Dive Brief:

• Amazon is expected to reach $1.65 billion in ad revenue in 2017, which would make it the fifth-largest generator of digital ad revenue in the U.S., according to an eMarketer forecast. This number still trails behind the two leaders in the space — Google and Facebook — but bumps Amazon ahead of social media platforms like Twitter and Snapchat.
• The e-commerce giant's ad revenue is estimated to grow 48.2% this year, faster than any other major ad publisher. EMarketer predicts Amazon will hit $3.19 billion in total U.S. digital ad revenue by 2019, making up 3% of all digital ad spending in the country.
• Currently, Amazon's ad business is based on search and display. About 25% of its ad revenue will come from search this year accounting for 1.1% of search ad spending. Its display market is larger, accounting for 3% of U.S. display revenues based on its demand-side platform, which eMarketer described as arguably the largest in the U.S.

Dive Insight:

Amazon is no longer poised to become a big player in digital advertising — it's clearly already there, with its prominence only set to rise. Even though it might be tough to break the duopoly held by Google and Facebook, industry leaders, including WPP CEO Martin Sorrell, see Amazon as having some built-in advantages over its competition.

Those include a massive online shopper base that provides a wealth of first-party data — a resource that's only growing to grow following the company's acquisition of the grocery retailer Whole Foods earlier this year. Ads served on Amazon's website also reach people where they are already close to making a purchase online, hitting a valuable area of the sales funnel that a platform like Facebook often doesn't.

As Amazon continues to grow beyond its still wildly-successful e-commerce business, marketers seem to be more willing to allocate more of their ad budgets toward the site. A recent study from ClickZ Intelligence and GroupM's Catalyst found roughly 63% of surveyed marketers plan to bump up their Amazon budgets, the largest increase for any ad platform, including Google and Facebook.

The e-commerce giant has been making major moves to beef up its role in advertising, including signing a lease for an office in New York City — where many of the most prominent ad agencies are situated — for its ad team, as well as reports that it's planning a direct strike at YouTube's business through a greater emphasis on product videos. Earlier this month, it also rolled out a "premium" product page option for brands with a reported $500,000 price tag that opens up features such as wide-screen formats and interactive multi-media displays.