Overview

Amazon Advertising, formerly known as Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), provides sellers with a paid‑media platform that places product listings directly in front of shoppers who are actively searching on Amazon. The suite launched to help brands cut through the marketplace’s crowded catalog, enabling faster traffic, higher sales velocity, and improved organic rankings. Sellers who rely solely on organic search risk slow growth, making an understanding of Amazon’s ad tools essential for competitive performance.

Key Points

• Ad formats cover the buying journey — Sponsored Products target shoppers ready to purchase, while Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display reach users in the awareness and consideration phases, expanding reach across the funnel.
• Pay‑per‑click model controls spend — Advertisers are charged only when a shopper clicks an ad, allowing budgets to be scaled up or down based on real‑time performance.
• Multiple targeting options — Campaigns can be built around exact keywords, broad‑match terms, or competitor ASINs, giving sellers the ability to hone in on the most relevant audience.
• Automatic vs. manual targeting — Automatic campaigns let Amazon’s algorithm select keywords on the seller’s behalf, whereas manual campaigns provide full control over bids, match types, and negative keywords.
• Real‑time reporting dashboards — Metrics such as impressions, click‑through rate (CTR), and Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS) are displayed instantly, enabling rapid adjustments to improve ROI.
• Inventory‑aware ad pausing — When stock levels dip below a preset threshold, Amazon automatically pauses the associated ads, preventing spend on out‑of‑stock items and protecting seller performance metrics.

How Amazon Advertising Works

1. Create a campaign — The seller signs into the Amazon Advertising console, selects an ad type (e.g., Sponsored Products), and defines a daily budget. Example: A vendor of reusable water bottles sets a $20‑per‑day budget to promote a new 32‑oz model.
2. — The seller chooses automatic targeting, where Amazon matches the ad to relevant search terms, or manual targeting, where specific keywords or competitor ASINs are entered.