[Estimated read time: 9 minutes]
What is Google AMP?
The Google AMP Project is a way of fast-tracking content to mobile devices. It improves upon the traditional model of serving mobile content because it relies on a specific form of HTML, called AMP HTML, to strip down the presentation of content. Here’s an example of what an AMP page looks like when rendered on an iPhone 6.
The net effect is that the mobile user will see articles with comparatively basic text and images, but that content will load up to 10 times faster (or more!) over traditionally formatted content.
Why is Google AMP important for SEO?
As Google often preaches to the industry, page speed and mobile-readiness are high-quality ranking distinctions that determine the placement of a site’s content link in the search engine results pages (SERPs). The faster a site is (among other ranking signals), and the more it caters to mobile devices, the more likely it is to be seen and clicked on by Google search users.
Since 2013, Google has been evolving from being the company that provides links to other sites in search results to the company that provides answers to questions in search results.
For example, the “featured snippets” aspect of Google, shown below, has been a method of providing quick answers in search results to simple questions such as “Who won the 1969 World Series?”
But featured snippets don’t work well for more complex questions, like “What are the main issues in the 2016 presidential election?” Those types of questions lend themselves more to in-depth articles. Unfortunately, when simple answers are not plausible, one must load another page that may be slow to load on mobile devices. As a result, Google has been developing ways to make the links you click on in search results load more quickly. And now, with Google’s AMP Project, they have been making those appear more prominently in SERPs.
How does Google AMP work?
There are three parts to Google AMP:
- AMP HTML
- AMP JS
- AMP Cache
AMP HTML has a strictly defined set of pre-processing tags. Those are mainly limited to text formatting and image embedding tags such as amp-ad, amp-embed, amp-img, amp-pixel, and amp-video.
AMP JS is a severely limited Javascript file. It loads all external resources in an asynchronous (in the background) way. This keeps “render blocking” from interfering with how quickly what the user came to see renders on the screen. Everything extraneous to the actual words and images in the article loads last. AMP JS also grabs and pre-renders the content by predicting which DNS resources and connections will be needed, then by downloading and pre-sizing images. This is all done to alleviate work for the mobile device to economize data use.
AMP Cache, or the AMP Content Delivery Network (AMP CDN), is Google’s system of servers doing the heavy lifting of grabbing your most recent content and pre-positioning it around the globe. This ensures that a page requested from, say, Italy doesn’t need to be sent over the wire from Mountain View, California each time it’s requested. Instead, Google places a pre-rendered, optimized copy of that AMP page on a server close to or in Italy. The CDN is refreshed each time an article is updated or added.
The positive impacts of AMP on SEO & online marketing
Faster-loading articles improve the publisher/reader relationship. Speed is the most obvious benefit to publishers using AMP for improved SEO. That speed translates into more page views and fewer frustrated readers, which also translates to more ad views, sharing, and engagement with content.
1.) AMP-enabled articles will rank higher in SERPs.
AMP content will have the advantage of being shown above the fold, at the top of Google searches, unless Google changes how and whether it displays all AMP results in this way. An example of how AMP pages displayed in search results is shown below.
Currently, AMP articles appear in a swipeable carousel. For now, there is not a paid placement option, but it may appear in the future. AMP-enabled articles do have an icon in the SERPs indicating that they are built on AMP.
2.) Paid search impressions will likely increase.
After viewing an AMP-based piece of content, the most common thing users do is click back to the SERP to see what else there might be. This will positively affect the number of paid search impressions over time.
3.) Google AMP is for every publisher.
Facebook limits participation in its Instant Articles feature to just a select set of publishers. With Google AMP, anyone with a little know-how or willingness to learn can format his or her content to be accessed quickly by a potentially enormous number of readers.
4.) AMP is open source.
This means that contributions to its evolution are not limited to the world of Google’s best and brightest developers. Anyone who has an idea for making it better can contribute to the specification. AMP’s feature set will more readily adapt to a changing publishing world.
5.) Analytics are coming for AMP.
According to Google, several analytics providers — including comScore, Adobe Analytics, Parse.ly, and Chartbeat — are gearing up their services to tell publishers how well their AMP content is doing. In fact, the AMP specification provides instructions for supporting current AMP analytics vendors, as well as how to support your own custom analytics solution for AMP.
6.) Content gets to more readers.
