Thursday, 02 March 2017 01:43

Advertising on Amazon’s Echo and Dot

It seems that Amazon's Echo is now getting into the advertising game. At the end of January, Amazon announced it would soon be adding paid advertising to its Echo and Dot devices.

The announcement sent a wave of excitement through the advertising industry because Amazon has already sold 5 million devices since its original launch date. But how does voice shopping work? And how is Amazon planning to use these ads to interact with their users?

Advertising & Voice Shopping

To order anything through Alexa, you must have an Amazon Prime membership. This alone could also boost the number of Amazon Prime members, or at the very least recruit temporary members through the free 30-day trial. By enacting a voice purchase request, Prime customers can verbally order any items sold by Amazon, and can even ask Alexa to look through past order history and Amazon’s choice catalogs to find corresponding items. If the product is available for purchase, Alexa will let you know the name of the item and its price and Alexa will ask if you wish to continue with the purchase. As soon as you say, “Yes,” Amazon will complete your request, and your order will be on its way.

How Amazon Will Utilize Paid Voice Search Advertising

There are many speculations on how Amazon will be implementing voice search ads that focus on the promotion of related products. For instance, if you say to Alexa, “Buy more Charmin,” the advertiser may be able to buy a brief ad that replies, “Did you know that a 12- pack of Cottonelle is only $20.99?” These ads are intended not to interrupt the customer’s shopping but to inform him or her of alternative product options. However, there have been concerns about paid voice ads and customers’ rights. Will Alexa let consumers know that what they’re hearing is a paid advertisement? Without verbal announcement, Amazon customers might not be able to tell if Alexa is promoting a paid advertisement or not. If not implemented in the right way, paid voice search may reduce consumers’ trust in Amazon. No one is sure what these paid ads will look like, but in order to be successful they must be clearly identified, appropriate, and provide valuable information for customers.

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