Google & Meta Ads for Amazon Sellers
by Character Strategy
Amazon notices where your sales come from. Orders driven by external traffic count toward the same sales velocity that powers organic rank, and for Brand Registered sellers, Amazon pays a Brand Referral Bonus, averaging around 10% of qualifying sales, for bringing shoppers in from outside. That makes external traffic a rare triple play: the sale itself, the ranking signal, and a rebate that quietly improves your margin on every referred order.
We build Google and Meta campaigns specifically for Amazon sellers, which is a different discipline from standard e-commerce advertising. Google Search and Shopping capture buyers actively looking for products like yours and route them to your listing, where Amazon's conversion machinery, Prime, reviews, one-click checkout, does what it does best. Meta creates discovery demand for products that sell on sight. Amazon Attribution ties the spend to the sales, within limits we'll be straight with you about, because measurement on Amazon has real constraints that anyone selling you this service should acknowledge upfront.
Challenges facing Amazon Seller advertisers.
Sending traffic to Amazon blind
Without Amazon Attribution tags on every campaign, external clicks vanish into Amazon with no way to connect spend to sales. Plenty of sellers run Google traffic for months this way.
Stacked fees squeezing the math
Amazon's referral fee already takes its cut of each sale. Adding ad costs on top means the margin math has to work across both platforms, and most sellers never actually run it.
Cold traffic converting below Amazon norms
Shoppers arriving from Google or Meta convert below Amazon's internal traffic because they weren't in marketplace mode. Campaigns priced against internal conversion rates disappoint.
How we solve these problems.
Sales velocity that lifts organic rank
External orders feed the same velocity signals as internal ones. We target the keywords and audiences most likely to convert, compounding paid sales into organic position.
Brand Referral Bonus capture
We structure every campaign with proper attribution tagging so qualifying external sales earn the bonus, effectively cutting your acquisition cost on each referred order.
Attribution honestly implemented
We set up Amazon Attribution across campaigns and ad groups, report within its real limits, and never claim measurement precision the platform can't actually provide.
Amazon listing or your own site: where should the traffic land?
It's the first strategic question for any seller running external ads, and the honest answer depends on what you're optimizing for. Send traffic to Amazon and you get the marketplace's conversion advantages: Prime trust, accumulated reviews, frictionless checkout. Cold traffic converts better on a strong Amazon listing than on most independent stores. You also collect the ranking benefit, since those orders feed sales velocity, and the Brand Referral Bonus takes some sting out of the referral fee. What you give up is the customer: no email address, no remarketing audience, no repeat-purchase relationship. Amazon's customer stays Amazon's.
Send traffic to your own site and the trade flips: full margin, full customer data, full LTV potential, but a lower conversion rate and zero help for your Amazon flywheel. In practice we often run this as a portfolio rather than a binary. Product launches and rank pushes route external traffic to Amazon, where velocity matters most. Established products with repeat-purchase potential earn own-site traffic that builds the brand asset. Where both channels exist, the split becomes a math problem: net margin per order on each path, times conversion rate, plus the strategic value of the customer data.
The Brand Referral Bonus math
The Brand Referral Bonus is Amazon's way of paying you to do its customer acquisition. Sellers enrolled in Brand Registry earn a bonus averaging around 10% of the sales price on qualifying products bought by shoppers they referred from outside Amazon, credited against future referral fees. The mechanism runs through Amazon Attribution: tagged links are how Amazon knows the sale came from your Google or Meta campaign rather than its own search results.
The practical effect is a discount on your cost per acquisition. If the bonus returns roughly a tenth of the sale price on referred orders, a campaign that looked marginal on raw numbers can clear the bar comfortably, and a campaign that was working already gets margin headroom to scale. We bake the bonus into the target math from day one rather than treating it as a pleasant surprise, and we make sure every external campaign runs tagged links, because untagged traffic earns nothing regardless of how many sales it drives.
What you can and can't measure with Amazon Attribution
Amazon Attribution is the measurement backbone for external traffic, and it's genuinely useful: tagged links at the campaign, ad group, or keyword level report clicks, detail page views, add-to-carts, and purchases inside a 14-day window. That's enough to know which campaigns and keywords produce Amazon sales and roughly what they cost. For a channel that used to be a complete black hole, it's real progress.
It's also well short of what advertisers are used to. Reporting lags rather than streaming in real time. The conversion data doesn't flow back into Google's smart bidding automatically, so campaigns can't optimize on actual purchase signals the way your own-site campaigns do; bidding runs on proxies and manual judgment. View-through effects, shoppers who saw an ad, didn't click, and bought later, go largely uncounted, and the halo of improved organic rank driven by your paid velocity is invisible to any attribution tag. Our read: measure what's measurable, price in the unmeasured upside conservatively, and judge the program on total account trajectory, organic rank included, not on tagged conversions alone.
Common questions about amazon seller advertising.
