I am trying to run Amazon advertising campaigns again. I ran these last year, and for a while they worked pretty well. But I had to many campaigns running simultaneously that I wasn’t able to keep them updated and fresh. The secret to running campaigns on Amazon is apparently a lot of sweat equity invested in the effort. Why did I ever think that there were free lunches?
I am starting off slowly and carefully, but I have already discovered something potentially bothersome. The first campaign I ran was for Unselfish Uncle. The second was for Busty Ballbreaker, and the third was for Crying Camper.
I checked the status of the three ads and discovered that the campaign for Crying Camper has been approved, but the add for Busty Ballbreaker is still pending. Opps! No, it’s been suspended. Apparently it “doesn’t satisfy ad policy requirements.” Whatever they are. There doesn’t seem to be any further explanation as to what is wrong or which requirements have not been satisfied.
I suspect that this is Amazon trying to control the content of our speech. The people at Amazon (or maybe a computer algorithm) identify certain words and deems them unacceptable for our use. I thought we had moved past that kind of childish behavior.
I contacted my editor about my problem. She was well familiar with the problem with Amazon. She suggested redoing the add, using key words that worked for an approved ad. She also suggested that the ads are sometimes reviewed by specific individuals, and one ad may pass one reviewer’s scrutiny while another reviewer’s dander is raised. I don’t know if this is wishful thinking, or is some insight to the workings of Amazon that only an editor would have.
In any case, I’m now experimenting to see what are the limits to freedom of speech.
P.S. Several hours later, I checked and my revised ad for Busty Ballbreaker was approved. Damn, maybe my editor knows what she’s talking about!