What Amazon did on August 10
Amazon started serving Sponsored Products ads through creators in its Influencer Program on August 10, 2026. The format places your listings inside creator-produced content — reviews, buying guides, editorial roundups — on platforms outside Amazon itself.
Every eligible Sponsored Products campaign was automatically enrolled under the default "Increase reach" setting. No advertiser action was required. Doing nothing before August 10 was an opt-in.
That default is still active unless you changed it.
What changed in your campaigns
Your existing bids and budgets carried over into creator placements without modification. But there's a gap in how they apply.
The Top of Search and Product Pages bid adjustments you've configured do not apply to off-Amazon creator placements. Your maximum bid does. Your dynamic bidding settings do. So the bid calibrated for a competitive search position is the same bid getting applied to a click from a creator's product review outside Amazon — at search-level CPCs, for discovery-level intent.
Amazon surfaces two campaign-level settings under "Settings for ads served off Amazon": "Increase reach" (the default) and "Limit off-Amazon spend." Either can be changed mid-campaign. But if you haven't reviewed this since August, you've been in "Increase reach" mode for close to a month.
The intent problem
A shopper searching "wireless headphones under $100" on Amazon is close to buying. A shopper watching a creator's headphone roundup is still building a consideration set.
Amazon's own guidance acknowledges this directly, noting that new-to-brand metrics and ROAS should be weighed together for creator placements. That's the platform saying conversion rates will likely be lower than search.
Whether that trade-off makes sense depends on your category and your margin. Beauty, supplements, home goods, and electronics with strong organic awareness often see real new-to-brand volume from creator content. Low-margin categories where every click needs to convert can't absorb the efficiency gap. You need to check your actual data before deciding which camp you're in.
What to check in your account
Pull a placement performance report from your Sponsored Products campaigns and look at off-Amazon clicks as a percentage of total spend since August 10. If that number is significant and your ROAS dipped around the same time, the connection is likely direct.
Then look at new-to-brand order rates for campaigns enrolled in creator content. NTB orders from creator placements at an acceptable CAC can justify staying in "Increase reach" mode — but only if you can see that outcome in the data, not assume it.
Then check the setting itself. "Settings for ads served off Amazon" sits inside your campaign settings. Two options. Decide deliberately, because right now Amazon decided for you.
The pattern to notice
This is the third time in under a year Amazon has enrolled advertisers in something by default — after Sponsored Prompts went billable in March 2026 and the credit card-to-proceeds deduction switch in August. Each time, inaction before the launch date functioned as consent.
Amazon's defaults consistently favor broader reach and more spend. That works in the right context. But the pattern tells you something specific about how to handle Amazon product announcements going forward: assume enrollment unless you act before the date.
If your campaigns haven't been reviewed since July, there's a real chance you're paying for placements you didn't plan for.
If you want a clear read on how your full paid account is actually set up across placement types and attribution, the free audit gives you that view in a few minutes.
Your bids are only as precise as the placements they're actually buying.
Sources: PPC Land, Nova Data, Amazon Seller Central, August–September 2026