Yes. Google permits ads landing on Amazon product pages, and plenty of sellers run Search campaigns straight to their listings. The operational requirements are what most sellers miss: use Amazon Attribution tags as your final URLs so sales get tracked and Brand Referral Bonus credit accrues, and accept that Google's smart bidding can't see Amazon conversions natively, so campaigns need proxy signals and closer manual management. Done properly, it works. Done without tags, you're spending blind and forfeiting the bonus.
Amazon states the bonus averages 10% of the sales price of qualifying products, with the exact rate varying by category. It's credited against your referral fees rather than paid as cash, which amounts to the same margin improvement. Eligibility requires Brand Registry enrollment and properly tagged external traffic through Amazon Attribution. On a product with typical marketplace margins, recovering roughly a tenth of the sale price on every externally referred order meaningfully changes what you can afford to pay for a click.
The evidence from sellers and practitioners points that way: Amazon's ranking algorithm weighs sales velocity heavily, and orders from external traffic feed the same velocity as internal ones. Many sellers report rank improvements on target keywords after sustained external campaigns, and launch strategies increasingly include external traffic for exactly this reason. Amazon doesn't publish its algorithm, so nobody outside can quantify the effect precisely, and we won't pretend to. We treat rank lift as a real but unmeasured bonus on top of the tracked sales.
Optimize for rank and conversion, send it to Amazon: the listing converts cold traffic better, orders build velocity, and the Brand Referral Bonus offsets fees. Optimize for customer ownership, send it to your site: full margin, email capture, and repeat-purchase economics, at a lower conversion rate. For most brands selling in both places, we split by objective, launches and rank pushes go to Amazon, evergreen brand-building goes to the site, and revisit the split as products mature. The wrong answer is choosing by default instead of by math.
Amazon Attribution, available to Brand Registered sellers, is the mechanism. You generate tagged links for each campaign or ad group, use them as your ad destinations, and Amazon reports clicks, detail page views, add-to-carts, and purchases within a 14-day window. Set granularity deliberately: separate tags per ad group or keyword theme give you data you can actually optimize on. Know the limits too: reporting lags, conversions don't feed Google's bidding automatically, and view-through purchases mostly go uncounted. Directionally reliable, forensically imperfect.
They can, with the right structure for the product. Direct Meta-to-listing traffic suits impulse-friendly, visually demonstrable products with strong reviews, tagged through Amazon Attribution so the bonus and tracking apply. Many sellers get better economics from a two-step: a landing page that captures an email before forwarding to Amazon, converting anonymous marketplace buyers into a contactable audience. It converts fewer immediately but builds an asset Amazon never gives you. We choose the route by margin, price point, and how much the brand values owning the customer.
Real results in e-commerce.
Browse our e-commerce case studies to see what we can do.
1000+ Conversions in Month One
Digital Marketplace Startup
Challenge
A new digital marketplace needed to prove traction to investors. They had zero brand awareness and a tight timeline to hit conversion targets.
1K+
First Month Conversions
$6.93
Cost Per Conversion
5.2x
ROAS
Results
- Over 1,000 conversions in the first month
- Achieved a $6.93 cost per conversion
- Provided investor-ready performance dashboards
“Over 1000 conversions the first month at a $6.93 CPA. Unbelievable efficiency for a new launch.”
- Rachel S., CEO, Digital Marketplace
Google Shopping ROAS Hits 8.4x
Premium Home Goods Brand
Challenge
A direct-to-consumer home goods brand had stagnant Shopping campaigns with a 2.1x ROAS. They needed to scale profitably without diluting margins.
8.4x
ROAS
up from 2.1x
+210%
Revenue Growth
+35%
CTR Improvement
Results
- ROAS improved from 2.1x to 8.4x over 4 months
- Revenue increased 210% while spend only increased 60%
- Product feed optimization lifted click-through rate by 35%
Seasonal Campaign Drives Record Q4
Specialty Gift Retailer
Challenge
A gift retailer generated 60% of annual revenue in Q4 but had never run a structured seasonal campaign. Previous years saw wasted spend and stockout issues.
+85%
Q4 Revenue
vs prior year
6.7x
BFCM ROAS
0
Stockouts
Results
- Q4 revenue exceeded previous year by 85%
- Black Friday/Cyber Monday ROAS hit 6.7x
- Zero stockout incidents thanks to demand forecasting alignment
Apparel Brand ROAS Climbs from 2.1 to 3.4
DTC Apparel Brand
Challenge
A mid-market apparel brand was bleeding spend on broad discovery traffic. ROAS sat at 2.1 with no clear path to improvement.
3.4x
ROAS
from 2.1x
$200K
Monthly Revenue
+60%
+62%
ROI Improvement
Results
- ROAS climbed from 2.1 to 3.4 without increasing spend
- Revenue increased while waste dropped
- Brand scaled without relying on constant creative refreshes
Supplements Brand CPA Down 35%
DTC Supplements Brand
Challenge
A supplements brand in a competitive category needed to lower acquisition costs without sacrificing volume on the same budget.
