“The Trade Desk is perceived as vulnerable at the moment,” the first buyer said, adding that, given the way Amazon has touted its pricing, inventory and exclusive programming, it appears to them as if “Amazon’s strategic approach is to really go after The Trade Desk, and their pricing is compelling and trying to eat up market share.”
Competitive fees and pricing structure
Amazon is offering tech fees on programmatic guaranteed deals as low as 1% of the ad buy across all media—below the 7% to 15% typically charged by other DSPs, according to two sources. Amazon has also reportedly lowered its DSP fees by up to 3 percentage points, per Digiday.
For some types of transactions, Amazon is charging tech fees under 10%, two media buyers said. Treon described those fees as “aggressive,” making it cheaper for buyers to access third-party inventory. Last year, most DSP tech fees hovered around 10% to 12%, he added.
Amazon did not respond to comment about its fee structure.
Beefing up third-party supply
Over the past nine months, Amazon has ramped up efforts to drive more third-party supply through its DSP, according to Treon, striking deals with players like Hulu on Fire TV devices and securing exclusive access to that inventory.
Most recently, Amazon signed a resale deal with Samsung TV Plus to resell its inventory.
“The most unique thing about Amazon is being able to use Amazon data on third-party inventory,” Treon said. “When you’re presented with a more advantageous platform fee, unique reach, and incremental data, we have to chase that in these times where we’re demanding efficacy and efficiency out of media.”
