Amazon resumes Google Shopping advertising after month-long test

Amazon has resumed its Google Shopping advertising campaigns on August 25, 2025, exactly one month after the e-commerce giant withdrew completely from Google's advertising platform. The return affects all international domains while the United States market remains excluded from the reactivation, according to industry analysts tracking the unprecedented move.

Mike Ryan, Head of Ecommerce Insights at Smarter Ecommerce, confirmed the resumption through multiple data sources. "Amazon started spending on Google Shopping again. This is exactly one month after they turned off ads, which lends credibility to the theory that it was a marketing test," Ryan posted on social media platform X on August 25, 2025. "All international domains have been reactivated but they are still NOT advertising in the US."

The timing precision suggests Amazon's withdrawal between July 21-23, 2025, represented a calculated experiment rather than an operational issue. The company's median Shopping ad impression share had crashed from approximately 60% to 0% in the United States, 55% to 0% in the United Kingdom, and 38% to 0% in Germany during the 48-hour withdrawal period.

Strategic testing behind withdrawal timing

Industry observers noted Amazon had already reduced its Google Shopping spend by 50% in the United States during May 2025, suggesting the July withdrawal followed months of strategic planning. The complete removal occurred during the post-Prime Day period, when Amazon typically evaluates advertising efficiency across external platforms.

The withdrawal created immediate opportunities for competitors in Google's advertising auction system, with lower cost-per-click rates and higher click-through rates benefiting remaining advertisers. However, impression share gains primarily flowed to other large retailers rather than smaller businesses, according to market analysis.

Ryan emphasized the technical complexity of Amazon's scale when commenting on the rapid return. "It's seriously staggering how fast Amazon returned. You can't just 'turn on' spend at this scale. I strongly suspect Google engineers were involved on the back end," he observed, noting the coordination required for such massive advertising operations.

International markets prioritized over US

The selective reactivation strategy reveals Amazon's differentiated approach across geographic markets. While international domains including the UK, Germany, Japan, and other territories have resumed Google Shopping campaigns, the United States market remains absent from Amazon's advertising presence on the platform.

This geographic selectivity aligns with Amazon's broader international expansion strategy, where Google Shopping campaigns support market penetration in regions where Amazon's direct search dominance may be less established compared to its home market.

Digital marketing analyst David Kyle had reported complications beyond paid advertising removal during the July withdrawal, noting difficulties locating Amazon products even in Google's free listings. "Have they completely disconnected Merchant Center altogether? I can't get them to show up for anything in Free Listings," Kyle documented through social media at the time.

Testing incrementality and margin optimization

The month-long experiment served multiple strategic purposes for Amazon's advertising operations. First, it functioned as an incrementality stress test, similar to Amazon's 2020 experiment designed to determine which traffic channels require paid search investment for maintaining sales volume.

Second, the withdrawal represented a post-Prime Day detox strategy, eliminating external advertising spend while maintaining pristine return on advertising spend metrics during back-to-school demand periods when Amazon evaluates quarterly performance.

Third, the move constituted a margin optimization analysis. By eliminating payments to Google, Amazon could measure the impact of keeping customer acquisition costs internal while directing shoppers exclusively to its own platform through organic search and direct navigation.

Broader search competition implications

The timing coincides with significant developments in Google's advertising ecosystem that may have influenced Amazon's testing strategy. Google updated its auction mechanics in October 2024, eliminating Performance Max campaign priority over Standard Shopping campaigns. These changes altered how different campaign types compete for the same search queries during peak shopping seasons.

Amazon's withdrawal also reflects the company's broader strategy in search competition. With Rufus AI assistant and generative search answers expanding globally, Amazon seeks full-funnel customer control before Google's automated advertising solutions further penetrate e-commerce territory.

The experimental nature of the withdrawal suggests Amazon was measuring negotiation leverage, potentially pressuring Google to reduce advertising fees through the demonstration of substantial advertising spend withdrawal estimated at hundreds of millions of euros globally.

Technical coordination challenges

The rapid reactivation highlighted the technical coordination required for advertising operations at Amazon's scale. Industry professionals noted that managing campaigns across dozens of international markets while maintaining performance optimization requires sophisticated automation and likely direct coordination between Amazon and Google engineering teams.

"You don't think Amazon sits there waiting on the Google Ads UI spinning wheel?" commented Gil Gildner in response to observations about the reactivation speed, referencing the manual limitations that would affect smaller advertisers attempting similar scale operations.

Ilya Bakanov from StubHub noted that automated systems enable rapid campaign management at scale: "Yes you can, as long as it's automated. Eg I could turn on and off all of StubHub's paid search with a click of a button," highlighting how enterprise-level advertising operations differ from manual campaign management.

Marketing community implications

The Amazon experiment provides crucial insights for the marketing community managing large-scale advertising operations. The precision timing suggests that major advertising decisions increasingly serve dual purposes: operational optimization and competitive intelligence gathering.

For advertising agencies and enterprise clients, Amazon's approach demonstrates the importance of incrementality testing across major advertising platforms. The company's ability to measure sales impact during complete platform withdrawal offers valuable data for understanding true advertising channel effectiveness.

The selective geographic reactivation also indicates sophisticated international advertising strategies where different markets may warrant different platform investment levels based on competitive dynamics and customer acquisition costs.

