Thanks to a recent update, Facebook and Instagram users are now able to link their profiles to their personal Amazon accounts and do some online shopping on the social media websites.
The update comes as part of an apparent new partnership between Instagram and Facebook parent Meta and Amazon, however, neither company made a formal announcement letting everyone know of the changes. It appears to have been first “leaked” by Maurice Rahmey, co-CEO of Disruptive Digital, who shared his findings on LinkedIn. He states that Meta will utilize information obtained from Amazon to show users products that might interest them. If a user has an Amazon Prime membership, they will receive tailored ads with extra details such as “real-time pricing [plus] shopping estimates.” An Amazon representative told TechCrunch customers will even see specific details about a product and whether or not they’re eligible for Prime benefits.
There are some restrictions to the feature. It will only show “select products” on Meta’s platforms, but the products won’t be restricted to only what Amazon sells on its storefront. You will see independent sellers too. Be aware this update is only available to people in the United States.
Rolling out
It's unclear if the Amazon ads are currently live.
We didn’t encounter any changes on our personal Facebook and Instagram accounts at the time of this writing. Nor were we able to connect our Meta profiles to the shopping platform. This seemed strange at first because both Maurice Rahmey as well as TechCrunch have videos on their respective posts revealing what the ads look like. They even demonstrate how to buy a product from one of them. Additionally, Rahmey claimed on his LinkedIn post that the refresh had “just rolled out” so we should’ve run into them.
We reached out to both companies asking when people are going to see the ads. An Amazon spokesperson told us they are “available on a growing number of” products which we take to mean the patch is slowly making its way to users. Over time, you should see them crop up. It’s unknown if there are plans to expand this partnership outside the United States.
Both brands stayed quiet when we asked this question. It probably won't happen in Europe. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission recently banned “Meta’s social media platforms from using targeted ads" across the entire European Economic Area. This includes all EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
Be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best Amazon Black Friday deals for 2023.
