Amazon announced in a blog post last week that Amazon sponsored product ads will now be made visible on third-party websites and apps.
Some of the external sites where customers can now see and then buy Amazon products in one or two clicks include Pinterest, BuzzFeed, Hearst Newspapers, Raptive, and a few of Ziff Davis brands namely Lifehacker and Mashable.
Do Sellers Have to Pay Extra to Have Their Sponsored Products Shown on the Added Platforms?
With a huge app like Pinterest added to the list of sites that will feature sponsored ads, a platform that sees over 465 million users a month, the first thing on a seller’s mind is how much it will cost them to display their ads outside Amazon.
Luckily, Amazon advertisers using sponsored products won’t incur any additional costs or take any action for their ads to pop up on these external sites. Amazon’s algorithm will automatically display your ads to a user who’ll most likely be interested in the product and have it link back to your Amazon product page with one click.
The factors to determine which site your ad will be shown are based on relevant page context, the campaign itself, and the cost-per-click (CPC) parameters that you established when setting up the ad. Sellers can view the success (or failure) of a campaign in the Sponsored Products placement report which can be downloaded in the report center.
If you do start using sponsored ads, make sure you first meet the following criteria:
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- Item must be in stock
- Have some of Amazon’s trusted shopping attributes like Prime delivery promise, ratings, and accurate pricing information.
Why Is Amazon Finally Showing Sponsored Ads Outside Its Platform?
In an announcement on its website, Amazon Ads Products and Technology senior vice president Colleen Aubrey says that the move was made to help customers discover products they may love. She added that this is only one small step in their efforts, citing that starting small will help them adjust and expand in the future to enable a more positive shopping experience.
The move can also be seen as another way Amazon continues to invest more in its advertising efforts. After all, the company brought in more than $10 billion in ad revenue in the second quarter of 2023 alone. A 22% increase from the same period in 2022.
Conclusion
Customers these days surf the web across different channels to shop for products, and only those with an efficient digital marketing strategy will reap the rewards.
As sellers, now is the best time to refine your ad strategy with the potential to reach a wider market well within reach. Martha Welsh, Chief Strategy Officer at Pinterest, recently told Search Engine Land that the new change has been something their users have wanted for weeks:
“Shopping is one of the top requests we receive from our users. More than 50% of them say they come to Pinterest to shop. We’re in the early stages of testing right now and seeing encouraging results.”
Another initiative Amazon has started to entice users who were scrolling through other platforms to make a purchase is Buy with Prime— a way US based Prime members can shop directly from a brand’s website while still getting the benefits of being a Prime member.