Even though AMP mainly benefits Google in that it helps them compete with Facebook’s Instant Articles, that improved reach benefits publishers because their content can now be more widely read when users click on them in Google’s SERPs — not just in Facebook’s walled garden.
7.) More features and formatting options are coming.
Even though AMP deals in a limited set of tags for formatting pages, all's not lost. There are still plenty of extended components and even some experimental components to be released as they become available.
The negative impacts of AMP on SEO & online marketing
1.) There are no forms in AMP content.
That means that if a publisher’s goal is to generate leads by inviting a reader to subscribe or submit his contact information, it’s going to have to wait until AMP provides an upgrade to the specification that allows publishers to have forms in their AMP-optimized content.
2.) AMP doesn’t solve the problem of page speed SEO for non-publisher sites.
It really only covers “news”-type articles and blog posts and is not intended for speeding up general e-commerce or brand sites. An e-commerce site that doesn’t focus on articles or blog posts as its main content will probably find the design constraints of AMP much too restrictive and will want to stick to traditional HTML.
3.) The number of paid search result item impressions could go down.
If the search term is broad or general (i.e. “news,” “fashion,” or “food”), AMP articles will probably appear more frequently than paid search results items. Only time and analytics will correct for assumptions here.
4.) There are no external style sheets or Javascript.
Because of a lack of external stylesheets and external Javascript, the design and user experience (UX) of pages is lackluster. Publishers and non-publishers alike will have to decide if it’s more important to their brand to have the design complement the content to attract return visitors (in which case they might opt out of AMP for now), or if their content stands on its own and their visitors only care about rapidly loading pages (in which case they’ll want to start implementing it now). Use of experimental components as a hedge against dull pages carries the risk that the component will have bugs or will be rejected by the next release of the AMP specification.
5.) Domain Authority may suffer.
From their Learn SEO page: "Domain Authority is a score (on a 100-point scale) developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines." One of the factors included in the calculation is the number of linking root domains. An indirect negative effect would be that a publisher’s site would earn fewer links. That’s because other sites linking to AMP content will not be linking to the publisher’s domain name, but to google.com. For example, here's a screenshot of an article loaded on an iPhone 6 as accessed from an AMP carousel search.
Note that the URL, https://www.google.com/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/35800232#, begins with “www.google.com/amp/” and then tacks on the article’s originating domain. When viewing the article, visitors will still be on Google.com, not on the publisher’s website.
6.) The way publishers serve ads inline with content will necessarily change.
This could be a good thing, in that it will force publishers to rethink their ads so that they no longer annoy the 16% of customers who block their ads anyway. It could be a bad thing for publishers who rely on high-bandwidth, over-designed ads to capture attention, though. They’ll have to either opt out of AMP or find another advertising strategy. Of course, if a publisher is part of the Google AMP ads partnership of Outbrain, AOL, OpenX, DoubleClick, and AdSense, the publisher’s own burden of improving its ads is greatly reduced. More ad partners are being brought into the fold as they come into compliance with the AMP spec for their ads.
7.) Budgeting for content development will need to increase.
If you don’t have a CMS that already supports AMP, you’ll need to budget for developing in AMP or build into your custom or extensible CMS as an additional feature.
8.) Publishers can’t get away with poorly-constructed HTML pages with AMP.
This is actually both a positive and a negative aspect of AMP. On the positive side, every page has to be free of errors before Google will even pick it up and put it in the AMP caches. This means that users will have a better experience downloading the content on a variety of devices. However, on the negative side, publishers will need to budget time (and developer hours) to further debug every page. Fortunately, Google has provided a validator with AMP.
Conclusion
Page speed is a ranking factor in Google’s algorithm. The fact that Google has come out with its own way of constructing and displaying content faster and more concisely speaks to its desire to make page speed an even more important indicator of a page’s value in SERPs.
If a site deals primarily in long-form, news-type content (as opposed to marketing or selling its products), then it's a good candidate for an AMP overhaul. If publishers only add AMP to get ahead of the emerging trend towards mobile-optimized content, they’ll be doing themselves and their SEO ranking a favor.
By now, you may be wondering what you can do to boost your page speed, given its increasing importance. We've got an awesome free performance report you can use to get actionable intel on how to optimize your site for speed and performance. Feel free to check it out if you're interested in learning steps you can take to improve your website’s performance.
Thoughts or questions about Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages? Let us know in the comments!
