Amazon Q4 Ad Revenue Climbs 18% but Misses Wall Street Estimates, Total Profit Hits $20 Billion in Holiday Shopping Period

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amazon‘s share of the digital ad market continues to balloon: The ecommerce giant reported $17.29 billion in advertising sales for the fourth quarter of 2024, an increase of 18%.

Overall earnings for the period smashed Wall Street expectations, but Amazon forecast Q1 sales below analyst estimates. The Q4 ad revenue figure fell short of analyst expectations of $17.4 billion, per StreetAccount.

The growth rate of Amazon’s advertising business, as it puts up even bigger numbers, is slowing — in Q4 2023, ad services revenue jumped 26%.

Amazon’s ad services line item is a big bucket that includes sales of video advertising, display ads and sponsored ads to sellers, vendors, publishers, authors and others.