Amazon rewrites search autocomplete with AI, rewarding natural-language listings
Amazon is testing a rewrite of its search-bar autocomplete using large language models, moving beyond suggestions based on past popular searches. In tests, LLM-generated suggestions helped shoppers find what they wanted faster, surfaced more products, and lifted sales. The advice for sellers: use specific descriptive titles, cover varied related terms in bullets, write in the language customers actually speak, target long-tail phrases in backend search terms, and update listings for trending attributes.
An audit finding making the rounds estimates most brands waste the majority of their ad budget: one analysis found brands spending over 65 percent on branded terms that would have converted anyway, while core category keywords ran out of budget by midday and competitors won top-of-search at peak conversion hours. The recommended rebalancing: prioritize high-volume non-brand keywords, defend product pages with display ads, tighten match types, layer in Marketing Cloud audiences and invest in upper-funnel targeting.
Amazon also launched a free AI video generation tool for US sellers after nine months of testing, producing eight-second product videos from existing images. The company says half the products advertised with AI video had never run ads before, and Sponsored Brand videos already see 30 percent higher click-through rates.
A new one-click audience targeting option for Sponsored Products, using Amazon's shopper data to find buyers with high purchase likelihood, is reported to have instantly lowered advertising cost of sale in early tests.
Myth-busting of the week covered Amazon's Influencer Program: approval does not require a large following, phone-shot 60-second videos work, products need not be purchased, and consistent posting matters more than production. Walmart expanded drone delivery to 100 more stores across five cities with 19-minute average drop-offs. Trivia: only 22.9 percent of Amazon searches are branded, versus 45.7 percent on Google.