$48
CPA
-35%
4.8x
ROAS
from 4.0x
$190K
Monthly Revenue
Results
- CPA dropped 20-40% while total sales increased
- Brand stopped paying for education traffic
- Spend focused on buyers ready to convert
Furniture Brand Scales 10x, Holds 7x ROAS
High-AOV Furniture Retailer
Challenge
A high-AOV furniture retailer needed to scale spend aggressively without destroying efficiency, avoiding the common scale cliff seen in furniture e-commerce.
$210K
Monthly Revenue
from $20K
7.0x
ROAS
held
10x
Spend Scaled
Results
- Spend scaled 10x in four months while holding 7x ROAS
- Profitability remained intact throughout scaling
- Brand avoided the common scale cliff
“They took us from $3K to $30K in spend and revenue followed. We never thought we could scale that fast without losing margin.”
- Amanda P., Founder & CEO
Home Decor Shopping Revenue Up 60%
Home Decor Store
Challenge
A home decor store with 400+ SKUs needed to unlock growth from Google Shopping without increasing spend. The product feed was messy and low-margin items ate budget.
4.6x
ROAS
from 3.2x
+60%
Shopping Revenue
400+
SKUs Optimized
Results
- Shopping revenue increased 40-80% with the same budget
- More spend flowed to profitable products
- Overall account efficiency improved
Electronics Revenue Doubles, ROAS Hits 3.2
Electronics Retailer
Challenge
PMAX was over-spending on low-intent traffic in thin-margin categories. Revenue was stuck at $180K/month with a 1.8x ROAS.
3.2x
ROAS
from 1.8x
$420K
Monthly Revenue
+133%
$115K
Monthly Spend
Results
- ROAS rose from 1.8 to 3.2 within 90 days
- Revenue more than doubled to $420K/month
- Waste fell and scaling became controllable
Outdoor Gear Revenue Grows 60% YoY
Outdoor Gear E-commerce Brand
Challenge
An outdoor gear brand needed year-over-year growth without leaning on constant promotions. How-to and hobby-research traffic was eating budget.
$670K
Annual Revenue
+60% YoY
4.4x
ROAS
from 3.8x
$135
AOV
Results
- Google Ads revenue grew 60% year-over-year
- ROAS improved from 3.8 to 4.4
- Steadier demand outside peak weekends
Skincare Brand Scales 5x, Holds 4.5x ROAS
DTC Skincare Brand
Challenge
A skincare brand with repeat-purchase economics needed to scale spend 5x without ROAS collapse in a crowded category.
$225K
Monthly Revenue
from $45K
4.5x
ROAS
held
$25
CPA
held
Results
- Spend scaled from $10K to $50K/month while maintaining 4.5x ROAS
- Revenue grew predictably from $45K to $225K/month
- Acquisition costs stayed stable enabling inventory investment
“We went from $10K to $50K in spend and our ROAS never dipped. That gave us the confidence to invest in inventory and retention.”
- Lisa M., Head of Growth
Accessories Brand ROAS Jumps from 2x to 5x
DTC Accessories Brand
Challenge
A DTC accessories brand was relying on broad traffic with a 2.0x ROAS. Profitability was declining and scaling felt impossible.
5.0x
ROAS
from 2.0x
$150K
Monthly Revenue
+150%
$20
CPA
-38%
Results
- ROAS increased from 2.0 to 5.0 and revenue doubled
- CPA dropped from $32 to $18-22
- Scaling became repeatable with concentrated buyer spend
Fitness Equipment Revenue Up 55%
Fitness Equipment Brand
Challenge
A high-ticket fitness equipment brand needed to increase revenue while protecting margin. Low-ticket accessories were inflating ROAS but not driving profit.
$90K
Monthly Revenue
+55%
4.5x
ROAS
from 3.6x
$750
AOV
Results
- Revenue increased 40-70% with better AOV mix
- ROAS improved from 3.6 to 4.5
- Profit per order increased without relying on constant sales
Specialty Retailer PMAX ROAS Hits 5.1
Specialty Retailer
Challenge
PMAX was over-indexing on low-intent queries for a specialty retailer with 800-1,500 SKUs. The algorithm was spending freely without profitable returns.
5.1x
ROAS
from 3.0x
$300K
Monthly Revenue
+82%
$58K
Monthly Spend
Results
- ROAS improved from 3.0 to 5.1 within eight weeks
- Revenue increased while wasted spend decreased
- PMAX became a predictable scale lever
Gifting Brand Scales 4x, CPA Holds Steady
DTC Gifts Brand
Challenge
A gifting brand needed to scale through seasonal demand without CPA drifting upward. Ideas and DIY searches were eating budget without converting.
$35K
Monthly Revenue
+60%
$20
CPA
held
4x
Spend Scaled
Results
- Spend scaled 4x while CPA stayed steady at $18-22
- Total sales grew 60%
- Account stayed stable before, during, and after seasonal spikes
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