Amazon Review Requests, the paid ad type: what we know, and what our own data shows
On September 29, 2026, Amazon announced a new ad type called Review Requests. The seller pays Amazon so that shoppers who already bought the product see a placement on Amazon asking them for a rating. For now it is available on the US marketplace only.
We looked at what it would mean in Germany if it arrives there. Of the products 9 seller accounts sold between May and October, among those where we could measure the rating count (75 products), none had more than 27 ratings, and the median was 3. 60.2% of units sold came from products with 1-9 ratings. At the same time, 38.6% of units came from products under 4.0 stars: there, more ratings will not necessarily show a better picture.
What Amazon says in its announcement
- A shopper who recently bought the product sees a placement on Amazon's highest-traffic pages where they can give a star rating, and if they want, add text, images or video. The rating appears on the product detail page.
- It can only run on products with fewer than 1,000 ratings and reviews. It pauses automatically at 1,000.
- Registered sellers and vendors can use it if their advertising account is in good standing and has no active policy violations.
- It is set up in Amazon Ads Agent (Amazon's AI-based ads interface) and through the Amazon Ads API.
- Availability: United States, from late October 2026. More marketplaces are planned, with no date.
The shopper gets nothing for the rating. The seller pays Amazon for the placement, not the shopper for the review. That is exactly the difference from the incentivized reviews Amazon's rules forbid, where the shopper receives something (a discount, a gift, money). If you want the rules on asking for reviews yourself, see requesting reviews on Amazon, by the rules.
What is not clear yet
The billing. Amazon's announcement does not say what you pay for. Agency reports say it is per click, and one agency reports the demo campaign's defaults as a $0.75 bid per click and a $100 daily budget. Amazon has not confirmed this, and another agency says the billing is not known yet. Nobody knows yet how many clicks it takes to get one rating.
The 3x figure. Amazon says products in its test got three times as many ratings per week as before. That was a 19-day closed US test (June 3-21, 2026) that compared the same products with their own pace before the test. No control group, product count or spend was published.
How we measured
Sales: Amazon's order report, the German marketplace, May 1 to October 31, 2026, 9 seller accounts. 104 products (ASINs) sold at least one unit, 4,371 units in total.
Ratings: the rating count and star average shown on the product page, read on November 1, 2026. 75 of the 104 products have a measured rating count, 29 do not.
One detail matters: the members of a variation family (for example the same product in several flavors or sizes) show the same shared rating count. So the 104 products are not 104 separate pools of ratings.
Most sales come from products with few ratings
| Rating count | Products | Units sold | Share of units |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-9 | 61 | 2,633 | 60.2% |
| 10-49 | 14 | 1,357 | 31.0% |
| 50 or more | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Not measured | 29 | 381 | 8.7% |
Among the measured products, the highest rating count was 27 and the median was 3. If Review Requests arrives in Germany, all 75 measured products are under the 1,000 eligibility limit, by a long way.
38.6% of units came from products under 4.0 stars
| Star average | Products | Units sold | Share of units |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 4.0 | 26 | 1,686 | 38.6% |
| 4.0-4.4 | 18 | 1,308 | 29.9% |
| 4.5 or more | 31 | 996 | 22.8% |
| Not measured | 29 | 381 | 8.7% |
With only a few ratings, a single new one moves the average a lot. On a product with 3 ratings at 5.0, one 3-star rating brings the average down to 4.5. A paid request also reaches shoppers who would not have rated on their own. Whether the average then goes up or down depends on the product.
What this data does not tell you
How much more ratings would lift sales. Or what one new rating would cost, because the billing is not known. The accounts we measured are small and mid-sized sellers in Germany. With a large catalog that already has many ratings, the picture may look different.
What to do with it
- If you also sell in the US, do not start with your weakest product. Pick a product with a good star average and few ratings, a low daily budget, and after 2-3 weeks work out what one new rating cost.
- For products under 4.0 stars, look at the product first. Read the negative reviews: what is the complaint? Packaging, description, size, quality? Until that is fixed, more ratings will only show the problem faster.
- In Europe, the existing tools stay for now. The Request a Review button in Seller Central, per order, and the Vine program for new products.
- Work out your own split. Seller Central, Reports, Business Reports, the Child Item view: add the rating count and the star average from the product page, and see how much of your sales comes from products under 4.0 stars.