Future monitoring requirements

Amazon's return to Google Shopping creates new monitoring requirements for competitors and industry analysts. The exclusion of the United States market from the reactivation suggests potential ongoing negotiations or continued testing phases that could affect advertising auction dynamics.

The experiment's conclusion provides limited insight into long-term strategic direction, as Amazon could repeat similar testing cycles across different platforms or geographic markets. Marketing professionals should expect continued volatility in large advertiser presence across major advertising platforms as companies increasingly treat platform spending as strategic rather than purely operational decisions.

Timeline

• May 2025: Amazon reduces Google Shopping spend by 50% in United States
• July 21-23, 2025: Amazon withdraws completely from Google Shopping globally
• July 25, 2025: Industry analysts confirm complete Amazon withdrawal from Google Shopping
• August 25, 2025: Amazon resumes Google Shopping advertising for international domains only
• October 2024: Google eliminates Performance Max priority over Standard Shopping campaigns

Summary

Who: Amazon resumed Google Shopping advertising campaigns after a month-long global withdrawal, affecting competitors, advertisers, and industry analysts monitoring the e-commerce giant's advertising strategy.

What: Amazon reactivated Google Shopping campaigns for international markets while maintaining withdrawal from United States market, exactly one month after complete global advertising removal from the platform.

When: The reactivation occurred on August 25, 2025, precisely one month after the July 21-23, 2025, withdrawal period, suggesting deliberate testing timing rather than operational issues.

Where: International domains including UK, Germany, Japan, and other territories have resumed campaigns, while United States market remains excluded from Amazon's Google Shopping advertising presence.

Why: The month-long experiment served as an incrementality test, margin optimization analysis, and potential negotiation leverage with Google, while providing data on advertising channel effectiveness across different geographic markets.

PPC Land explains

Google Shopping: Google's advertising platform that displays product listings with images, prices, and merchant information directly within search results. The service enables retailers to showcase inventory across Google's search network, competing for visibility through both paid advertisements and free listings. Google Shopping campaigns utilize product feed data from Google Merchant Center to automatically generate ads that appear when users search for relevant products.

Performance Max: Google's automated campaign type that uses artificial intelligence to optimize advertising across all available Google properties including Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, and Maps. Performance Max campaigns require minimal manual configuration while leveraging machine learning to maximize conversions or conversion value based on advertiser goals. The platform has become central to Google's advertising strategy, with enhanced reporting and control features rolling out throughout 2025.

Impression share: The percentage of times an advertiser's ads appeared compared to the total number of opportunities where ads could have been shown for relevant search queries. Amazon's impression share dropped from approximately 60% to 0% in major markets during the withdrawal period, representing a complete elimination of advertising presence. Impression share metrics provide crucial insights into competitive positioning and market coverage effectiveness.

Incrementality testing: A measurement methodology that determines the true impact of advertising channels by comparing performance during active campaigns versus periods without advertising spend. Amazon's month-long withdrawal functioned as an incrementality test to measure which sales volume genuinely requires paid search investment versus organic customer acquisition. This testing approach helps optimize advertising budgets by identifying truly incremental versus baseline sales performance.

Cost-per-click (CPC): The amount advertisers pay each time users click on their advertisements, representing a fundamental pricing mechanism in digital advertising auctions. Amazon's withdrawal created opportunities for competitors to benefit from lower CPCs as auction competition decreased across Google Shopping campaigns. CPC fluctuations directly impact advertising profitability and budget allocation decisions for retailers competing in search advertising.

International domains: Amazon's various country-specific websites and advertising operations across global markets including the UK, Germany, Japan, and other territories outside the United States. The selective reactivation of international domains while excluding the US market suggests differentiated advertising strategies based on regional competitive dynamics and customer acquisition costs. This geographic approach reflects sophisticated international advertising optimization.

Advertising auction: Google's real-time bidding system that determines which advertisements appear for specific search queries based on bid amounts, ad quality, and relevance factors. Amazon's presence or absence significantly affects auction dynamics, influencing pricing and competition levels for other advertisers. The auction system balances advertiser competition with user experience through sophisticated algorithms that evaluate multiple performance signals.

Market withdrawal: The strategic decision to completely eliminate advertising presence from specific platforms or geographic regions, as demonstrated by Amazon's coordinated removal from Google Shopping. Market withdrawal can serve testing purposes, negotiation leverage, or cost optimization strategies for large advertisers. The approach requires careful coordination to maintain business operations while gathering competitive intelligence.

Return on advertising spend (ROAS): A performance metric calculating revenue generated per dollar invested in advertising campaigns, typically expressed as a ratio or percentage. Amazon's post-Prime Day withdrawal timing suggests optimization of ROAS metrics during quarterly performance evaluation periods. ROAS measurement becomes crucial for determining platform effectiveness and budget allocation across multiple advertising channels.

Customer acquisition cost: The total expense required to acquire new customers through various marketing channels, including paid advertising, organic efforts, and promotional activities. Amazon's withdrawal experiment enabled measurement of customer acquisition costs when eliminating Google Shopping investment while maintaining other traffic sources. Understanding true acquisition costs helps optimize marketing mix and platform investment strategies.