Amazon's Holiday Ad Glitch Costs Add Up
An Amazon ad glitch ruined Black Friday for some advertisers, with reporting problems causing them to either underspend or overspend on important holiday ad campaigns.
Now those advertisers are trying to get Amazon to do the right thing, but some have been more successful than others and some who received credits said the amounts were inaccurate, according to Business Insider.
Lauren JohnsonAmazon is issuing advertisers makegoods after a holiday glitch caused some marketers to overspend on their campaigns, while others underspent and missed out on holiday sales.
Some of those ad buyers said that they've received credits from their campaigns over the past couple of weeks, after requesting makegoods for the campaigns where they overspent.
Ryan Walker, VP of strategy at e-commerce agency Momentum Commerce, said that 20 of his clients were credited, but the amounts were inaccurate. He said some clients were underpaid while others were overpaid.
"The size varies significantly — I don't totally understand how they calculated the credit," he said.
In November, Amazon's holiday glitch misrepresented how much money advertisers had spent on their campaigns, which is important information because it helps make sure advertisers don't blow through money too quickly. Inaccurate data also fooled advertisers into thinking Amazon ads performed better than they actually did, causing them to spend more.
"It definitely eroded some trust in the platform," said Jake Sandor, senior team lead for retail media at digital marketing agency Logical Position.
Sandor said that he had multiple clients overspend on advertising during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend. One of them received credits from Amazon that totaled about 10% of the amount overpaid. He declined to name the client but said that the advertiser spent $4,600 on Black Friday ads while Amazon reported that the advertiser spent only $1,300.
Were you caught up in the Amazon holiday ad reporting snafu? Let us know in the comments below!
eBay seller since 2022
Just started selling about a year and half ago
800 items sold 99.7 feedback
Recently I went away for family things for 30 days set my acct to be away … got back with items not received cases opened
I wasn’t able to revise existing listings post new listings OR refund the buyer from my eBay funds …
The items were caught up in recent wild fires but ended up being delivered late. I had to beg the buyer to let me pay them off of eBay to close the case because it was on hold and I wasn’t able to refund them from my eBay acct etc…. So luckily they obliged and I did … but ever since then my acct must be strikes as high risk because funds have been on hold 3 days after delivery since then indefinitely might I add… I get the run around everytime etc etc FINALLY I got someone saying it’s temporary it’ll be back to normal etc. these r all reps from escalated departments… one lady told me that with my history and feedback I’ve proved beyond doubt that I’m reliable seller and shouldn’t be on hold she put in for a appeal never heard back got the run around for another few months… they keep telling me I’ve been chosen for the new update they r rolling out total BS … do you believe that sellers will stay on eBay with these holds ? No they will simply go to another platform … they r 100% making money on the holds and use any reasoning to tell you basically no and keep profiting…. The get around is creating a new acct… these cases were closed without eBay having to step in and might I add I lost $$ and its been truly frustrating esp since I’ve built the acct up but I know I can do it again.. when they tell me its going to happen to all accts I just mention how my brother just opened one n now has immediate payments they don’t know what to say I don’t think they really even know.,, its sad n scummy but I see a class action lawsuit coming honestly ! I don’t know💬 if I forgot anything but well written thanks for the information. Have a great one!