Can you run Amazon ads to get reviews?
Yes, but only indirectly, plus one new exception. Ordinary Amazon ads cannot buy reviews. What they do is put a new product in front of shoppers so it starts selling, and every genuine order is a chance for a review. The workable plan is to enrol the product in Amazon Vine before launch, run Sponsored Products to generate the first orders, request a review on every order 5 to 30 days after delivery, and add Sponsored Brands once you can. The exception is Review Requests, an ad type Amazon Ads announced in September 2026 that shows recent buyers an invitation to rate or review the product. It starts as a US beta and is limited to products with fewer than 1,000 ratings and reviews.
This guide explains how to set each part up, how the parts fit together in the first eight weeks, and where sellers cross the line into review abuse without realising it.
How ads lead to reviews
Think of reviews as the last link in a short chain: impressions lead to clicks, clicks lead to orders, and a small share of orders turn into reviews. A product with no reviews struggles at the first two links, because shoppers skip listings with no social proof. Ads fix the impression problem. Your listing, price and Vine reviews fix the click and conversion problem. Amazon's review emails and your review requests turn orders into reviews.
Amazon Ads says as much in its own launch guidance: early engagement with a new product "can help drive traffic, sales, and reviews". Its Sponsored Products best practices also suggest that products convert best once they have at least five reviews and a rating of 3.5 stars or more. So the aim of launch advertising is not profit. It is to reach that first handful of genuine reviews as quickly as the product can honestly earn them.
What Amazon allows and what it bans
Amazon's customer product reviews policy is strict, and in the US the FTC's rule on fake reviews has applied since October 2024. Penalties on Amazon range from removing every review on the product to permanently closing the account. Use this table as a quick check:
| Allowed | Not allowed |
|---|---|
| Advertising a product so more people buy it | Giving a refund, discount, gift or payment in exchange for a review |
| Amazon Vine, Amazon's own programme for early reviews | Review clubs, review groups or "review and refund" deals |
| The Request a Review button, or one neutral review request per order through Buyer-Seller Messaging | Asking only happy customers to review, or for a positive review |
| Review Requests ads, once available in your marketplace | Reviews from yourself, staff, friends or family |
| Replying publicly to reviews and fixing the product | Asking a buyer to change or remove a review |
| Improving the listing so expectations are accurate | Merging unrelated products into one variation family to share reviews |
A simple test: if anything of value changes hands because of a review, or you are steering who leaves one, it breaks the rules.
Before you spend: launch readiness checklist
- Buy Box: Sponsored Products only serve when your offer is eligible for the Featured Offer, which also means the product must be in stock.
- Listing: a clear main image, at least five more images, accurate bullet points, and A+ Content if you have Brand Registry. Ads send traffic; the listing decides whether it buys.
- Price: a launch price that converts. A modest launch discount through a normal promotion is fine; a discount tied to a review is not.
- Brand Registry: needed for Vine, Sponsored Brands and A+ Content.
- FBA stock: Vine units ship from FBA, so get inventory checked in early.
How to run Amazon ads to get reviews, step by step
Enrol the product in Amazon Vine before launch
Vine gives units to trusted Amazon reviewers who post honest reviews, marked as Vine reviews. In Seller Central, go to Advertising > Vine, choose the product and the number of units, and enrol. Amazon recommends doing this at least three weeks before launch, with stock already in its network. Eligibility, per Amazon: Brand Registry, an FBA offer, fewer than 30 reviews, and not an adult, digital or bundled product.
| Units per parent product | US fee |
|---|---|
| Up to 2 | $0 |
| 3 to 10 | $75 |
| 11 to 30 | $200 |
Amazon only charges once 30 days have passed and the first Vine review is published, and nothing if no Vine review arrives within 90 days. Fees differ outside the US (for example GBP 60 and GBP 140 in the UK for the paid tiers). Vine is not available on every marketplace; Amazon's Vine page lists the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia and Japan. Reviewers are not obliged to review, so treat 30 units as a likely source of some reviews, not a guaranteed number.
Launch an automatic Sponsored Products campaign
Amazon Ads calls automatic targeting the quickest way to start, and for a new product it doubles as research: Amazon matches your ad to searches and products it thinks are relevant, and you find out which ones convert. Start at Amazon's suggested bid, give the campaign a daily budget you can sustain for several weeks, and leave it running long enough to collect search term data before judging it.
Add a manual campaign on your best keywords
Alongside the auto campaign, run a manual Sponsored Products campaign on a short list of tightly relevant keywords, plus product targeting on similar or slightly weaker competitor listings. Amazon's new-product playbook recommends running automatic and manual campaigns together. Keep the manual list narrow: early budget is better spent on searches where your product is clearly a good answer, because those shoppers are the most likely to be satisfied, and satisfied buyers are the ones who leave good reviews.
Borrow trust from products that already have reviews
If your brand has established products, use them. Amazon Ads suggests pairing new items with your best sellers and using Sponsored Brands, which it says can build trust "even without reviews or sales history". A Sponsored Brands campaign showing your logo, a proven best seller and the new product lets the new item benefit from the brand's reputation. Sponsored Brands requires Brand Registry.
Request a review on every order
Amazon already emails many buyers about reviews, but you can add one request per order. Use the Request a Review button on the order details page, which sends a standard Amazon email asking for a product review and seller feedback. It works from 5 to 30 days after delivery, and only once per order. To do this at scale, tools built on Amazon's Solicitations API send the same Amazon-approved request automatically. Do not send a second request for the same order through Buyer-Seller Messaging.
