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Buy Box Factors & Myths In 2025, “pricing” is not just about being low — it’s about being strategic. Many Amazon Sellers believe you need the absolute lowest price to win the Buy Box (now called the Featured Offer), or that cutting prices aggressively always increases volume. Both are myths. What really counts are a combination of pricing + seller performance + fulfillment + inventory factors. Understanding what the algorithm values now can protect margins while improving Buy Box win rates and reducing TACoS (Total Advertising Cost of Sales). Key Factors for Buy Box / Featured Offer Here are the current reality checks—what Amazon really takes into account in 2025, and common myths to avoid. (Sources: Amazon Seller Central; Automate Pricing & Featured Offer guidance) Amazon considers total landed price (item price + shipping) when deciding the Featured Offer, not just the price tag. Having the lowest price does not guarantee Featured Offer; performance metrics like order defect rate, shipping speed, valid tracking, cancellation rate, late shipment rate also play big roles. Inventory availability matters. Being out of stock or low stock can disqualify or reduce your competitiveness The fulfillment method (especially FBA or Seller-Fulfilled Prime) still gives advantage due to reliability, shipping speed, customer trust. Myth: Constantly undercutting competitors is the only way to win. Reality: aggressive price wars can erode margins, hurt profit, and sometimes even degrade performance metrics. Smart repricing with guardrails is safer. Tools like Amazon’s Automate Pricing allow you to define pricing rules tied to competitor prices, Featured Offer changes, external price references, etc. These enable continuous competitiveness without manual intervention. Building Rule Sets Tied to COGS + Target Margin; Syncing with PPC Status/Budget Rules To protect margin while improving Buy Box wins and lowering TACoS, your pricing strategy should be rule-based and integrated with PPC/budget decisions. Here’s how: Define your cost structure • Calculate COGS + all associated fees (Amazon fees, FBA fees, shipping, returns) + overhead. • Determine your minimum margin threshold that you will not go below, even if losing the Buy Box temporarily. Set Repricing Rules Using Automate Pricing • Use Amazon Automate Pricing to create rules that match or stay slightly above Featured Offer price, but with constraints. • Use rules for “Competitive Featured Offer,” “Competitive Lowest Price,” or “External Price Match” depending on SKU/category • Set price floors & ceilings to protect margins. Sync Pricing with PPC / Ad Budgets • For ASINs where PPC spend is high, ensure pricing supports the ad investment — i.e. margin after ad spend remains acceptable. • Use bulk files or automation to align bid increases or budget ramps when pricing is favorable (e.g. you are Featured Offer or close to it). • Conversely, if pricing is weak (e.g. high cost, low win rate), reduce PPC spend or pause campaigns to avoid high TACoS. Monitor “Pricing Health” & Seller Metrics Closely • Use Amazon’s Pricing Health dashboard to find ASINs which are ineligible for Featured Offer or priced outside competitive ranges. • Track metrics like Buy Box win rate, margin erosion, TACoS, inventory turnover, shipping/shipment performance, ODR, cancellation rate. A 14-Day Test Plan Here’s a hands-on plan you can roll out over 14 days with a pricing template to test changes and measure impact. Day 1 • Select test SKUs (top 20% by sales volume or margin). • Record baseline metrics: Buy Box % (Featured Offer %), sales volume, TACoS, and margin. Day 2-3 • Create Automate Pricing rules for each SKU. • Use rule types like Featured Offer match, external price, or competitive lowest. • Set price floors and ceilings to protect margin. Day 4-5 • Review fulfillment setup (shift to FBA or improve shipping if needed). • Optimize logistics to raise Featured Offer competitiveness. Day 6-8 • Sync pricing changes with PPC budgets and bids. • Increase ad bids where SKUs are competitive in Featured Offer. • Cut or pause PPC where SKUs lose Buy Box to prevent high TACoS. Day 9-11 • Monitor Pricing Health dashboard and Featured Offer eligibility. • Adjust pricing rules or floors if Buy Box win rate or margins slip. Day 12-14 • Evaluate test results: changes in Featured Offer %, TACoS, margin, and sales volume. • Scale up successful pricing rules; stop those that eroded profit. Pricing Template Components: SKU Current Price, Current Buy Box % COGS + all fees Minimum Acceptable Margin % Rule Type (e.g., Match Featured Offer, Competitive Lowest, External Price) Price Floor, Price Ceiling Fulfillment method (FBA vs FBM) PPC Budget / Bid Modifier tied to pricing status How This Helps Sellers Protect Margin, Win the Buy Box, Lower TACoS By having rules with price floors, you avoid margin erosion even when competing aggressively. Winning Featured Offer more often increases visibility, which means PPC & organic both perform better, so you need less ad spend per sale → lower TACoS. Syncing pricing and PPC ensures your ad spend doesn’t chase sales that cost too much, so profitability improves. Clear metrics from the 14-day test give you data to know what works before scaling, reducing risk. How Big Internet Ecommerce Can Help If you need hands-on assistance aligning your pricing strategy with your PPC, bids, and bulk operations, check out our Amazon PPC optimization service. We help Amazon Sellers set up pricing rules, synchronize bids, and build resilient margin-focused strategies. Ready to build pricing rules that protect margin, win the Featured Offer, and drop your TACoS?  Book a pricing consult with us, and we’ll map out your test roadmap + pricing strategy. Follow Big Internet Ecommerce (BIE) on Instagram & LinkedIn to stay updated with the latest trends in Amazon selling.

