Amazon Ads vs Google Ads: How Should an Ecommerce Seller Split Ad Budget?
One puts your product in front of a shopper who is already comparing options and ready to buy. The other captures search intent that can happen anywhere online, including on your own site. Most sellers who sell on Amazon need both, in different proportions depending on how much they sell off-Amazon.
This is not really an either-or decision for a brand that sells on Amazon. Amazon Ads (Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display) captures purchase-ready intent from shoppers already inside Amazon, actively comparing listings; Google Ads (Search, Shopping, Performance Max) captures broader search intent that can happen anywhere online, on your own DTC site, on comparison and review sites, or even pointed at your own Amazon listing. A seller with no DTC site and no ambition to build one can lean almost entirely on Amazon Ads. A seller who also sells direct, or wants a customer relationship and data Amazon does not share, needs Google Ads running alongside it, not instead of it.
Amazon Ads and Google Ads get compared because they are both auction-based platforms selling clicks against product-related searches, but they are not competing for the same moment in the buyer's journey. Amazon Ads places your product inside Amazon's own search results and product pages, in front of someone who has already decided to shop on Amazon and is actively comparing listings with a credit card effectively in hand. That proximity to purchase is why Sponsored Products ads convert at rates most other ad formats cannot match, and why the platform's reported ROAS often looks better on paper than it is once Amazon's referral and fulfillment fees are subtracted from the margin.
Google Ads works earlier and wider. A Google Search, Shopping, or Performance Max campaign can catch the same shopper before they have decided where to buy at all, whether that lands them on your own website, a retailer's site, a comparison page, or your Amazon listing itself. For a seller with a real DTC site, or one trying to build a brand relationship and first-party customer data that Amazon does not hand back, Google Ads is not optional. For a seller who is Amazon-only and has no near-term plan to build outside it, Amazon Ads is naturally where most of the budget belongs, since Google traffic would mostly end up redirected to the same Amazon listing anyway, paying twice for one sale.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | Amazon Ads | Google Ads |
|---|---|---|
| Targeting basis | Keywords and ASINs/categories inside Amazon; automatic targeting lets Amazon match your product to relevant searches and listings | Keywords, shopping feed data, and audience signals across the open web; Performance Max layers automation across formats |
| Core campaign types | Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, Amazon DSP for programmatic reach beyond Amazon | Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, Performance Max (automated, cross-channel) |
| Where the shopper lands | Always on an Amazon product or brand page, inside Amazon's own checkout and review ecosystem | Your own site, a comparison or review site, or an Amazon listing via a Search campaign using Amazon Attribution; Shopping and Performance Max cannot link directly to an Amazon listing |
| Primary funnel stage | Bottom of funnel, someone already shopping on Amazon and comparing specific listings | Spans the funnel, from someone still researching to someone one click from a specific purchase |
| Customer and data ownership | Amazon owns the customer relationship and most of the shopper data; sellers get limited attribution and no email list | You own the traffic, the on-site data, remarketing lists, and any customer relationship built on your own domain |
| Off-platform reach | Confined to Amazon and, via Amazon DSP, Amazon-owned ad inventory across some partner sites | Reaches anywhere Google serves ads or search results, independent of any single retailer |
| Fees stacked on top of ad spend | Amazon referral fees (roughly 8-15% of sale price by category) and FBA fulfillment fees apply regardless of ad performance | No platform referral fee; your own payment processing and fulfillment costs apply as they would on any DTC sale |
| Best fit | Brands that sell primarily or exclusively through Amazon and want to win the buy box moment | Brands with a DTC site, multi-retailer presence, or a goal of building a brand relationship outside Amazon |
Pricing Compared
| Metric | Amazon Ads | Google Ads |
|---|---|---|
| Typical average CPC | Roughly $1.10-$1.40 for Sponsored Products across categories, trending upward year over year as more sellers advertise | Roughly $3 on Search across industries, but often well under $1 for Shopping and Performance Max feed-based clicks |
| Typical ACOS range | Roughly 15-35% is a common target band depending on product margin, with 35-50% often normal and acceptable during the first 30 days of a new or broad-match campaign while the account gathers data | No equivalent single metric; the closer comparison is target ROAS or CPA, which varies by category and whether the goal is a DTC sale or driving traffic to an Amazon listing |
| Realistic minimum to start testing | A few hundred dollars a month per product is enough to see whether an automatic campaign finds a workable audience, though meaningful data takes longer at low spend | Roughly $500-1,000/month for Search to gather usable data; Performance Max is generally not recommended under roughly $1,500/month |
| Fees that apply regardless of ad performance | Amazon referral fee (roughly 8-15% of sale price by category) plus FBA fulfillment fees, subtracted from margin whether the sale came from an ad or organically | None from Google itself; costs are limited to your own payment processing, fulfillment, and site operating costs |
| Budget where optimization gets reliable | Roughly $2,000-5,000+/month across a focused set of products, enough for both automatic discovery and manual campaigns to generate usable conversion data | Roughly $3,000-10,000+/month, depending on CPC in your category and how many conversions that buys |
There is no fixed 'list price' for either platform. Both Amazon Ads and Google Ads sell placements through a live, auction-based system, so what you actually pay depends on your category, your competitors' bids, your listing or Quality Score relevance, and the exact week you're running the campaign. The figures above are directional industry averages from recent benchmark reporting, not a quote you can budget against without checking your own account and category.
