By: Robyn Johnson, Co-founder of Marketplace Blueprint
Are you struggling to make your Amazon ads profitable, even when your strategy seems sound? The Amazon marketplace looks like a standard e-commerce platform, but it operates on its own unique, often counter-intuitive, rules.
Amazon is a backwards, upside down place. It’s less like a traditional search engine and more like a fiercely capitalistic machine focused almost entirely on conversions. This fundamental difference means that factors you wouldn't worry about on Google or Meta can secretly sabotage your Amazon advertising budget and organic rankings.
If your ads are under-performing, it might not be your keywords—it could be your inventory, your reseller agreements, or even your pricing on other retail sites. In this article, we’ll dive into the unexpected factors that impact your Amazon advertising and how to proactively address them.
Why the Buy Box is the most crucial element for running successful ads.
The surprising way your inventory status impacts ad delivery and customer experience.
How resellers and your pricing on other websites can shut down your ads.
Why a hyper-focused advertising budget is more effective than spreading it thin.
The vital importance of checking the Voice of the Customer (VOC) to prevent restrictions.
Amazon's algorithm is the most capitalistic search engine on Earth. Its primary goal is to make sales, and it ranks products based on their potential to convert. This is why ads impact organic ranking on Amazon in a way they don't on traditional search engines.
Your strategic focus should be on creating a virtuous cycle:
Start with a fantastic, SEO-optimized listing.
Use advertising and coupons to drive high-converting traffic.
These high conversions lead to better organic rank for those keywords.
Higher organic rank and sales volume lead to more reviews.
More reviews optimize the listing further, restarting the cycle.
The Key Strategy: Don't spread a small budget across many keywords or products just for incremental sales. Focus your advertising budget on targets that will actually lead to organic rank for keywords that are specific and have a high likelihood of conversion.
The Buy Box isn't just a symbol of success—it's a requirement for certain ad types. If you don't own the Buy Box, your ads will simply not run, wasting potential ad spend and stopping your momentum.
Sponsored Products and Sponsored Display ads will only run when you have the Buy Box. If you run out of stock, these ads will automatically stop, which is helpful.
Sponsored Brands ads may still run even if a reseller is selling the product or if your inventory is out of stock. This can be tricky, especially with product variations.
The Variation Trap: If you're selling a product that comes in red, blue, and green, and you're selling the red and blue, but a reseller is selling the green, customers can click your ad and end up buying the reseller’s item or another variation. To be safe, ensure you have the Buy Box on all variations within that single product detail page.
Amazon customers, as the old adage goes, are "spoiled brats"—they expect fast delivery. This expectation makes inventory issues a silent killer of ad performance.
Amazon might start showing your ads for Sponsored Products once inventory is on the way to their warehouse, not just when it’s fully received and available.
If a customer sees an extended delivery time (say, a week out), they are highly unlikely to convert. This tanks your ad performance and can negatively affect the keywords you're targeting.
The Inventory Rule: As a proactive measure, turn your ads off when you have less than two weeks of inventory left. Only turn them back on once the inventory is fully received and available to customers, not just when it's sitting in a warehouse.
Two factors outside of your Amazon Seller Central account can cause you to lose the Buy Box and, consequently, your ability to run ads:
Resellers & Distribution
If you sell to brick-and-mortar stores or wholesale and have resellers competing with you on Amazon, they may share the Buy Box or undercut your price. This requires a specific strategy, especially if you have high-volume distributors.
Price Oppressions (External Price Checks)
Amazon actively monitors your product pricing across major external sites like Walmart, Lowe's, and Home Depot. If Amazon sees a better price for your product on a competing retailer's site, it can take away your Buy Box. This hurts your conversion rate and prevents you from running ads.
The Proactive Solution: Consider creating Amazon-only SKUs or SKUs that are materially different from the ones sold in retail. This helps ensure price consistency and allows you to maintain the Buy Box and keep your ads running.
Welcome to Amazon's "compliance era." A tiny violation or missed document can result in your ads or your entire listing being shut down.
Compliance Restrictions: If you have a missing document (even for obscure international verification like Brazil), or a listing policy violation, your product could be restricted. For example, if you sell an antimicrobial sock, you can’t use terms like "deters mold" without an EPA registration number. Knowing Amazon's policies is vital to keeping your products alive.
Voice of the Customer (VOC): This metric tracks customer complaints, returns, and issues. If you are not checking your VOC at least twice per week, you are missing a critical opportunity. The VOC is the early warning system for a product that is heading toward an ASIN restriction (where Amazon shuts down the listing). By proactively checking VOC and updating your listing—even if you think the customer complaints are invalid—you can save thousands of dollars in lost sales.
Amazon is a unique marketplace, and the strategies that work elsewhere don't always apply. By focusing on the core, conversion-driven metrics and proactively managing the external factors that influence the Buy Box and inventory, you can conquer the platform’s complexities and drive sustained ad success.
Robyn Johnson is the co-founder of Marketplace Blueprint, a digital agency that specializes in listing optimization and advertising on Amazon.
You can find her on LinkedIn