Amazon Retiring Product Ads, Offers New Text Ads As Alternative
Amazon has notified its advertisers that the popular Product Ads will be discontinued on October 31.
Advertisers that use Amazon Product Ads will soon have to find other ways to get their items in front of Amazon shoppers.
The company has started notifying advertisers that Product Ads will be shut down as of October 31. Amazon is simultaneously introducing a new ad option called Amazon Text Ads, and the email sent to advertisers suggests that as one of a couple of alternatives.
The email doesn’t give any specifics about why Amazon is shutting down Product Ads. We’ve reached out to the company for more details but have yet to receive a reply. Here’s the full text of that email, which went out this morning.
Product Ads was a popular tool for online retailers. In a recent ChannelAdvisor survey, 35 percent of respondents said Amazon Product Ads and Sponsored Links were the digital marketing channel that offered the best return on investment.
Product Ads often appeared on an Amazon product detail page under the heading “Product Ads from External Websites.” It offered online retailers that don’t sell directly on Amazon a way to advertise products and direct shoppers to their own websites.
As I type this, the new Amazon Text Ads product isn’t listed on the main Amazon Advertising website. Amazon’s email says it’s a beta product only available to US advertisers, including all who were using Product Ads.
The links at the bottom of Amazon’s email today point to a Seller Central help page with a few more details. Kirk Williams tweeted this screenshot of that help page today.
(Thanks to David Rekuc for the tip and email screenshot.)
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.
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