Google Ads

Verdict: the external traffic source Amazon rewards most, worth running the moment you have a listing that converts and an attribution link to measure it.

What it does

Google Ads puts your product in front of people searching Google, on Shopping results, YouTube, and the display network. For an Amazon seller there are two plays. The first sends Google search traffic straight to your Amazon listing through an Amazon Attribution link: Amazon sees the sale as external traffic, pays the Brand Referral Bonus (a rebate of roughly 10% of the sale) and treats the off-Amazon demand as a ranking signal. The second sends Shopping and search traffic to your own store, where the margin is better and the customer is yours.

Smart Bidding (Google’s automated bid strategies) handles most of the bid management now; more than four in five advertisers use it, and for a seller the practical setup is a Target ROAS strategy with a tight keyword set rather than hand-tuned bids.

Pricing (checked 20 October 2026)

• No subscription, no setup fee, no minimum spend. You pay per click (or per conversion on some strategies), capped by the daily budget you set.
• Cost per click is set by auction and varies by keyword; branded and long-tail product terms are usually cheapest.
• New-advertiser credit (US, as of today): spend $500, $1,500, or $3,000 within the first 60 days to unlock a matching tier of ad credit. The offer changes by region and over time; the sign-up page shows the current amounts.

Budget for the test, not the click: a few hundred dollars over two weeks is enough to learn whether a listing converts on cold search traffic.

Who it is for

Brand-registered sellers with a listing that already converts on Amazon and a second product keyword set worth owning off-Amazon. The Brand Referral Bonus means an attributed Google click that sells can cost less than the equivalent Sponsored Products click once the rebate is counted.

Who should skip it

Sellers whose listing does not yet convert on Amazon search; cold Google traffic converts worse, not better, and will burn the budget proving it. Also skip it until Brand Registry and Amazon Attribution are set up, because without the attribution link you cannot see what the spend did.

Our stack

Google Ads is not something we claim as a store tool here. It is on the site because “should I send Google traffic to Amazon” is one of the most common questions from sellers who have the listing working, and the honest answer is yes, with attribution, and with a small budget first.

The honest caveats

Google’s interface pushes Performance Max and broad match at every turn; both spend fast and report vaguely. Keep campaigns to exact and phrase match on terms you have already proven on Amazon. And attribution is lossy: Amazon’s report undercounts, so judge the channel on the trend, not a single week.

Bottom line

Attribution link first, one search campaign on proven keywords, a small daily budget, and the Brand Referral Bonus as the yardstick. No affiliate link; vendor link below.

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