Dive Brief:
- Amazon Ads and LinkedIn announced a new collaboration that helps advertisers reach professional audiences, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
- The partnership brings LinkedIn’s first-party audience signals to streaming TV inventory through Microsoft Monetize, the supply-side platform of LinkedIn parent Microsoft and a preferred partner of Amazon's demand-side platform. That means advertisers on Amazon DSP will now be able to reach B2B audiences in premium TV environments by leveraging LinkedIn’s data.
- The collaboration builds on a partnership between Amazon Ads and Microsoft and comes ahead of Amazon’s upfront presentation on May 11.
Dive Insight:
The partnership between Amazon Ads and LinkedIn is a step up for both platforms as marketers look to simplify ad buys across a fragmented media landscape. Marketers using Amazon DSP to manage full-funnel campaigns across streaming TV, display, online video and audio can now add LinkedIn targeting data — including job title, industry and seniority — drawn from the platform’s 1 billion-plus members.
“B2B marketers want to reach decision‑makers where they’re spending time — and streaming TV is an essential part of that mix,” said David Roter, senior director, head of global agencies and video solutions at LinkedIn, in a statement. “This collaboration with Amazon DSP expands how advertisers can buy LinkedIn CTV Ads, while still reaching the buyers that matter most to deliver measurable business outcomes at scale.”
The partnership builds on a preexisting tie-up between Amazon and Microsoft around ads. Amazon DSP last year was named the preferred transition partner for advertisers using Microsoft Invest, which the tech giant shut down this year. In addition, Microsoft Monetize is a preferred supply-side partner in the Amazon Ads Certified Supply Exchange program.
Amazon’s advertising business generated $17.2 billion in revenue in Q1, up 22% year over year. The company has worked to make its DSP more attractive to advertisers through a series of partnerships with companies including Netflix, Samsung, Tubi and Comcast around CTV. The new partnership with LinkedIn is in line with those previous moves.
LinkedIn revenue increased 12% in the fiscal quarter ended March 31. Like Amazon, the Microsoft-owned B2B networking platform is shoring up its advertising appeal through more video offerings, including a partnership with The Trade Desk around CTV ads. Eighty-one percent of B2B CMOs believe that video accelerates sales cycles and lead conversion compared to other ad formats, per a LinkedIn survey.