Regards your point 1) AMP-enabled articles will rank higher in SERPs.
One of the biggest points of ambiguity for me right now is will AMP itself become a ranking factor - in the same way 'Mobile Friendly' is. I think your statement is a little misleading, since AMP articles rank higher right now by virtue of appearing in the New Pack, which appears at the top of the SERP. If AMP gets traction (which I believe it will) I could definitely see regular search results being annotated with AMP. The question at that point, is does AMP become a direct ranking factor? Or just indirect through page speed / CTR / etc?
Do you have any thoughts or insight on that?
Jon, fantastic point. There is a ton of buzz in the market that Google should favor "fast" pages not pages built with "X" technology.
To be honest, I believe that the AMP project is Google's attempt to solve engineering bloat with more bloat; however, as you alluded to, this project is likely here to stay. I would argue that AMP has already become a direct ranking factor as AMP articles are prominently located at the top of search results in the lightning carousel.
I would bet that until something "better" appears to provide an improved UX for mobile, Google will do all they can to get everyone on this, and likely give a significant ranking bias to people using AMP as well as Mobile-Friendly or Resposive websites.
Their end goal (imho) is to be able to command higher cpc's for mobile traffic which they still aren't able to do just yet.
My 2 pence worth... Desktop traffic will still convert better for the majority of websites, for the short term at least, as it's how people tend to shop online, they search on mobile and purchase in the privacy of thier own home with no one looking over their shoulder. Google is trying everything to change that, hence all the press and news coverage about mobilegeddon - I mean seriously when does google ever give exact dates on updates and tell you that they will help with SEO?
Anyway back to the main topic - I firmly believe AMP Pages will see a little bit of help coming from Google in terms of rankings for the reasons I've mentioned.
One of the noticeable ideas behind AMP I can realize is that it may cut the loading time for online pages to a minimized duration users tolerate. Of course, Google has seen success. For instance, Pinterest, in tests, has found that AMP pages can load 4 times faster. How awesome! Anyway, I like your ideas in the post!
It's a nice wrap-up, but it doesn't really add something new to AMP story that hasn't already been told. The link to the "free performance report" at the bottom is a bit over the top as it doesn't add value to the article. To be blunt - this article reminds me of these generic posts on Search Engine Land, only created for the benefit of the link.
Some remarks on the content:
- Point 3: Google AMP is for every publisher - note that Facebook is opening Instant Articles on April 12th for all publishers
- Point 5: Domain authority may suffer. I rather doubt this. If you visit the url you give as an example on a non mobile device (read user agent) you are redirected (301) to the "real" url on the bbc domain
Thanks for your comment. I agree that most of the pieces of what I wrote can be found elsewhere on the internet in a variety of places. My goal was to write an article that addressed the needs of the online marketing community in an approachable way.
At its core, AMP exists to improve the page load performance of articles delivered over mobile. Therefore, linking a report that prioritizes and identifies specific content on your site that is hampering performance adds a ton of value to the article, particularly for small business sites that do not have the resources to invest in a project like AMP.
Regarding point 3 - Yes, Facebook says they will be open for all publishers in April, but AMP is open to everyone today.
Regarding point 5 - In your example you used a user agent which will pull up the carousel of AMP articles, but those articles will load via a 301 redirect; however, on an actual mobile phone the content does not redirect (if it did, that would be a hindrance to performance which is whole reason for using AMP in the first place). In the end, I have heard conflicting claims regarding the impact on domain authority, which is why I said "may". Time will tell what the answer will be.
Does anybody know what is actually going on when Google tacks on the article's originating domain to google.com/amp/?
The static AMP cache would appear at https://amp.gstatic.com so what is the google.com/amp/ URL that's being used in the carousel?
Hi Dirk,
I agree with the article is not adding much value. However, Chapman represented few things very well, according to me AMP can't be an important ranking factor as it is mainly for publishers and I am also eagerly waiting for Facebook's instant articles. One question is constantly striking on my mind is will Google take AMP forward from publishers sites to another industries.
@Dirk & @Chapman I request both of you to share your views on it, as you both had dived deeper in AMP.
Thanks!
Yes, the AMP project will likely evolve the project to accommodate more "industries". AMP is an open source project, so even if Google decided to stop dev work on it, other contributors could still adapt the spec to accommodate different features and use cases.
