Amazon Just Vanished from Google Shopping

Amazon Just Disappeared from Google Shopping—Here’s What It Means for Your Ads

In this episode of Google Ads Unleashed, host Jeremy breaks down the shock exit of Amazon from Google Shopping and why it’s a golden opportunity for ecommerce advertisers. Learn how this move could lower your CPCs, boost your impression share, and open the door for niche players to win big. 

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Transcript

Hello and welcome back to Google Ads unleashed. Guys. Hope everyone is doing fabulously this Monday morning, and I come with amazing news. Well, this is amazing news for almost everyone, bar Jeff Bezos, and that is Amazon has disappeared from the auction. So I've actually noticed this last Tuesday, Wednesday. So we have one client who sells, sells travel pillows, actually. And there I really have to monitor the auction almost on a daily basis for one simple reason, and that is, we really see an impact from Amazon on Google, because Amazon's always been in the auction as well, especially on their own branded traffic. And their Amazon PPC agency is really good. They're very, very good, and they're positioning the product extremely well. And as a result, sometimes even when they've run sales, we had to use negative bid adjustments to, uh, sort of pull back, because they they dominate in the auction with essentially what is a better price, right? And that's why I've been looking at the auctions daily. And suddenly I have seen Amazon disappear. I've still seen him in search. I didn't see him shopping. I thought, Hmm, that's odd. And then I think it was on Thursday, suddenly on LinkedIn, I've seen other people talking about this, Amazon is not in the auction anymore. And then I start in my research, because early in spring, I've already heard that Amazon had actually sort of started to pull back in certain auctions, in fact. So I've done a lot of research, actually, before this, before this episode, to really look into into the data and what it all means. And I've already known that Amazon had drawn out of a lot of auctions already in late April 2025 but now it has actually disappeared completely. And that is why I want to bring this episode to you, because there's going to be some key consequences of this withdrawal, right? And also there's going to be some things that are going to be there going to be some huge implications going forward into this. So let's dive right in. So first of all, what happened? So Amazon's exit from Google Shopping is massive, right? Long it was one of the biggest competitors in Google, right? You probably know it yourself every single Dan search, no matter what it is in shopping or in search, was hampered by Amazon, you can even look look back over last half year data going to your auction insights. I bet every single pound I own that Amazon has been in one of your auction insights, at least in one of your ad accounts or in your own ad account, and then suddenly Amazon has disappeared in the last week. So I feel like this was a little bit foreshadowed, because there's been a lot of sort of talk, like I already teased it online, that clearly there had been some sort of retreat in the auction already as early as in April, but apparently by May, looking at Search Engine Land, for instance, or certain other resources, which I've seen, in fact, their search impression Share had plummeted to over 60% already across key retail categories, and this internationally as well, so not just in the US, but also in Australia, in in Africa, in all parts of Europe. So this is unprecedented. I don't know what it means and why they've done that, but I can only kind of surmise what it could mean. So there's been a brief intermezzo in 2020 when Amazon pulled back, and it coincided with a massive CPC drop throughout all auctions. But this can only mean a couple of things. Maybe their ad account has been blocked. I mean, that'd be really funny if that were to happen, but unlikely, but I could it can only mean one of two things. It can either mean a controlled geo holdout or some sort of controlled holdout test to see what impact does paws and Google Shopping have on the overall business. So almost like a classic incrementality tests on the most unbelievable levels. So it can either mean that or Amazon is actually planning something big. And I think it's more of the latter, because in the end, there's always been almost a natural cross pollution here, right? So. Amazon is its own big shopping platform, and in a way, is competing with Google Shopping, so it doesn't really make sense for it to launch ads across that platform. And as a result, of course, you'd think they probably want to invest into other areas of their business in order to grow their overall market share and to grow their own platform. But it has some massive consequences for us. And I think the four really key consequences are, first of all, lower competition and CPC relief. I've already said, in fact, during the pandemic, we've quickly seen it when Amazon dropped, CPCs went down, supposedly, q2. Data from this year has seen that there's been an overall sort of sluggish increase in CPCs. Usually, CPCs are almost linearly increasing. But this was not the case this year, and a lot of people are already putting this onto Amazon's pullback, I would anticipate that very likely, with Amazon