Amazon is playing a delicate dance with its tech and agency partners.
For years, Amazon has relied on close partnerships with retail-focused adtech companies to grow its burgeoning ad business. In 2021, Amazon formally launched a program called the Amazon Ad Partner Network that helped match up advertisers with tech firms and agencies that manage ad spend on Amazon. Many of these firms were early to build ad-buying tools for Amazon, bringing in advertisers to Amazon’s platform to capitalize on the quick growth of retail media.
Now, some of those tech firms and agencies see signs that Amazon is pulling away from third parties to instead work directly with advertisers, according to six sources that ADWEEK spoke to.