It's looks like that days are going to be much faster for mobile user who often had been bored cause of the page's speed. I am feeling that it will make a big change in SEO and help to get good ranking in SERPs. But how will be remove The negative impacts of AMP on SEO & online marketing?
I'd like to know too, sometimes the lack of speed makes you want to leave the page, and I wanna know too about the negative impacts!
While I think AMP pages are very interesting and will benefit SERPs, it really is yet another SEO play that many who use eCommerce sites won't be able to use just yet. Since many upon many eCommerce sites don't allow their customer's 100% backend access or won't support the AMP javascript since they would mean not offering the many features eCommerce sites have.
Why doesn't google think of the eCommerce sites... Or better yet, not add to the proprietary code mess?
You have to use 100% of AMP js to even be considered to be used = sad panda.
This is the first time I hear about AMP. Since we are not publishers, my first feeling is that the importance of speed will likely increase overall for all sites
Hola Luis! Yo trabajo en una inmobiliaria y pienso igual, creo que la importancia de la velocidad o ya empieza, o empezará a crecer en breves... Esperemos estar preparados :D
We implemented AMP to our blog last week and based on the results the traffic has increased by 10% yet. But it's definitely too early to draw the conclusions. Unfortunately Google Search Console doesn't find our implementation, so we couldn't be 100% sure that we did it in right way.
We described the whole process of implementation (with code sequences also) on our blog: https://www.timecamp.com/blog/index.php/2016/03/accelerated-mobile-pages-how-to-implement-them/. Soon we will post the results for SEO.
Great blog. Can't wait to see the results for SEO.
Quite an intriguing post! Both as an SEO and a user I find this information quite useful.
For those who use WordPress, there is a 1 click solution for implementing AMP - the AMP plugin.
I find this information very useful! Thank you for sharing!!
Hey Chapman, firstly great post and thanks for shredding light on all of us.
Moving forward, I'm highly skeptical of the fact that AMP will not become a Ranking Factor. Since whatever we are witnessing from Google is more towards Mobile. Keeping that in mind that even AMP Project was also started to deliver good web pages faster on mobile.
Keeping these things in mind, there is very high possibility that Google might go ahead and make AMP as one their ranking factor if everyone adapts it correctly and work around it. Even the recent announcement in reference to Mobilegeddon is more cementing my thought on this point.
With reference to your point "Domain Authority will suffer", again this is a not a sure shot plot(which even you also suggested). There is no denying of the fact that Mobile is rising at reasonably good rate but even guys at Moz adopted that pretty late. I think it'll take time for people to adopt to this latest trend, a lot of experiments will be involved before going on to final version.
AMP might be good for the one's who depend on content only. On the other hand, guys who are more into content + visual design where they extensive work on graphics too. How well AMP serves them is also one tickling question.
For now it seems, AMP is serving as your one hand ticket for top SERP position in mobile search. Because, people who've already started implementing it are reaping good rewards. How long it takes us, time will tell us. Would love some more inputs from your side here.
Very interesting post on AMP! I have been reading a lot about AMP for the past month but I was still very confused, until today! Thanks for sharing this!
Nice post Chapman! This project is going to create a huge change basically for small scale websites and especially for the sites having slow loading speed. I am confused with two things related to AMP:
The web is constantly evolving and new web standards such as HTTP2 and HTML5 will help a lot in speeding up the web, but at their core most websites are bloated and not designed to be rendered across multiple devices.
As web designers, we need to be more vigilant about uploading optimized content (using optimized images, minified JavaScript and CSS, and caching resources) and being more selective with the number of 3rd party tags and services we implement.
Regarding your question about whether to tackle AMP or responsive design, I would absolutely tackle responsive design if you haven't yet.
Well said! My vote will also go with responsive as it greatly affect the user experience. Isnt it?
thank you
Awesome Post ..
Well said, Chapman Lever!!
I completely agree with you on the importance of AMP for online marketing.
AMP is an open-source project that offers to create mobile-optimized content for web pages. Accelerated Mobile Page delivers content at quick speed on mobile devices and we all know speed is an important factor of SEO. So, Definitely, AMP will Influence the Online Marketing field.
Thanks for that, very useful
The mobile revolution is here, the whole world to use AMP lol
I think the impact of AMP will increase even over time. Whenever I used my phone now and google something basically all the sites I get as a result are using AMP and I´m happy to use these pages as I know they load faster. I think especially on mobile it was time that something like this happens.