Amazon Ads and Google Ads are both auction-based platforms with no fixed price list. Actual CPC, ACOS, and cost-per-sale figures depend on your category, competition, listing quality, and time of year, and both platforms revise their ad products and fee structures frequently. The figures in this comparison are drawn from recent industry benchmark reporting current as of mid-2026, not a guaranteed rate, and should be checked against your own account performance once campaigns are live.
Pros & Cons
Amazon Ads
Pros
- ✔ Captures shoppers at the exact moment they are comparing listings and ready to buy, which drives some of the highest ad-to-purchase conversion rates available on any platform
- ✔ No separate platform fee for Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, or Sponsored Display beyond the cost per click itself
- ✔ Automatic targeting requires almost no keyword research to launch a first campaign and start collecting real search-term data
- ✔ Ranking well organically and via ads reinforces each other inside Amazon's own search results, unlike a purchase on a DTC site which does nothing for Google rankings
Cons
- ✕ Amazon referral fees (commonly 8-15% of the sale price) and FBA fulfillment fees apply on top of ad spend, so a headline ROAS number can look strong while true profit margin is thin
- ✕ Amazon owns the customer relationship and most of the shopper data; there is no email list or first-party remarketing audience to take with you
- ✕ Reach stops at the edge of Amazon and Amazon-owned inventory; it does nothing to build demand or brand awareness on the open web
- ✕ Sellers with no DTC presence have no fallback if Amazon changes fee structures, suppresses a listing, or a competitor undercuts price
Google Ads
Pros
- ✔ Reaches shoppers wherever they search, before they have decided where to buy, which builds demand rather than only capturing it
- ✔ Builds first-party customer data, remarketing lists, and a brand relationship you own on your own domain, independent of any retailer
- ✔ A Search campaign using Amazon Attribution can point traffic directly at an Amazon listing, useful for a brand without a strong DTC site yet
- ✔ Performance Max and Shopping extend reach across Search, YouTube, Display, and Gmail from feed data you already maintain for your own site
Cons
- ✕ Shopping and Performance Max campaigns cannot link directly to an Amazon listing at all, Google Merchant Center policy requires those feed-based formats to point to a site you own
- ✕ Does nothing to help you win the buy box or rank inside Amazon's own search results, where a large share of product searches now start
- ✕ Requires a functioning DTC site, checkout, and fulfillment operation to capture the sale directly, which is a real cost most Amazon-only sellers have not built
- ✕ Generally higher CPC on Search than Amazon Sponsored Products for an equivalent product category click
Which One Should You Actually Pick
You sell only on Amazon with no DTC site
Put the large majority of budget into Amazon Ads. A Google Ads Search campaign pointed at your Amazon listing via Amazon Attribution can still be worth testing for high-value keywords, but Shopping and Performance Max cannot link to Amazon at all, so most of Google's automated campaign types have nothing useful to do for an Amazon-only catalog.
You sell on Amazon and through your own DTC site
Run both, with Google Ads driving traffic to your own site where you keep the margin and the customer data, and Amazon Ads defending and growing your position inside Amazon's own search results for the customers who prefer to buy there. Neither replaces the other; they are usually serving different customers with different platform preferences.
You are Amazon-only today but want to reduce platform dependency
Start allocating even a modest amount to Google Ads pointed at a basic DTC storefront before you need it, not after a fee increase, a suppressed listing, or a policy change forces the issue. Building the audience and remarketing data takes months even once the site exists.
