AMAnews May 2025 — New Title Structures, Pre-Built AMC Audiences & Fee Changes

After a relatively busy spring, May feels like the quiet before the summer storm. While the volume of updates has decreased as we approach the "Sommerloch" (summer slump), the changes that have been announced are structural and significant. Amazon is laying the groundwork for major shifts in listing structure, advertising data, and logistics, all while quietly closing loopholes and fixing long-standing data bugs.

This month, we're seeing the first signs of a complete title overhaul, the return of a beloved forecasting tool in advertising, and the rollout of powerful, pre-packaged AMC audiences. At the same time, a major fee restructuring for FBA and MCF is hitting right in the middle of the month, requiring immediate attention from sellers in affected categories.

Platform & SEO

While the SEO front is quiet, Amazon is testing a fundamental change to how product titles are structured and has rolled out a surprisingly useful new feature in Business Reports.

Amazon Tests New "Title" and "Subtitle" Structure

Amazon has announced to partners in the US that it is experimenting with a new, standardized title structure. The goal is to improve data quality and readability for customers, likely driven by their "Rufus" and "Cosmo" AI initiatives. The proposed structure consists of two parts:

• Title: A primary title focused on core attributes: Brand, Product Line, and Flavor/Size.
• Subtitle / Product Highlights: A secondary block of text for additional features.

Interestingly, the attributes Amazon wants isolated in the main title are the same ones GS1 has prohibited in hero images since 2017. For now, this is just a test. Amazon is proceeding with a quiet rollout to evaluate the impact and potential for misuse before a full launch. No action is required from sellers yet, but this signals a major future shift in listing optimization strategy.

A New Gem in Business Reports for ASIN Prioritization

While a much-hyped, deep-dive ASIN analysis tool from the US hasn't materialized for EU sellers, a different—and arguably very useful—feature has appeared in Business Reports. Sellers can now find a new section that provides a clear, actionable breakdown of ASIN performance:

• Products with High Sales
• Products with Low Sales
• Products with High Traffic

This simple report is a goldmine for prioritizing content work. It gives you an immediate, data-backed list of where to focus your optimization efforts. If you're wondering which listings to improve first, start here, work through the lists, and you'll have a clear path forward.

Advertising

The advertising console saw the most activity this month, with a critical data-bug confession, the return of performance forecasts, and major advancements in audience targeting.

Sponsored Products Data Glitch from Jan-May

An alert banner in the Ad Console revealed that key Sponsored Products metrics were potentially incorrect for over three months. This is a crucial admission that impacts performance analysis and decision-making.

Warning: According to Amazon, metrics related to the "Bid across all placement pages" setting in the Campaign Manager Dashboard may have been inaccurate from January 28th to May 5th. The issue was reportedly resolved on April 17th, but the notification only appeared in May. This highlights the value of using tools like the Amazon Marketing Stream, which provides raw data independent of dashboard reporting glitches.

Weekly Performance Forecasts Return to SP

The old "win rate" estimations are back, rebranded as Weekly Performance Forecasts. Available within Sponsored Products campaigns, these forecasts provide an estimated performance curve, showing how changes to your bid could potentially impact impressions and other metrics. This is a fantastic tool for sellers who manage bids manually, as it provides data-driven context for bid adjustments.

The system visualizes the point of diminishing returns. For example, a curve might show that increasing your bid from €1.50 onwards yields almost no additional impressions. While our AMALYZE tools have long used similar mathematical models for automated decisions, this brings valuable insight directly into the campaign manager for everyone. It’s a welcome return, though it’s unfortunately not yet available for all targeting types.

Pre-Built AMC Audiences Arrive in Sponsored Products (US)

The power of Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) is becoming more accessible. In the US, Sponsored Products advertisers can now use three pre-built, ready-to-use AMC audiences without having to build the queries themselves.

1. High-intent audience: Targets shoppers whose recent interactions indicate a high probability of purchasing the advertised product.
2. Brand consideration audience: Targets shoppers who have clicked on or added a product from your brand to their cart in the last 3 months but did not complete a purchase.
3. Recent brand purchasers audience: Targets shoppers who have purchased a product from your brand in the last 3 months.

This is a massive step forward, making sophisticated retargeting and cross-selling strategies available with just a few clicks. While it's US-only for now, we expect it to roll out to Europe soon.