If you have fast mobile internet then you maybe don´t mind it too much but with slower connections still around it is necessary.
This articles sums up a lot of different articles I´ve read in the past weeks so its a great resource going further.
Very timely article! Great overview of AMP - thank you.
More clarity on DA being affected is definitely needed
My biggest concern about AMP is domain authority.
A typical AMP link looks like this:https://www.google.com/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/35800232#. The URL begins with www.google.com/amp/. Does it mean that I still get the traffic, but what about the backlinks? What if someone links to this AMP link?
I did a really thorough research on AMP (here is what I got: https://blog.momentum.ai/google-accelerated-mobile-pages), but this question about domain authority and the loss of my tracking tools keep me away from AMP. At least fro now.
This is the best article i have seen on breaking down "Google AMP". Thanks for sharing.
I like the AMP load fast, but still not very well how to implement them
Static content is a big problem.
I did not have much information about this topic.
Thank you very much.
It is certain that Google's AMP, which are specifically designed to provide a wonderful user experience on mobile and load quickly, will get a serious search ranking boost. You may also see from Google search results that most of the AMP sites are accentuated with a little green lightning-bolt that invites users to experience these lightning-fast mobile pages.
Hey Kieth, didn't know that the AMP sites had a little green lightning-bolt! I'm definitely gonna take a look at it next time :)
Thanks for the sharing. As what I digest from the article, I would think that AMP is a ranking signal for Google Mobile only. In addition, it is more for a blog or article page. Similarly to the ranking signal for Responsive Website, I don't think it will help much on page rank for Google Search for Desktop
Feel free to correct me :)
need to know the google map directions
Very detailed and informative post.
Crisply written.
Keep up the good work.
What I want to know is how this will be integrated in Google Analytics. If an AMP page is served off Google's CDN, how will the content publisher know how many views it received? I'd love to see "plain" vs "AMP" vs "Facebook Instant" as a facet I could use in my analytics reporting, but I haven't seen any indication as yet that views via AMP or FI will show up there at all. So there's a concern that page views will be deflated -- 1000 people might read a post but if half of them were on AMP or FI, Analytics will only report 500. Similarly, users/sessions/etc will drop. This could potentially be really cranky-making if they don't have a way around it.
NIce information and thanks for sharing.
It's very very useful this article. I will investigate more about AMP.
Thanks a lot!
When we talk about speed there is a lot you can do to simplify a page. As a designer this is my continuous battle... what is the balance between a really great graphically designed site or innovative video Vs. a more simple faster loading site for better ranking? Above it was mentioned that AMP can load some Pinterest pages 4 times faster. Clearly AMP can boost the download for heavy graphic sites but does a web site gain an edge by reducing graphics and video?
Yes, decreasing the download size of your webpage by reducing the number of weighty images and graphics data will significantly improve your page speed. It is also extremely considerate for your users on mobile as it will use up less of their wireless data plan.
thanks for the useful information
Hello Chapman,
AMP is a great idea for countries like India and more where mobile internet is painfully slow. Google has made many more efforts and some of them are Google web light, Youtube Offline & more which helps loading pages faster on slower or sporadic internet connections. It seems like Google is making things better for the rest of the world by 1st introducing them in developing countries.
AMP also seems like a step in that direction and is a welcome step. Also, articles detailing what changes we can expect in respect of SEO practices regarding these new developments are always welcome. They provide a detailed analysis which are not always possible through official Google announcements.
Great Article!! Probably AMP will make a revolution in the SERPS, we have to remind that the searches through mobile devices are increasing every day. The problem for many webmanager will be to implement it, there's no time to dawdle.
Sounds great, but is it possible to have a part of the website not in AMP? For example; the blog in AMP and when people click a link to buy or fill in a form, that's not loaded in AMP?
Yes, it is possible to only have certain pages load in AMP, however, for the specific use case you mentioned I'm not sure if it's the way to go, yet.
AMP was really intended to first help reduce the load times of long form digital publisher articles which are often over 3-4 MB in page size and load in 10 or even 20 seconds, so they were due for a boost in page speed.
Chapman Lever, thank you for your reply. How would one commercialize on this kind of content, if a form is not yet possible?
Digital publishers would commercialize through ad revenue.
