- Amazon is hiring for a new publisher-focused advertising team called “PubTech.”
- It is building a tech platform that could compete with Google, Magnite, and Pubmatic.
- The tech will help publishers sell ads on and off Amazon, according to job postings.
Amazon is staffing up to build new ad products for publishers.
The retail giant has 11 job postings for a new team called “PubTech” that will be part of Amazon Ads. This team is focused on building out a new supply-side platform, according to Amazon’s job site. An SSP is software that publishers use to sell programmatic ads.
One job listing for a software engineer notes that the PubTech organization is “a new exciting program that is building supply side technology and pioneering novel experiences” for publishers to sell video, audio, and display ads.
Another job listing for a principal product manager at Twitch notes that the job will help develop a vision and strategy in launching Twitch ad products that use PubTech, “the new Amazon Ads Supply Side Platform.” The role is also looking for someone with experience and a background working with demand-side platforms and supply-side platforms.
Amazon is also hiring for a role overseeing deals for PubTech to create marketplace deals between advertisers and publishers.
The Amazon Ads’ team is building products for first-party publishers that have channels on Amazon — like Twitch, FireTV, and Freevee — as well as third-party web publishers, according to the job listings.
While Amazon does help publishers sell ads through a unit called Amazon Publisher Services, that unit is not part of Amazon Ads, and those services require publishers work with third-party SSPs.
These offerings have been successful for publishers, said Ameet Shah, partner and global VP of publisher operations at tech strategy at adtech consulting firm Prohaska Consulting.
“Now it’s an opportunity to just take that further or build upon what’s there,” he said.
In building its own SSP, Amazon could be increasing its competition with Google and stepping into the ring against third-party SSPs like Magnite, Pubmatic, OpenX, Index Exchange, and Microsoft-owned Xandr.
Google has tools that both advertisers and publishers use to buy and sell ads. The adtech firm The Trade Desk, which traditionally worked with advertisers, has developed tech for publishers. And publisher adtech firms Pubmatic and Magnite have started courting advertisers’ business.
Amazon is building its SSP as the lines between adtech that services advertisers and adtech that services publishers has become especially blurry over the past year, and building adtech for publishers is a new opportunity for Amazon.
The core of Amazon’s $37 billion ad business are search ads, and its ad division has mostly focused on building tools for advertisers. Amazon has a demand-side platform that advertisers use to target and buy programmatic ads on publishers’ websites. Amazon has recently been playing up its adtech chops in pitching advertisers, claiming that the DSP performs as well as Google and The Trade Desk.
Amazon did not comment in time for publication.
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