Add Review Requests ads when they reach your account
Review Requests ads show recent buyers of your product a rating or review invitation on high-traffic Amazon pages such as the homepage. A star rating takes one click, and a written review is optional. According to Amazon Ads, the format opens as a US beta in late 2026 (its two announcements give late October and November), is set up through Amazon Ads Agent and the Amazon Ads API, and uses the usual bid and budget controls. Products must have fewer than 1,000 ratings and reviews, and the campaign pauses automatically when they reach that number. Amazon reported about three times more ratings and reviews per week during its closed beta. Pricing had not been published at the time of writing.
Measure reviews, not just ACoS
During launch, judge the ads by what they are for. Track weekly orders, new ratings and reviews, average star rating, conversion rate and TACoS. A high ACoS in the first weeks is normal for a new product. What matters is whether orders and reviews are climbing and whether conversion improves as reviews arrive. Once the product has a few reviews and steady sales, shift budget from discovery to the keywords that convert, and bring ACoS down.
A sample eight-week launch plan
| When | What to do | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| 3+ weeks before launch | Finish the listing, send FBA stock, enrol in Vine | Stock received; Vine units claimed |
| Weeks 1 to 2 | Auto and manual Sponsored Products; Request a Review on every order | Impressions, clicks, first orders |
| Weeks 3 to 4 | Harvest converting search terms into manual campaigns; add Sponsored Brands | Conversion rate; first Vine and buyer reviews |
| Weeks 5 to 6 | Cut search terms that spend without converting; add Review Requests ads if eligible | Reviews per week; star rating |
| Weeks 7 to 8 | Move budget to proven keywords; set ACoS and TACoS targets | TACoS trend; organic rank on core keywords |
Treat these weeks as a guide. A product in a slow-moving category may need longer, and a strong listing may get there faster.
How much should you spend on ads for reviews?
There is no Amazon figure for how many orders become reviews, and it varies widely by category and price. Work out your own number instead. Decide how many reviews you want, estimate your review rate from your existing products (or a cautious assumption if you have none), and divide. If 1 in 50 orders tends to produce a review on your other products, 20 reviews means about 1,000 orders. Then estimate how many of those orders ads must deliver, and what each ad-driven order costs at your expected conversion rate. That gives you a realistic launch budget and a point at which to stop if the product is not converting.
Troubleshooting: when ads are not producing reviews
| Problem | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Ads are not showing | Not eligible for the Featured Offer, or out of stock | Fix stock, price or Buy Box eligibility |
| Clicks but few orders | Listing, price or main image not converting | Improve images and copy; review the price |
| Orders but no reviews | Too early, or no review requests sent | Wait for the 5 to 30 day window; use Request a Review on every order |
| Reviews are low rated | Product or listing does not match expectations | Fix the product or listing before adding more traffic |
| Vine units claimed, no reviews yet | Reviewers are still using the product | Allow several weeks; Vine reviews are not guaranteed |
| High ACoS that is not falling | Budget on broad or weak search terms | Cut wasted terms and focus on converting keywords |
Common mistakes
- Scaling ads before the listing converts. More traffic to a weak page means more spend and few reviews.
- Spreading budget across too many keywords. A new product cannot win everything; win the most relevant searches first.
- Turning ads off as soon as ACoS looks high. Early orders are an investment in reviews and rank.
- Pushing more traffic to a product with a quality problem. Early negative reviews are very hard to recover from.
- Using a "review and refund" service or any offer linked to reviews. It risks the whole account.
- Copying old advice. The Early Reviewer Program closed in 2021; Vine and review requests replaced it.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, indirectly. Ads bring a new product more orders, and some genuine buyers leave reviews. Ads cannot pay for reviews. The exception is Amazon's Review Requests ad type, which shows recent buyers an invitation to rate or review the product.
None. You can advertise a new product from day one if it is eligible for the Featured Offer. Amazon Ads notes that products tend to perform best with at least five reviews and a 3.5 star rating, which is why launch ads are paired with Vine and review requests.
An Amazon Ads format announced in September 2026 that shows recent buyers a rating or review invitation on high-traffic Amazon pages. It opens as a US beta in late 2026 for products with fewer than 1,000 ratings and reviews.
In the US, enrolling up to 2 units is free, 3 to 10 units costs $75 and 11 to 30 units costs $200 per parent product. Amazon charges after 30 days and the first Vine review, and nothing if no Vine review arrives within 90 days.
From 5 to 30 days after the order is delivered, once per order. It sends a standard Amazon email asking for a product review and seller feedback.
No. Any refund, discount, gift or payment linked to a review breaks Amazon's policy and, in the US, the FTC rule on fake reviews. Normal launch promotions that are not tied to reviews are fine.
No. Amazon closed it in 2021. Amazon Vine and review requests are the current options.
Official Amazon sources
- Amazon Ads: Get product reviews faster with Review Requests
- Amazon Ads: Sponsored Products best practices
- Amazon Ads: New ASIN playbook
- Amazon: Vine programme and fees
- Amazon: Customer product reviews
- Seller Central: Customer product reviews policies (sign-in required)
Facts in this guide come from Amazon Ads, Amazon's seller website, Amazon's developer documentation and Amazon staff posts on the Seller Forums, checked in October 2026. Vine fees, ad formats and dates change, so confirm in your account before you commit budget.
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