Budget under roughly $2,000-3,000/month total
Concentrate on Amazon Ads first if Amazon is your primary sales channel. A small budget split between both platforms usually gives neither the conversion volume it needs to optimize, and Amazon Sponsored Products has the more direct, more forgiving learning curve for a first campaign.
You want ACOS or ROAS numbers to actually mean something
Calculate your real product margin after Amazon's referral and FBA fees before setting a target ACOS, and compare that honestly against what a DTC sale nets after payment processing and fulfillment on your own site. A 30% ACOS on Amazon and a $30 CPA on Google are not directly comparable without doing that math first.
Why This Isn't Really a Head-to-Head Comparison
Most "Amazon Ads vs Google Ads" write-ups frame this as a single platform decision, the same way you might pick between two email tools doing the same job. For a brand that sells on Amazon, that framing does not hold up. Amazon Ads and Google Ads capture demand at different points in the same customer's journey, and for most product categories, a meaningful share of shoppers pass through both without realizing it: they research on Google, compare on Amazon, or search on Amazon first and never touch Google at all. The real question is not which platform wins, it is how much of a limited budget should go to defending your position inside Amazon versus building demand and a customer relationship outside it.
That distinction matters most for sellers who only operate on Amazon. Pointing a Google Shopping or Performance Max campaign at an Amazon listing is not actually possible, Google Merchant Center policy requires those feed-based formats to link to a site the advertiser owns, so an Amazon-only seller running those campaign types is often just wasting spend on clicks with nowhere useful to land. A Search campaign using Amazon Attribution is the one real exception, and it can be worth testing for specific high-intent keywords, but it does not replace what Sponsored Products does inside Amazon's own search results, where the shopper is already one click from checkout.
What Changes Once You Also Sell Direct-to-Consumer
The calculation shifts considerably for a brand that also sells through its own DTC site. Every sale made on Amazon comes with a referral fee, commonly in the 8-15% range depending on category, plus FBA fulfillment costs if the product is Fulfilled by Amazon, both taken off the top regardless of whether the sale came from an ad or ranked organically. A sale made through your own site carries payment processing and fulfillment costs too, but no referral fee to Amazon, and it comes with something Amazon does not hand back: the customer's email address, a remarketing audience you own, and data you can use to build a relationship beyond a single transaction. Google Ads is how that DTC traffic actually shows up, whether through Search capturing someone searching your brand or product category, or Shopping and Performance Max surfacing your listing to someone who was not looking for you by name yet.
Many brands in this position run both deliberately rather than picking one: Amazon Ads defends and grows share of the Amazon-native customer who prefers to buy there, while Google Ads builds the DTC channel and, in some cases, sends its own traffic toward the Amazon listing through an Attribution-tagged Search campaign when the brand's own site is not yet strong enough to convert that visit on its own. Treating that overlap as wasted spend misses the point, it is often the most efficient way to capture a customer regardless of which storefront they ultimately prefer.
Common questions
Average cost per click tends to run lower on Amazon Sponsored Products than on Google Search for a comparable product category, but that comparison misses the bigger cost difference: Amazon subtracts a referral fee (commonly 8-15% of the sale price) and FBA fulfillment fees from every sale regardless of whether it came from an ad, while Google Ads carries no such platform fee. The honest comparison is net margin per sale after fees, not headline CPC.
Only through a Search campaign using an Amazon Attribution tag, which is the one Google Ads format that can link straight to an Amazon product page. Shopping and Performance Max campaigns cannot do this at all, Google Merchant Center policy requires those feed-based formats to point to a website you own, which is one of the more common gaps sellers discover only after trying to set it up.
There is no universal good number. A commonly cited workable range is roughly 15-35%, but the right target depends entirely on your product margin after Amazon's referral and fulfillment fees, and 35-50% ACOS is often normal and acceptable in the first 30 days of a new or broad-match campaign while it gathers the data needed to optimize. A product with thin margin needs a lower ACOS to stay profitable than a high-margin product does.
Start with Amazon Ads if Amazon is the primary or only sales channel, since that is where the purchase-ready shoppers already are. Add Google Ads once there is either a DTC site worth sending traffic to, or a specific high-value keyword set worth testing with an Amazon Attribution-linked Search campaign. Running Google Ads with nowhere but an Amazon listing to send Shopping or Performance Max traffic wastes most of what those campaign types can do.
Not sure how to split budget between Amazon Ads and Google Ads?
We'll look at your channel mix, product margins after Amazon fees, and whether a DTC site makes sense before recommending where your next ad dollar should go.
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