What’s changed in Amazon PPC in 2025—and why Amazon Sellers who adapt will see better profit and sales? Three big developments are reshaping the PPC landscape: Amazon Marketing Cloud’s (AMC) new Retail Purchases dataset: 5 years of store purchase data (not just 13 months), giving deeper insight into purchase behaviour, durable goods, replenishable & seasonal products. Enhanced AI-Video Generator: Amazon Ads now offers a more powerful tool to create high-motion, multi-scene, realistic videos with text animations & background music to help shoppers visualise products in use. Sponsored TV / Streaming TV Ads (Sponsored TV): More avenues for reaching customers outside traditional search/display, leveraging Amazon’s first-party signals across streaming content, interactive formats, and expanded reach. These changes affect how Amazon Sellers should think about profit, ad spend, and campaign structure. In this post, we’ll show how AMC + AI Video + Sponsored TV combine to reduce TACoS, lift profit, and what you can do immediately. What Changed & Why It Matters AMC Retail Purchases Dataset Extended lookback from 13 months to 5 years of store purchase data, with detailed order‐item history. Enables creation of audiences like “upgrade-ready,” repeat-purchase, seasonal product buyers. Helps compute metrics such as Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), and improve measurement of purchase behaviour over long product lifecycles (durable goods, replenishable items). Results: more accurate audience targeting → reduced wasted ad spend, better attribution & bidding → potential to lower TACoS and increase profit margin. (Because you can avoid over-paying for low intent or low value users.) AI Video Generator (Amazon Ads) Allows brands to generate video ads from a single product image in minutes, free for Sponsored Brands campaigns. Produces multi-scene video creatives with enhanced motion, realism, text animations, background music. Offers multiple video options (e.g. six variations) for each creative, enabling creative testing and comparison. Supports features like transforming an image into a motion video, video summarization (extracting clips), logo/brand customization, adhering to Amazon ad specs. Benefit to sellers: faster creative production, more variants → better optimization, avoid stagnation of ad creative, improving CTR & conversion → helps reduce ACos and overall improve profitability. Strategy for Profit-Driven Amazon PPC Campaigns Here’s how to organise campaign structure and operations in 2025 to take advantage of the above, to cut TACoS and increase profit. Use SIS Reports + AMC Audiences SIS (“Search Insights & Sales” or Amazon’s Search & Impression Share or Search Impression Share / Sponsored Ads reports) to understand which search terms are driving low-ACoS/high conversion sales. Use AMC’s custom audiences & Retail Purchases data to build segments like past purchasers, repeat purchase potential, product category loyalists, users who saw video but didn’t purchase. This allows bid boosts or custom targeting. Budget & Bid Rules Adjusted for Funnel Stage Allocate part of budget to upper funnel (Sponsored Brands Video / Sponsored TV) to build awareness & drive branded search. Mid funnel: Sponsored Products + Display retargeting using AMC audiences. Lower funnel: aggressive bids on high intent keywords, product detail pages, promotions. Rule examples: cap bids for new-to-brand (NTB) keywords at a certain ACOS; raise bids only if conversion rate > some threshold; reduce spend/bids on underperforming audiences. Creative Testing Cadence With AI video generator, test multiple creative variants quickly: different scenes, angles, messaging. Use video vs static, text overlays vs lifestyle; test video length. Refresh creative often to avoid ad fatigue, especially for Sponsored TV & Brand Video formats. Measurement & Attribution Track TACoS (Total Ad Spend ÷ Total Sales including organic) in addition to ACoS to see full profit impact. Monitor New-to-Brand (NTB) % (how many buyers are new), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), repeat purchase rate. Use AMC & Sponsored TV insights to link upstream exposure (awareness) to downstream purchase events, organic lift. 30-Day Action Plan & KPIs to Watch Here’s a practical plan you (as an Amazon Seller) can implement over next 30 days, with specific KPIs to measure, so you can see profit improvements. Week 1 Audit current PPC campaigns:   - Collect current ACoS, TACoS, NTB%   - Check creative types (video vs static)   - Examine spend by funnel segment   - Identify high-margin products & those with strong organic traction KPIs to record as baseline:   - TACoS, ACoS per product   - NTB% (New-to-Brand percentage)   - Creative performance: CTR (Click-Through Rate), CVR (Conversion Rate) Week 2 Build new AMC custom audiences using the Retail Purchases dataset:   - e.g. customers who bought 1-2 years ago; repeat purchasers; users who viewed but didn’t purchase Set up bid adjustments or retargeting campaigns using those audiences Begin small-budget tests for Sponsored TV / Brand Video formats KPIs to monitor:   - Audience performance: CTR, CVR   - Incrementality: do exposed & retargeted audiences convert better than control groups   - Cost per new customer acquisition (CPA)   - Uplift in branded search volume Week 3 Creative refresh: deploy new video creatives via the AI Video Generator; test multiple variants to find what works best Adjust budget allocation based on audience & campaign performance Shift spend toward campaigns/products showing higher returns KPIs to compare:   - New vs old creatives: performance metrics (e.g. which videos/images are converting better)   - Cost per Click; Conversion Rates   - Monitor if TACoS is falling as the combined effect of paid + organic improves Week 4  Evaluate outcomes of weeks 1-3; scale up the campaigns and audiences that worked best Pause or reduce spend on low-ROI campaigns Project forward Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) impacts based on NTB growth & repeat purchase rates Adjust NTB bid strategy accordingly Plan for the next cycle of creative & audience testing KPIs to watch:   - TACoS target (e.g. reduce by a specific % compared to baseline)   - Profit margin by product category   - Growth in NTB (%)   - Repeat purchase rate   - ROI per ad dollar spent   - Overall profit increase KPI Benchmarks & What Good Looks Like TACoS Range: For many categories, an efficient TACoS is around 5-15% of total revenue. If you’re above ~20-25%, you may be over-relying on paid. NTB %: Aim for NTB buyers to be a significant portion (depends