Amazon is quietly building a publisher-focused ad product team to grow its $37 billion ad business

• 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 Amazon, according to job postings.

Amazon is hiring to create new ad products for publishers.

Amazon has 11 job openings for a new team called “PubTech” that will be part of Amazon Ads. According to Amazon’s job site, this team is focused on developing a new supply-side platform. An SSP is software that allows publishers to sell programmatic ads.

According to one job posting for a software engineer, PubTech 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 Twitch principal product manager states that the position will aid in the development of a vision and strategy for the launch of Twitch ad products that use PubTech, “the new Amazon Ads Supply Side Platform.” The position also requires experience and a background working with demand-side and supply-side platforms.

Amazon is also looking for someone to oversee deals for PubTech, which will create marketplace deals between advertisers and publishers.

According to job postings, the Amazon Ads team is developing products for Amazon properties such as Twitch, FireTV, and Freevee.

While Amazon Publisher Services helps publishers sell ads, that unit focuses on third-party publishers and publishers who work with third-party SSPs.

According to Ameet Shah, partner and global VP of publisher operations at adtech consulting firm Prohaska Consulting, these offerings have been successful for publishers.

“Now it’s just an opportunity to take that further or build upon what’s already there,” he said.

Amazon may be increasing its competition with Google by developing its own SSP and entering the ring with third-party SSPs such as Magnite, Pubmatic, OpenX, Index Exchange, and Microsoft-owned Xandr.

Google provides tools for both advertisers and publishers to buy and sell ads. The Trade Desk, an adtech firm that has traditionally worked with advertisers, has developed technology for publishers. Publisher adtech firms Pubmatic and Magnite have also begun courting advertisers.

Amazon is constructing its SSP as the distinction between adtech that serves advertisers and adtech that serves publishers has become increasingly blurred in the last year. Amazon is exploring new opportunities in adtech for publishers.

Search ads are at the heart of Amazon’s $37 billion ad business, and the company’s ad division has primarily focused on developing tools for advertisers. Amazon has a demand-side platform that advertisers can use to target and purchase programmatic ads on the websites of publishers.In recent pitches to advertisers, Amazon has emphasized its adtech chops, claiming that its DSP outperforms Google and The Trade Desk.

Correction, 11 August 2023: After this story was published, Amazon clarified that the SSP is intended for its own properties, not third-party publishers, as stated in its job postings. According to an Amazon spokesperson, the company will revise its job postings.