers forum. “Android TV is committed to optimizing and personalizing the entertainment experience at home. As we explore new opportunities to engage the user community, we’re running a pilot program to surface sponsored content on the Android TV home screen,” Google said in a statement. Some people are ticked off, because they are top-of-the-line TVs and there’s no easy way to block the ads. More at Ars Technica.  

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This post was syndicated from Ad Exchanger.