Amazon soaks up ad dollars. TikTok centralizes e-comm.

In today’s edition:

Tariffs push brands toward Amazon, Google loses in court, Meta gets serious about retail media, and TikTok tightens control over its global e-comm push.

Brands are moving budgets to Amazon. Quietly, but fast.

Tariffs are hitting margins, and brands aren’t waiting to react. Budgets are shifting toward what performs—and right now, that means Amazon ads.

Search and Sponsored Brand spend on Amazon is up 9% YoY in Q1, according to Pacvue. Their DSP—which powers Prime Video and off-site ads—jumped 25.4%. Not bad for a post-holiday quarter.

Tinuiti also reports that Prime Video–specific ad buys climbed 29% last quarter, and for brands already selling on Amazon, DSP now makes up over a third of their total Amazon media spend.

“Search real estate on Amazon still drives the highest return,” said Kepler’s Zach Ricchuiti. “No one wants to lose visibility there.”

Amazon hasn’t said much publicly about tariff effects—but it doesn’t need to. Brands are moving, and the performance is holding.

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Google just lost a big antitrust case

A federal judge ruled that Google abused its power in digital advertising by bundling together its ad server and exchange—essentially forcing publishers to play in its walled garden.

The result? Google could be forced to spin off parts of its adtech business. No remedy yet, but it’s on the table.

“This will usher in an era of a more competitive open internet,” said Index Exchange CEO Andrew Casale.

Google is appealing, but the decision already has the industry rethinking the rules of programmatic.

Meta is coming for retail media budgets

Amazon and Walmart still own the retail media spotlight, but Meta’s coming in with new tools to make its ads more commerce-connected.

What’s new:

• A retail media API that ties Meta campaigns to real purchase data

• SKU-level reporting and direct access to impression logs

• New carousel formats that drive traffic both online and in-store

• Some early tests show a 21% lift in ROAS

Retailers like the direction, but say setup and support are still pain points. Meta’s racing the clock—with TikTok, Snap, and Google all circling the same dollars.

TikTok tightens global grip on e-commerce

TikTok is reorganizing how it runs e-commerce outside the U.S.—and shifting more control to teams based in China and Singapore.

According to an internal memo, global leads (not local market managers) will now oversee governance and experience for new regions like Latin America. The change comes just as TikTok begins ramping up in Brazil, a key growth market.

“It’s fascinating they’re trying to set up a country/region with leadership that’s not local,” said one TikTok staffer.

Behind the scenes, the shift reflects a broader internal shakeup. US-based teams have faced layoffs, missed 2024 targets, and received low performance scores in Q1 reviews. ByteDance is tightening its grip after mixed e-commerce performance in the U.S.—and seems to be repeating the playbook as it expands into LATAM.

Why it matters: Brazil and Mexico are expected to drive most of the region’s projected $250B e-comm boom by 2028. TikTok doesn’t want to miss that window, even if it means skipping local leadership in favor of central control.

It also comes as the U.S. moves forward with efforts to force ByteDance to divest TikTok’s American operations—making LATAM a possible safety net if things go south politically.

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