Dedicated B2B Targeting for Off-Amazon Ads

Previously, reaching B2B customers with Sponsored Brands ads off-Amazon (on select websites and apps) was a clumsy affair, limited to applying a bid modifier on a mixed audience. Now, Amazon allows for explicit B2B targeting. You can create campaigns that are 100% targeted to Amazon Business customers for your off-Amazon placements. This allows for clean, separate reporting and strategy for your B2B advertising efforts, making the feature significantly more powerful.

Sponsored Brands "New-to-Brand" Audience Caution

The "New-to-Brand" audience for Sponsored Brands, which targets shoppers who haven't purchased from you in the last 12 months, is becoming more widely available. However, it comes with a critical caveat.

Warning: If your brand is new to the market (e.g., less than 12 months old), every customer will be classified as "New-to-Brand." We have already seen case studies boasting about "New-to-Brand growth" for brands that have only existed for 6 months. This metric is meaningless in that context. Interpret this data with extreme care.

Marketing & Logistics

Amazon is tightening the rules around review aggregation and has dropped major news on FBA fees and Prime Day timing.

Vine Program Closes "Review Stacking" Loophole

Amazon is finally cracking down on "review stacking." Previously, a black-hat tactic involved enrolling dozens of slight product variations in the Vine program, collecting 30 reviews for each, and then merging them into a single parent ASIN to launch with hundreds of reviews. A new policy change makes this impossible.

When you now merge ASINs, the new parent item will only inherit the reviews from the single child ASIN that had the highest number of reviews. For example, if you merge two products that each have 30 Vine reviews, the parent ASIN will end with just 30 reviews, not 60. The exact mechanism for how Amazon defines "highest quality" is unclear, but the days of massive review stacking are over.

Prime Day 2025 Dates & Outlook

The dates for Prime Day have been leaked. As is tradition, it’s centered around the speaker’s birthday. Get ready for a four-day event, likely falling between July 14th and July 18th. The interesting context this year, particularly in the US, is the impact of tariffs. Many sellers have publicly stated they will not offer deep discounts. However, customer behavior is unlikely to change. Expect a massive sales peak, even for brands not officially participating in deals, as the traffic halo lifts all boats.

Major FBA & MCF Fee Overhaul Effective May 15

A significant restructuring of FBA and Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) fees is now in effect, primarily impacting softlines and fulfillment size tiers.

Action Item: These changes went live on May 15, 2025. Sellers should immediately review their profitability calculations for affected products.

• FBA Fee Reductions: Fees for most items in the Apparel, Accessories, Backpacks, and Handbags categories have been lowered.
• New Size Tiers: Seven new, more granular size tiers are being introduced for these categories.
• Weight Calculation Change: For these apparel/accessory categories, FBA fees will now be calculated based only on dimensional weight, not the greater of dimensional or unit weight.
• MCF Fee Updates:
  • The price structure is being consolidated from 29 to 12 size tiers.
  • Oversize item rates will increase by an average of 5.8%.
  • Envelope rates will be reduced by an average of 4%, with single-unit envelope orders seeing reductions up to 13%.
  • A new "Light Envelope" category is being introduced, with weights starting at 50g.

What Sellers Should Do Now

1. Prioritize Your Content Queue: Dive into the new ASIN performance sections in Business Reports. Use the "High Traffic" and "Low Sales" lists to identify and optimize your highest-priority listings.

2. Audit Your Ad Data: Review your Sponsored Products performance from late January to early May. If you use the "Bid across all placement pages" setting, be aware that the data may have been faulty and could have impacted your decisions.

3. Experiment with Performance Forecasts: For any campaigns you manage manually, start using the new Weekly Performance Forecasts to guide your bid changes and identify the point of diminishing returns.

4. Prepare Your AMC Strategy: Although the pre-built audiences are US-only for now, start planning how you will use them. Identify use cases for retargeting cart abandoners, cross-selling to recent purchasers, and targeting high-intent shoppers.

5. Build a Clean B2B Ad Strategy: If you sell to businesses, create dedicated Sponsored Brands campaigns using the new explicit B2B targeting for off-Amazon ads. Separate it from your B2C efforts for cleaner data and better control.

6. Re-evaluate Listing Merge Strategy: If you frequently merge product variations, understand that "review stacking" is no longer possible. Your total review count will be capped, changing the calculus for this strategy.

7. Update Your Profitability Calculations: Immediately review the new FBA and MCF rate cards that took effect on May 15th. This is especially critical if you sell in the apparel, accessories, or handbag categories, or if you heavily use MCF.

8. Model Your Prime Day Deals: As you plan for the July Prime Day, remember that the new coupon fee structure (where the per-redemption fee increases with volume) is in effect. Factor this into your budget and profitability models for all planned promotions.