5 Reasons Your Google & Meta Ads Aren’t Converting on Amazon (And How to Fix It)

For years, competing on Google Ads for Amazon felt like a battle against giants. But an opportunity has emerged. As reported by Search Engine Land, major players like Amazon and Temu have pulled back their ad spend, creating a temporary opening for sellers to capture high-value traffic.

This window won’t last. Driving more clicks is not enough if they don’t convert into sales. Now more than ever, you must ensure every single ad dollar is optimized to increase your Amazon conversion rate.

Spending money on external ads without seeing results is a common frustration that stems from “leaky funnels.” Here are the five common reasons your external ads aren’t converting—and how to fix them for good.

Reason 1: Your Ad Traffic is Being Hijacked by Competitors

The Problem: You run a perfectly targeted ad, a customer clicks, and they land on your product page—only to find another seller in the Buy Box. If they click “Add to Cart,” the sale goes to your competitor. You just paid to enrich them. This costly issue, known as “traffic hijacking,” happens silently and is a major source of wasted ad spend.

The Fix: The solution is a seller-specific URL containing your Amazon SMID (Seller ID). This small piece of code ensures that when a customer clicks your link, they see your offer, regardless of who holds the Buy Box. Manually adding this is tedious, which is why a tool is essential. PixelMe automatically detects and adds the correct SMID to all campaign links, ensuring your traffic is protected.

Learn More About How to Stop Traffic Hijacking with Our Guide to the Amazon SMID.

Reason 2: You’re Losing Warm Leads Who Don’t Buy Immediately

The Problem: The vast majority of customers don’t make a purchase on their first visit. When a user clicks your ad, browses your listing, and leaves without buying, that lead is gone forever. You’ve paid for the click but have no way to follow up.

The Fix: Implement retargeting. By using a smart pixel, you can build an audience of shoppers who have shown interest and re-engage them across Google, Facebook, and Instagram. PixelMe’s technology serves dynamic, personalized ads to these warm leads, bringing them back when they are ready to buy and reducing customer acquisition costs.

Reason 3: Your Ad Targeting is Optimized for Clicks, Not Conversions

The Problem: Standard ad campaigns are often set to optimize for maximum clicks. This drives volume, but doesn’t guarantee the traffic has any intent to purchase. This is especially true on Google, where users are often in a research phase, unlike on Amazon where they are in a purchase phase. This mismatch leads to vanity metrics, a high TACoS, and a poor RoAS.

The Fix: Switch to a conversion-focused bidding strategy. An intelligent advertising platform uses smarter targeting to optimize for Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). PixelMe’s algorithm analyzes data points to adjust bids in real-time, prioritizing ad placements where a purchase is most likely to occur.

Reason 4: You’re Flying Blind Without True Attribution

The Problem: You know your total sales and total ad spend, but can you tell which specific Google ad keyword led to a sale? For most sellers using generic links, the answer is no. You’re operating in an attribution “black hole,” making it impossible to know what’s working.

The Fix: Leverage keyword-level conversion tracking. To truly optimize your campaigns, you need data that shows exactly which campaigns, ad groups, and keywords are driving sales. The PixelMe Insights Dashboard provides a single source of truth, offering clear, actionable data. This allows you to cut wasteful spending and double down on what works.

Reason 5: You’re Leaving a 10% Rebate on the Table

The Problem: To encourage Amazon external traffic, Amazon offers the Brand Referral Bonus program, providing a bonus of (on average) 10% of the sales price. Many sellers fail to claim this because their attribution isn’t set up correctly to meet Amazon’s strict requirements.

The Fix: Use clean, accurate attribution that is fully compliant with Amazon’s program. Not only does this secure your bonus, but it also provides a significant ranking boost, as Amazon’s algorithm gives more weight to sales generated from external traffic. It’s also critical to stay on top of policy changes. As of May 2025, sellers can no longer “double-dip” by earning both a Brand Referral Bonus and an Amazon Associates commission from the same click. This change makes a dedicated platform like PixelMe essential for staying compliant.