The black friday It is one of the most anticipated moments of the year for brands. During these days, purchases increase and brands try to find the balance between advertising investment and profitable sales. However, this year, Amazon has starred in one of the most controversial episodes. In the midst of the campaign, the company’s ad panel began providing misinformation and inaccurate data.
As reported Insider Intelligence, the problems started last Friday afternoon. At the end of the day, Amazon had reported half of the ad spending expected by advertisers. That is, the ads were still running, yet the advertisers didn’t know how much money they were spending. Several days later, the firm finally admitted the delay and assured that “the problem had been resolved.”
Amazon offers advertisers a dashboard that tracks ad spend across various ad formats, including Sponsored Articles, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display Ads. Brands and agencies rely on these reports and track ad spend against sales numbers in real time.
Sales during Black Friday this year have increased by 14% compared to the previous year and without precise data, some advertisers increased ad spend to meet sales targets.
However, this ruling by Amazon and the inaccurate ad spend data and sales levels could mislead advertisers into believing that some or all of their Amazon ads performed better than they actually did, causing them to increase their spend due to outdated metrics. “The company will work with our advertisers to ensure that they have the best possible experience with all of the products of Amazon Ads«said a company spokesman.
Amazon will continue its strong commitment to the retail media in the coming years and the data shows that it will visibly continue to dominate the landscape in the United States. However, this setback could cost the company dearly and have consequences for its platform of retail media.
Although it is true that since the e-commerce giant launched its advertising platform, the retail sector has been developing different solutions. However, for now, Amazon will continue to account for most of the investments in Retail Media in the next four years in the United States.