Amazon’s advertising division is quickly becoming an important pillar of the company, and another sign of its growth came last week when the tech giant hosted a big advertising conference in Seattle.
CNBC reported that AdCon 2019 was Amazon’s first big advertising conference. The two-day, invite-only conference attracted more than 400 people, per CNBC, and featured some of the company’s top advertising leaders.
Amazon makes money by charging companies to promote their items across the tech giant’s network of websites and stores. The event was designed to educate companies on “how to use Amazon Advertising to create connections with shoppers at key moments across the purchase journey,” according to the description.
“Dive deep into products you use today and learn about solutions to help grow your brand and business,” the event description reads. “The Amazon Advertising team will share tips, tricks, and best practices across sponsored ads, display, video, and measurement.”
We reached out to Amazon for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
Amazon doesn’t break out advertising individually in its financial results, instead coupling it under a larger umbrella of “other.” That group brought in more than $10 billion in revenue in 2018 and saw a 37 percent annual jump in revenue in the most recent quarter.
A report from eMarketer earlier this year predicted Amazon will take market share from the digital advertising duopoly of Facebook and Google this year. The firm expects Amazon to see 50 percent growth in advertising for 2019, with its market share rising to roughly 9 percent.
Some observers are so bullish on Amazon’s advertising prospects that they think the division will someday supplant Amazon Web Services as the company’s main profit engine. Piper Jaffray predicted more than a year ago that it could happen as soon as 2021.
