September 23rd-September 29th // Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Amazon Ads now connects shoppers with local service professionals through Yelp - At Amazon’s unBoxed conference in San Francisco, Amazon revealed its new Sponsored Services ad format, which shows Amazon shoppers relevant service providers sourced from Yelp. These ads can pop up while someone browses an item on Amazon, finalizes an order, or checks on a delivery. For example, a shopper who buys a ceiling fan on Amazon might be shown a Sponsored Services ad for an electrician. One tap lets them call the business or request a price estimate, all inside Amazon. For now, the format is open to US Yelp advertisers in select home and auto categories. The launch builds on Amazon's recent local ads push, which also includes location-based interactive video ads and a regional targeting tool that uses Amazon's shopping data.

Opinion: This is a big deal for Yelp. AI search is eating the "find me an electrician" query on Yelp.com that used to lead to Yelp ads. Not only does Amazon give Yelp an opportunity to recapture some of those ad dollars, it also offers something very powerful: a shopper at the exact moment they have a service need. We’re a little surprised that Amazon decided to partner with Yelp instead of firing up its own competitive version. Perhaps the idea is to gauge how much revenue Sponsored Services ads can generate through partnership, and then either build or buy.

Amazon Ads and the Amazon DSP get an agentic rebrand - Amazon is combining its Amazon Ads console (for search ads) and its DSP under one overarching brand called Amazon Ads Agent. The Amazon DSP name has been replaced by a new brand called DVA (display, video, and audio). Advertisers used to juggle two separate systems for search ads and the DSP with their own logins, a long-running pain point for Amazon's ad business. New DSP campaigns now start in DVA+, where AI works toward either performance or brand goals, and advertisers can flip a switch for more hands-on control (like a traditional DSP). A new full-funnel campaign type helps smaller advertisers and sellers expand into streaming and audio ads, with AI pitching in on video creative, media planning, and optimization. Amazon also debuted Branded Conversations🔒, which lets brands shape Alexa for Shopping's AI replies with their own product details and “Sponsored Briefs”. Branded Conversations get tagged as sponsored. Brands can test it now in a limited beta, with a broader US rollout in January.

Opinion: Killing the “Amazon DSP” brand is significant. Amazon doesn't want to be benchmarked against The Trade Desk and other DSPs on fees anymore. It wants to be compared to Performance Max and Advantage+, where AI runs campaigns by default and advanced DSP controls are buried. That moves the conversation from take rates and functionality to outcomes, a conversation Amazon will always win. The single interface pulls search-only buyers into Prime Video and audio, opening up budget that traditionally never went to a DSP. 

McDonald’s and Delta are launching their own commerce media networks - McDonald's commerce media push includes a pilot that places other brands' ads on drive-thru menu screens at 450 company-owned US locations. McDonald's says it serves about 85% of Americans each year and hopes the McDonald's Media Network grows into a $1B business. High-margin ad revenue is appealing as beef costs climb and the chain spends billions on restaurant remodels. Meanwhile, Delta has hired former Deloitte Digital exec Keri Paison🔒 to lead its media network, which will tap into its 200M+ annual travelers and fast-growing SkyMiles program. It follows United, whose Kinective Media ran 130 campaigns for more than 100 brands last year.

Opinion: While travel media networks aren’t new, QSR media networks are. McDonald’s is betting that taking money from other advertisers instead of serving its own house ads to try and sell more of its own products will be a net positive. Which is kind of crazy, considering McDonald’s is one of the largest advertisers in the world, and when people are about to order at the drive-thru, they are primed to be upsold a McFlurry or Baked Apple Pie. We’d imagine other QSRs will follow suit, creating a whole new category of commerce media network and a new channel for marketers.

Best Buy is selling Amazon Fire TV streaming ads🔒 - Best Buy will now sell ad space on Insignia Fire TVs, its house-brand that run on Amazon's TV operating system. Advertisers can buy the ads through Amazon's DSP to reach Best Buy shoppers, including on home screen ad slots. Advertisers can also target Best Buy shoppers on Roku's platform and LG TVs; the LG ads are available through Magnite. In each case, Best Buy packages the inventory, sells it, and supplies the shopper data and measurement. The pitch is that retail data can prove both brand lift and sales in a single CTV buy.

Opinion: Having its own hardware (Insignia) gives Best Buy a leg up on other commerce media players from a data perspective, similar to Walmart (with Vizio) and Amazon (with Fire TV). They can tie commerce data to TV viewership and household data to increase the value of their advertising products. They also have more leverage in deals with ad tech providers like Amazon DSP and Magnite. As always, CTV + commerce = 🔥.

Imagining the ad business hiding inside Meta’s Muse🔒 - Meta says its new AI personal agent, Muse, has no ads and keeps conversation data away from its ad systems. But many are wondering if ads could follow as Muse keeps growing. After all, Meta IS an ad company (whether Zuckerberg likes it or not). Muse hit 730K US downloads in its first five days, per Sensor Tower, outpacing ChatGPT and Claude over the same stretch. For now, it makes money through $20 and $100 monthly plans, and Zuckerberg has floated a small merchant-paid fee when Muse helps someone make a purchase. Muse for Small Business🔒 launched this week, which connects to Meta ad accounts and tools like Asana, Intuit, and Slack. Business owners can ask it to analyze their sales or draft next week's ad campaign. It's free up to a usage limit, and businesses pay a subscription fee beyond that. In related news, OpenAI launched a Muse competitor this week called ‘Dots’.

Opinion: Meta plans to spend up to $145B on AI this year, and its ad business is footing nearly all of the bill. Investors have not liked that. Muse finally gives them a growing AI consumer base to point to, and potentially a new revenue stream with Muse subscriptions. Investors like that! It’s hard to believe that Muse will remain ad-free long-term, given Meta's core business is ads, AI is very conducive to advertising, and Muse could generate vast amounts of data to make ads more effective across all of Meta's properties.

Tweet below courtesy of Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang (seriously):

Scope3 rebrands as Apostra and goes all in on agentic advertising🔒 - Ad tech vet Brian O'Kelley's startup Scope3 has a new name and a new focus. It started out measuring the carbon footprint of digital ads. When companies pulled back on sustainability programs, O'Kelley shifted the startup toward agent-to-agent ad buying. Rebranded as Apostra, it links a brand's AI agent with seller AI agents. The agents handle the work of finding, negotiating, and running ad deals, and humans can still sign off along the way. Apostra has 40 media partners and connections to Google, Meta, Amazon, Reddit, and ChatGPT Ads. Instead of taking a cut of media spend, it plans to charge for add-on tools like negotiation support.

Opinion: Ironically, AI agents have a massive carbon footprint. We suspect that’s the primary reason for the rebrand. So long, Scope3, we hardly knew ye.

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