We barely had time to catch our breath. It feels like only yesterday we were talking about Amazon pulling out of Google Shopping Ads, and that’s because it practically was! Now, just a month later, they’re back.
If you’ve missed out on the drama, on 22 July 2025 Amazon suddenly stepped away from Google Shopping, only to return exactly 31 days later across most international markets. The US, though, remains switched off.
The timing and precision make it hard to see this as anything other than a deliberate experiment. The big question is: why did they do it, and what were they hoping to learn? One thing’s for certain, it’s set the industry buzzing with speculation.
From a UK perspective, Amazon’s exit looked like it came out of nowhere. But if you zoom out and have a look at the bigger picture, it still kind of did come out of nowhere, but there was a rumbling in the market that something was coming.
Back in May 2025, Amazon had already cut its Google Shopping spend in the US by around 50%, a move that went pretty much unnoticed over here for obvious reasons. In hindsight, that reduction feels like the first step in a bigger test. When you put that earlier cut together with the full month-long international pause in July, it looks less like a sudden withdrawal and more like an experiment to see how the auctions shift when the biggest player takes a step back.
When an industry giant like Amazon steps out of the auction, the ripple effect is immediate. Suddenly, advertisers who are usually squeezed out of the top spots find themselves with more room to play, and often at lower CPCs. That sounds like a win, but the reality isn’t quite so simple.
Yes, some retailers saw extra clicks while Amazon was away, but the uplift in ROAS didn’t match. The mix of demand changed, and attribution got noisier. In short, more traffic doesn’t always mean better results.
Optmyzr recently did an analysis of thousands of advertiser accounts during Amazon’s July pause, and it’s fascinating to see the data. They found CPCs dropped by 8.3% and clicks rose by 7.8%, but conversion value actually fell by 5.5%. A lot of those extra clicks came from shoppers who really wanted Amazon, and when they landed elsewhere, they still expected Amazon-level prices, shipping and convenience. That’s a tough bar for most businesses to clear.
When Amazon steps back, it opens a short window where smaller advertisers can grab more visibility without paying Amazon-level CPCs. But that doesn’t mean you should throw everything at the wall to see what sticks.
If a moment like this happens again, then it’s a great time for controlled experiments. Think in terms of small, measurable steps:
Simple holdouts or geo-splits can give you real insight into incrementality, rather than just chasing a spike in traffic.
This episode also highlights the importance of best practices with the basics of your feed. In a crowded marketplace, errors and slow updates hold you back. But when a dominant player leaves, Google is quick to reward advertisers with clean, accurate data.
Make sure your GTINs, titles, availability and landing pages are tidy and up to date. Often, it’s these small technical fixes that give you disproportionate wins when opportunity knocks.
We’ll be honest… we’re not 100% sure, but we do have some ideas. It’s tempting to read Amazon’s return to Europe, but continued absence from the US, as a negotiating tactic or a market-specific strategy. Maybe they’ve found they can sustain performance on their home turf, the US, without Google Shopping but need to keep the pressure internationally, or maybe they’re testing leverage and incrementality in a staggered way. Either way, it’s an unusual move for Amazon.
If the goal was purely market measurement, you might wonder why they couldn’t get the insights they needed from years of Google Shopping data. To just pull out overnight feels a little heavy-handed, even for a company like Amazon! Which makes you wonder if the goal was to put pressure on Google to see what the market is like without their massive investment.
Without a comment from Amazon or Google, the real ‘why’ is likely to stay a mystery.
For UK businesses, the bigger takeaway is don’t assume stability. Platforms and gatekeepers shift tactics quickly, and being nimble often matters more than having the biggest budget.
The key is to keep your approach simple and repeatable. Have a light “scale up/scale down” plan ready. Know which products you’ll focus on if a chance appears, how you’ll measure what’s really working, and how to move budgets without causing problems elsewhere. This isn’t about panicking or trying to outspend Amazon, and let’s be honest, that’s not really an option (Jeff Bezos literally rented the whole city of Venice). It’s about acting thoughtfully when opportunities come along.
For UK SMEs, the bigger lesson is treat this as a test run. There are short-term chances to grab more visibility and learn what drives real sales, but the smartest moves are measured, based on data, and focused on building strong relationships with your customers over the long term.