Amazon Tests Home-grown Pay-per-click Ads

Online mega-merchant Amazon.com has launched a beta test of a self-service platform that will match product search results pages with relevant text ads sold in keyword auctions.

Called the Clickriver Ad network, the trial was created by A9.com, the Amazon search engine subsidiary and is intended to give advertisers more control over the delivery of sponsored links to the tens of millions of shoppers who buy or browse Amazon.

Amazon.com currently displays ads on its product detail and results pages from a number of third-party networks. It will continue to run outside ads during the Clickriver beta test, which is scheduled to last until February 2007.

Admission to the pilot program is by invitation only, and the company says in its FAQ that the network will look for businesses that advertise products and services that complement the offerings to be found on Amazon.

“We welcome services of all types — in travel, finance and investment, training and education, entertainment, insurance, news, healthcare and physical fitness centers, IT assistance and consulting, photo printing and more,” the post reads.

Those advertisers who are accepted into the beta test will be able to bid to place their pay-per-click ads on both the results pages for keyword searches within Amazon.com and on specific product pages. It’s not yet clear whether competitors will be able to buy PPC ads on product pages, but the prospect seems unlikely.

Amazon unveiled its A9 search platform about two years ago amid widespread speculation that the company would eventually introduce Google-style performance advertising. But the search engine has been unable to find traction with the online public and has never broken into the ranks of the top ten engines.

Amazon recently scaled back the A9 platform, eliminating many personalization features and such high-profile amenities as its street-level street photos in local maps.