Can You Advertise Amazon Products With Taboola? The Honest Answer for Native Ads Advertisers

Why It’s So Difficult to Advertise Amazon Products With Taboola Successfully

If you’re searching for “Can I advertise Amazon products with Taboola?”, you’re probably thinking about a simple setup:

Run Native Ads → send traffic to Amazon → earn sales.

On paper, that sounds easy.

In reality, it’s one of the most common mistakes new Native Ads advertisers make.

Let’s walk through why.

The Core Problem: Tracking (and Why It Breaks Everything)

The biggest issue isn’t traffic.

It’s tracking.

Taboola (via Realize Ads) is a performance platform.

That means:

• It needs conversion signals

• It needs event data

• It needs feedback loops

  
  

To learn, optimize, and scale.

Amazon does not allow you to install:

• Your own pixel

• Custom conversion events

• Add-to-cart tracking

• Checkout tracking

• Purchase tracking

  
  

You have zero access to Amazon’s source code.

That means:

Taboola cannot receive:

• Purchase events

• Checkout events

• Cart events

  
  

And without those signals, the algorithm is blind.

“What If I Use an Advertorial in Between?”

Good question.

Many advertisers try this:

Native Ad → Advertorial (external domain) → Amazon product page

Yes, technically you can track:

• Page views on the advertorial

• Button clicks (clickouts to Amazon)

  
  

But that’s where it ends.

Once the user lands on Amazon:

Everything disappears.

No purchase signal comes back.

No revenue data.

No CPA.

No ROAS.

From Taboola’s perspective, all you’re doing is optimizing for clicking away from your page.

That is a very low-quality signal.

Someone who clicks a button is not automatically someone who buys.

So the algorithm learns:

“Find me more clickers.”

Not buyers.

This usually leads to:

• Cheap traffic

• Lots of clicks

• Very little revenue

  
  

Which is exactly what you don’t want.

This Applies to All Marketplaces (Not Just Amazon)

This problem isn’t Amazon-specific.

It applies to any marketplace where you don’t control the checkout:

• Amazon

• Etsy

• eBay

• AliExpress

• Any third-party platform without pixel access

• Otto

  
  

If you can’t install your own tracking and events, you cannot run proper performance Native Ads.

Simple as that.

Why This Makes Direct Amazon Promotion a Bad Strategy

Two major consequences:

1. You Can’t Measure Profitability

You don’t know:

• Which ad drives sales

• Which placement converts

• Which audience works

• What your real CPA is

  
  

You’re flying blind.

2. The Algorithm Can’t Learn

Taboola optimizes based on:

• Add to Cart

• Checkout

• Purchase

• Lead events

  
  

Without those, there is no learning.

No learning = no optimizationNo optimization = no scalable performance

So Is Amazon Completely Useless With Taboola?

Not exactly.

Here’s the interesting part.

Many advertisers who run Taboola for their own Shopify stores notice something:

Their Amazon PPC performance improves.

Why?

Because Taboola often creates the first touchpoint.

A user sees your Native Ad on a premium publisher site.

They don’t buy immediately.

They remember your brand.

Later, they go to Amazon, search your brand, see your Amazon ad… and buy.

From Amazon’s perspective:

It looks like Amazon Ads did the job.

In reality:

Taboola created the demand.

This is a classic spillover effect.

It’s invisible in Taboola.

It’s invisible in Amazon.

But it happens.

A lot.

This Is Why Native Ads Belong in the Marketing Mix

Even if your product also lives on Amazon, Native Ads still make sense when:

• You have your own Shopify store

• You control your tracking

• You own the customer journey

  
  

Taboola becomes:

• A mid- and low-funnel demand creator

• A trust-building channel via premium publishers

• A discovery layer before Search or Marketplace conversions

  
  

But using Taboola only to send traffic directly to Amazon?

That’s almost always a losing strategy.

The Bottom Line

If Amazon is your only sales channel:

Do not use Taboola as a direct performance channel.

You won’t be able to:

• Track purchases

• Train the algorithm

• Optimize toward profit

  
  

If you have your own store and also sell on Amazon:

Taboola can absolutely help grow your brand and indirectly boost Amazon sales.

But performance optimization must always happen on infrastructure you control.

Native Ads need:

• Pixels

• Events

• Funnels

• Ownership

  
  

Without that, you’re guessing.

If you’re serious about Native Ads, build around assets you own.

That’s where real scale happens.