Amazon Is Quietly Bringing Ads to Rufus, Its Gen AI Search Engine 

Amazon is starting to plug ads into generative AI.

Sponsored ads—Amazon’s core search ad format—could start appearing in placements for Rufus, according to Amazon Ads’ product releases for September. Rufus is Amazon’s seven-month-old shopping assistant that uses gen AI to help people find products within Amazon’s mobile app.

Rufus is a chatbot that can answer questions about the types of products that people are looking for—like what qualities or ingredients someone should consider when making a purchase. For example, asking Rufus to find products for travel pulls up links and the accompanying product detail pages for leakproof silicone bottles, travel adapters, and a portable charger.

Amazon’s tests with Rufus ads are only running in the U.S., according to Amazon’s product release.

“We continue to make enhancements to the Rufus experience, including improving brand and product discovery by introducing relevant sponsored ads that help customers discover selections related to their conversation with Rufus,” said an Amazon spokesperson.

In the product release, Amazon noted that Rufus is able to generate the text for ads with queries that require context. And Rufus campaigns will not be included in the metrics that advertisers receive from Amazon.

Amazon said that ads in Rufus will be tailored and relevant to what people are looking for. The ads will also be based on the search terms and context of the queries asked.

Amazon declined to share what the ads look like within Rufus.

Advertisers are cautious about Rufus

Advertisers are mixed about the potential of ads within Rufus.

Ross Caveille, cofounder of e-commerce adtech firm Acorn-i, said that ads in Rufus mirror how ads already appear in Amazon’s main search engine. Amazon’s main search engine shows a combination of organic results and ads when people type in a query, and Caveille suggested that advertisers will want their placements to similarly appear in Rufus.

“It would be advantageous to an advertiser to be able to sponsor a Rufus result that directs the shopper deeper to the product detail page,” he said. “Amazon needs to balance customer experience with advertising clutter, but a sponsored search result mixed with organic on Rufus is quite native to the user experience already in place.”

But Travis Johnson, global CEO of Amazon agency Podean, said that matching the context of a query typed into Rufus with an ad will be hard. For example, Rufus may recommend a women’s running shoe for a male shopper, causing advertisers to target the wrong demographic.

“If it were an ad, it would be a wasted opportunity,” Johnson said. “It could be embarrassing for brands where their products are displayed in places where they definitely don’t want to be.”

Advertisers will likely have to give up control

Advertisers could also struggle with measuring the performance of Rufus campaigns, said Laura Meyer, CEO and founder of Amazon agency Envision Horizons. Because Amazon said it will not include Rufus campaigns in the metrics advertisers get, it could be hard for brands to know if Rufus ads drove sales, she said. 

“Brands will instead need to develop strategies to infer impact through overall performance changes,” she said.

Meyer also said that Rufus’ ability to spin up text for ads when needed on queries that need more context will give brands less control over the appearance of their ads. 

Plus, ads may disrupt shoppers’ experience with Rufus.

“Brands testing this feature should plan on monitoring customer feedback and engagement rates to ensure ads enhance rather than detract from the Rufus tool,” she said.