Costs to run display campaigns on Amazon: A look into AMG’s not so known fees to manage your campaigns

Did you think that the entire budget that you are paying to Amazon for your display campaigns is going towards delivering your ads?! Well… you’re in for a big surprise. I encourage you to take a sit when reading the below.  

No matter if you have just started using AMG / display advertising or if you have been running AMG ads for a while now, you might not know about the fees that you are paying to Amazon [out of your advertising budget].

There’s no point beating around the bushes, so the regular fees for booking AMG campaigns are these:

• Platform fee: 10% of your budget.
  
• Management fee: 15% of your budget.
  
  

What this means is that out of your budget, only 75% of it is going towards actually delivering ads, while 25% are fees that go to Amazon.

To help you understand this better, let’s take this example: you have a budget of $100,000 and want to run a DSP campaign. Out of this budget:

• $10,000 is going to Amazon as a platform fee
  
• $15,000 is going to Amazon as a fee for managing your campaign.
  
• Only the remaining $75,000 goes into actually delivering your ads and getting impressions.
  
  

Do you think these fees are quite high?! You’re not alone. There is something that you need to take into account though when it comes [at least] to the management fee. You are getting a well-trained and educated account manager to manage your campaigns. At the same time, involved in managing your campaigns is not only your Account Manager, but several other teams. So, while it is a high fee, you are getting something in return.

What solutions do you have now that you know about the fees?

1. You can continue booking campaigns via AMG – the advantage is that you are getting a trained person to manage your campaigns. The disadvantage is that you will continue to pay 25% of your budget. Or
   
   
2. You can start exploring ESS and not pay the management fee. Read more about ESS: the secret platform that will make you change the way you manage display campaigns on Amazon.