Amazon CPC surges 45%! Sellers: Losing so much that they doubt their lives!

Speaking of advertising

Sellers have a love-hate relationship

It's definitely not okay not to vote

Investing is too expensive...

Previously, a seller had envisioned launching ten products, with each product selling one order per day, earning $5 per order, which would be $50 per day. This attracted a number of sellers to share their experiences:

"One product gets one order a day, so advertising costs a lot of money"

"I make five dollars per order, and I spend every penny on advertising."

"If I don't count the advertising fees, my listings' monthly income of over 10,000 yuan is nothing. Once the advertising fees are included, the loss is so great that it makes me question my life."

So what exactly are Amazon’s ads selling?

Some people say it is clicks, which is actually true, because the ads are paid on a CPC basis and customers only pay when they click on them. But I would say that the essence of CPC advertising is actually selling exposure.

Regarding the question of "what advertisements are selling", it will be much clearer if we look at it from the perspective of the platform.

Since the essence of the business is selling exposure, why don’t advertisers just pay based on the exposure?

This involves the game between advertisers and platforms. Sellers in the CPM format need to bear great risks because there are many irrelevant traffic displays, which will make advertisers feel very at a loss.

The most ideal form for sellers is CPA, but payment is made on a per-order basis. Only when an order is placed will payment be made. However, each seller’s product situation is different. In case the Listing is poorly done and the conversion rate is extremely low, too much traffic will be wasted, which makes the platform bear too much risk. Amazon naturally won’t do that, so find a balance and pay per click. This is why most e-commerce platforms now use CPC advertising for search ads.

What is the purpose of Amazon selling advertising traffic? Of course, it is to make money. Here comes a question: how can we maximize the benefits of the platform and earn more advertising fees? There are two main directions:

1. Increase the CPC cost per click.

As a commodity, the price of advertising traffic is determined by the supply and demand of the entire market, so Amazon has the motivation to create sufficient competition in the entire market. When the supply and demand of traffic changes, the CPC cost will naturally increase.

2. Improve the efficiency of converting exposure to clicks.

With the same amount of exposure, whoever has a higher ad click-through rate can make more money for Amazon. Amazon will also give your ad a higher quality score with a higher CTR, thereby obtaining a lower traffic cost. This can be regarded as an incentive mechanism, encouraging sellers to place ads with higher CTRs. Whoever has a higher CTR will have a lower CPC. Either you join this positive cycle, or you pay a more expensive CPC to buy this ad space.


In addition, a higher CTR usually corresponds to a higher accuracy of customer demand. After all, only a higher relevance to the customer's search needs can stimulate the customer's desire to click on the ad and increase the click-through rate.

Therefore, although CPC advertising is paid on a click basis, in essence, when we buy advertising space, we are actually buying exposure.