As a digital marketer, you would have to link to a page not hosted on AMP to convert a reader (either with a form for lead generation or a traditional checkout process if you're an eCommerce provider). Over time I think there will be functionality allowing forms and other more dynamic feature options, but currently the AMP spec is pretty limiting for web admins.
Great post for Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Projecvery useful and informative
Wow !!! I'm looking forward to the arrival of Google AMP, both as a user and online marketer, as AMP pages will load much faster.
Many thanks for the information, Chapman !!
@Carlos it has already arrivd.
Really interesting article. I've read about AMP a few times, interesting to hear your take on the pros & cons Chapman.
One of the biggest issues for me with AMP, for now at least, is the lack of forms. Although not all content is necessarily designed around leads, it seems a bit counter-intuitive to take that option away from content.
Though, I guess there could be an image or text link taking the visitor to a non-amp landing page right?
To Usman Khan, as Chapman say's, there's no set 'rule' or 'score' that would determine if you rank at the top of the SERPS, it's more just one of many factors. In addition, this will obviously also depend (as with most factors) on how fast the sites you're trying to beat are.
My own tactics are to use GTmetrix & Pingdom speed test (Chapman, I've not seen Zoompf.com/free before, I'll check it out!), and try to ensure all code as optimised as possibe, images are optimised, minify JS and CSS where possible, use caching (WP plugin or .htaccess rules can help too) and ideally, a CDN (Cloud Flare's free version is pretty damn good usually).
I've not really dabbled with AMP, but I've been meaning to!
It is a very interesting article considering the new technology AMP that included Google for users who consult their mobile devices, it will be a factor to consider in the coming months for SEO.
Thanks for covering this topic, Google information regarding AMP is a bit chaotic. I guess this project can be of great help to websites without a mobile version. Of course, if it is a "business card" type website.
P.S
Quite impressive tool. Thanks!
Thanks For Sharing Best Info. About AMP it Is very useful
thanks,
pavitar Singh
Great blog I'm always interested in SEO
Thanks for the great article Chapman, I just have a question on one of the points you made. I must be a bit slow, but how is it possible that links pointing to an AMP page actually point to Google. If true, that would be a massive disadvantage for using AMP. To test this, I created a link on one of my pages (https://www.vineyardcarhire.co.za/accommodation/) pointing to another of my site's AMP pages (https://www.sitari.co.za/how-can-sitari-help-you-become-more-environmentally-friendly/amp/), but the source code reveals it pointing to the AMP page, not to a Google page. I am not quite following this, could you please enlighten me.
Great post for getting #1 position on SERP. But How much page speed required for ranked on top? And is Google Page Speed Insights Tool enough for checking speed matrix for Mobile?
Great, questions. Unfortunately, there is no standard page speed number that Google has stated will rank you at the top. It is merely part of the overall ranking equation. However, Google has stated that they believe the standard for websites to load should be under 2 seconds.
The most important thing to note is how fast your content loads relevant to similar content on the web. If writing an article about SEO for example, how fast are other articles on the subject?
Google pagespeed is a good starting point for testing website speed. Other good free tools include webpagetest.org, yslow, and we have a good free tool at zoompf.com/free.
If your website is generating 10+ million dollars a year in revenue online you might benefit from investing in commercial products.
It's interesting (and a little frustrating) that AMP still hasn't rolled out on google.com.au yet. Do they have any sort of timeline for regional rollout?
Hey Chapman,
Thanks for sharing this post!
I was wondering something with Negative factors of AMP, as you have mentioned that lead generation is not possible with the help of AMP pages, does that mean AMP is only for knowledge driven or Knowledge sharing purpose? As we know that AMP is the ranking factors, how we can utilise AMP at fullest in our website though it has a couple of drawbacks?
I think AMP will affect the same HTTPS. Google said that HTTPS is a ranking signal, but really it's a very small signal
AMP seems to be built with 3 things in mind: Large publishers, Ad Blockers, and FB insta pages/Apple News.
Large publishers like newspapers and large magazine sites that are struggling with too much code from too many ad exchanges, DSPs, etc. These are the types of sites (or rather the type of ads) that have led to the rise of ad blockers which Google is not keen on as they could push publishers back to old days of selling their own ad space and Google does not want that! Last, but not least Google is always looking to squash competitors in their space.
With all that being said, if I was a medium to large publisher using the types of advertising methods described above I may move to AMP. At least until I had my in-house ad department up to par!