disappearing completely, we will see some major consequences on CPC across the board, especially in certain industries. And I would imagine that especially for some people, where Amazon has been a real pain in the ass. This will be an effect, which will be almost a turnaround for their business. I also think we're going to be seeing higher impression share for other retailers. Unfortunately, I think this is a bit of a double edged sword. First of all, of course, it'll be a lot more, how shall I say commonly available now, as they are, of course, more there's more auction space, so smaller retailers will gain more impression share than before. But on the other hand, I have a feeling that there will be big players which will come into play, right? So people like sheen Timu have obviously increased their search impression share massively over the last couple of years, and I have a bad feeling that China will grab this opportunity and play a massive power grab here and increase their visibility in the auctions dramatically. So I predict whilst we have a smaller and quieter period. Now, in q3 I think into q4 there will be a huge step in from Chinese players to increase their impression share in auctions worldwide. I think the third thing that we'll have is, of course, better cost efficiency, right with CPCs plummeting, and, of course, conversion rates increasing, because Amazon has, of course, some of the best conversion rates in the world, given how unbelievably much social proof they have, how much of a shopping optimized platform, the whole thing we will see, of course, better our eye on our Google ads, which is why now is the best time to invest, and if you are struggling to make it work, or if you want to grow, then you have to talk to experts like us. So on this case, always reach out Jeremy young, Google ads on LinkedIn, or just drop me an email at Jeremy, at young and digital dot marketing. And I think the fourth is what I kind of already sort of said, there will be more opportunity now for niche sellers or for smaller sellers, who, of course, will have more, you know, room to capitalize on this. So what do I think which categories would gain the most? This is a very, very hard question to answer, but I feel like all of the categories which you would typically shop on Amazon will do the best. So something like consumer electronics, right? Anything that you would sort of typically buy from, I don't know, something like curries, for instance, right? Which is a UK electronics retail supermarket. This is kind of the stuff that will do probably really well now, because Amazon will go I think certain stuff, like home furnishings, or furniture in general, will do pretty well, because Amazon are pretty big players in that area. I would imagine that extremely likely apparel and beauty will do pretty well. I don't really think there's going to be massive increases or changes for industries which are more niche or which are more for instance, industrial or large scale B to B, or extremely specific, or where they don't really have any equivalent on Amazon, right? Example, we have one client who sells
a special type of home, home furnishing good which is very, very, very specific, and they only have niche a. The sellers on Amazon who Amazon used to advertise for, and now that is not the case anymore. So I really think that's gonna help the cause. I think, of course, there's gonna be other stuff, you know, office supplies, toys, which were very likely gonna do well, but with some, you know, like I said, some niches like B to B categories, I think the effect will be noticeably smaller. It's also interesting to see that this is like worldwide. So I checked auctions everywhere. I've checked auctions in Australia. I've checked all auctions in eastern Asia. I've checked us auctions, Canada, auctions, European auctions, almost everywhere, where we run in ads, and there is really no visibility anymore whatsoever, which is almost almost dramatic, right? So it's really crazy. Maybe some final thoughts on this. I think, of course, like I said, there's going to be a power grab. There's going to be a power struggle. I think now is, however, also the time to really take or take charge of this. Usually, q3 is a bad sort of time for ads anyway, as everything slows down, but maybe this is like the little boost that we needed to really make this time of the year as best as possible. I would also not bank that this is forever. It might be temporary. You never know. Like I said, Maybe it's like a massive holdout test, or maybe they're trying something else, or they're gonna decide that they made a horrendous error. You never know. And like I said, if there is anything more, I will be posting this online, please follow me. If you haven't already, you will find me on LinkedIn, as I mentioned, Jeremy and Google ads. You'll also find me on other common social media platforms, you can always message me at Jeremy, at younger digital, dot marketing, for one to one training, or for agency services. We have some spaces freeing up into September. We're fully booked out for August, and have absolutely no capacity anymore at the moment, so we can have a chat for September. Hopefully this has been quite an interesting thing. Have a look in your auctions. Thank you very much for listening, and I will catch you in the next episode next week. Have a good one. You.