papy
April 11, 2025, 2:17pm
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Prices for sponsored products ads — pay-per-click ads that promote individual product listings in Amazon search results — were 48% higher in the first quarter of 2025 than in the first quarter of 2019. …Meanwhile, prices for Google’s paid search ads have risen 41%, Instagram’s ads have climbed 37%, and Facebook’s ad costs have fallen 24% over the same period.
Amid a myriad of economic challenges, Amazon sellers are reconsidering how and where they spend their advertising dollars.
Est. reading time: 6 minutes
Newsletter summary of the article:
With rising fees and new tariffs squeezing margins, Amazon sellers are rehauling their marketing playbooks, including how they spend their marketing dollars. Sponsored product ads — pay-per-click ads that promote individual product listings in Amazon search results — are now 48% more expensive than they were in 2019, making efficiency the new name of the game. While Amazon advertising is still crucial, brands are diversifying their approach, putting more focus on social media campaigns, influencer gifting, social commerce and driving traffic from off-platform channels.
Although brands are still investing in Amazon’s ad system, sellers are being more strategic. For example, they’re raising prices by 5-7% and discounting less aggressively — even around big tentpole events like Prime Day — and discontinuing lower-margin products to stay profitable, Jared Mason, vp of brand services at the e-commerce accelerator Pattern, told Modern Retail. Some brands are even considering going dark on Amazon.
AI is also shifting how brands approach advertising on Amazon. Agencies are using ChatGPT to fine-tune product descriptions for Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, Rufus, in an effort to improve visibility. Meanwhile, other brands are leaning into creator marketing, including upping investments in Amazon’s Creator Connections program, as brands see better returns from affiliate partnerships than traditional paid ads.
“It’s actually cheaper than advertising [because] all you’re funding is a revenue-share agreement,” Katya Constantine, founder of ad agency Digishopgirl Media, said regarding affiliate sales.
Ultimately, Amazon ads aren’t disappearing, but the playbook is certainly changing, as brands think about smarter, not increased, spending.
Tatiana Pile Managing editor
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lake
April 14, 2025, 1:52am
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Climbing costs for promotion and sponsored ads were evident well before these tariffs.
Too many sellers of too many similar or identical items on all of the major internet marketplaces have led to costs which are insane.
Numbers of Facebook ads of all types have been in decline, for several quarters.
Attention is coming from many sources to areas which they had ignored and with no relevant context, they are attributing the phenomena to the tariffs.
Too many sellers are wasting their advertising dollars, because they are one of the few things they think they can understand and control.
On Ebay, the recommended promotional bid is greater than the Final Value Fee in some categories. And has been for more than the last few months.
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