[ BDSN ] Will Amazon take away your PPC targeting control?

July 03, 2025

STUMP BEZOS

TikTok Shop just launched in Japan to capitalize on its 33 million Japanese users. How many markets in TikTok Shop now in worldwide?

[ Answer at bottom of email ]

The latest inductee into the BDSS Dream 100 is a guy who claims to tell terrible dad jokes … but has taught more people how to make money online than just about anyone on this planet.

Meet Mike McClary.

If you’ve ever laughed in a mastermind group, walked away from a webinar with a to-do list longer than a CVS receipt, or finally understood a complex Amazon strategy because someone explained it clearly, chances are, Mike was behind it.

Mike’s the kind of guy who will lighten up a room with a one-liner, then turn around and drop a knowledge bomb that could make you seven figures if you just go do the thing. He’s funny, but make no mistake, he’s deadly serious about helping others succeed in e-commerce.

Let me tell you a story.

A few years back, a group of Amazon “gurus” gathered at a beach house just outside Pensacola, Florida. The kind of place where big ideas and bigger egos come to tan. There was one name you didn’t dare drop in that crowd: Kevin David. Some attendees made it very clear—they wouldn’t show up if he did.

So what did Mike do?

He fired up a burner WhatsApp account and, pretending to be Kevin David, messaged the group:

“Hey guys, just pulled up. Can someone move their car so I can safely park my Lambo?”

Panic ensued. Some people started sweating.

That’s vintage Mike. Mischievous. Quick. Relentlessly good-natured.

But don’t confuse the humor for fluff.

Mike’s been in the e-com trenches since FBA was still the Wild West. Before "Amazon guru" was a job title, he was the guy behind the scenes teaching tens of thousands of sellers how to navigate listings, loopholes, and logistics.

From 2013 quit his job to start his own FBA brand, and soon thereafter started working closely with Amazing.com, the company that practically created the Amazon third-party selling industry.

In 2019, he joined Amazing full-time to lead training and launch their seller tool Zoof. By 2022? He was CEO.

Mike doesn’t crave the spotlight. You won’t see him flexing on Instagram or spamming chat groups.

What you will see?

  • Clear, honest training.

  • Practical frameworks that work.

  • A quiet confidence that only comes from teaching thousands of people to bet on themselves and win.

He’s helped create millionaires, reshape mindsets, and turn first-time sellers into lifelong business owners.

And that’s no joke.

Welcome to the BDSS Dream 100, Mike McClary.

👀 SEARCH the BDSS CONTENT LIBRARY

Today I am officially launching the Billion Dollar Sellers Content Library.

You can now search a lot of the content I have created over the years. It will also update daily with anything new released.

No excuse to ever miss a newsletter, podcast, or post again.

  • Every BDSN Newsletter

  • Every Podcast I host, co-host or have been a guest on

  • Market Masters Expert Videos

  • LinkedIn and Facebook Posts

  • YouTube videos

  • Select Webinars

Live Session
What It Really Took for CrossNet to Land on Retail Shelves

📅 Thursday, July 17, 2025

⏰ 1:00 PM ET | 10:00 AM PT

Selling on Amazon and curious about retail?

Co-Founder and CMO, Chris Meade, built CrossNet into an online success and then pursued selling in stores where he learned some expensive lessons.

In this exclusive session of Unscripted Commerce, Chris opens up about:

  • Why he decided to pursue retail after success online

  • Why timing, pricing, and logistics matter

  • What it takes to build relationships with retailers

  • Managing ecommerce and retail channels and how they impact each other

  • The mistakes that cost Chris half a million dollars and how to avoid them

If you're curious about retail expansion, spend an hour with someone who's actually done it.

🔭 YOU GOTTA SEE THIS

🌎 Hmmm …

🪤  WILL AMAZON TAKE AWAY YOUR PPC TARGETING CONTROL?

TikTok just did it.

Meta is racing toward it.

And Amazon? It might be next.

If you rely on manual campaign control—audiences, bids, keywords—you may want to buckle up.


🔥 TikTok’s Shock Move: GMV Max Only

Starting next month, TikTok is removing all manual ad campaign types for TikTok Shop.

That means:

❌ No more Product Shopping Ads
❌ No more Video Shopping Ads
❌ No more LIVE Shopping Ads

Instead, sellers are being forced into one option: GMV Max, TikTok’s fully automated AI ad engine. You give it your product and your budget—TikTok handles everything else.

Targeting? Gone.
Audiences? Gone.
Control? Gone.

It’s the algorithm’s world now, and humans are just handing over credit cards.

TikTok believes their AI can beat your instincts. They’re betting so big on automation they’ve made human targeting extinct.

And here’s the kicker: it’s working. GMV Max’s targeting is scary-good. But it also sets a precedent: AI-first, human-last.

🤖 Meta’s $47B Power Play and the 2026 AI Ad Takeover

Meta isn’t just chasing the same future, they’re trying to own it.

According to a June 2025 Wall Street Journal report, Meta plans to fully automate ad creation and targeting by the end of 2026.

Zuckerberg's vision? A true AI one-stop shop.

Here’s how it works:

  • You upload a product image

  • Set a goal and a budget

  • Meta’s AI builds your entire ad: images, video, copy—and chooses your targeting

  • AI serves different versions in real time, adapting based on user data like location, behavior, and interests

Zuckerberg himself said Meta is building an ad platform where businesses simply “set goals, allocate budgets, and let the platform handle the logistics.” In other words: fire your ad agency, the machine’s got this.

His priority? Deliver “measurable results at scale” without humans getting in the way.

With over 3.4 billion users and a pipeline of AI-generated ad variations and creative tools, Meta’s AI ambition isn’t speculation. It’s a roadmap, and they’re ahead of schedule.


🟡 Is Amazon Next?

Amazon’s been creeping this way for years:

  • Sponsored Products defaults to Auto Campaigns

  • Suggested bids + targeting recommendations are now everywhere

  • Warehouse workflows, search behavior, and customer journeys are increasingly AI-shaped

And if TikTok and Meta prove that algorithmic control drives better ROI, Amazon has every incentive to follow suit, especially if it reduces seller support costs and drives more ad revenue per ASIN.

Industry insiders are already whispering: Amazon’s LLM-powered agents could soon bypass ad surfaces altogether, pushing organic and paid discoverability into one unified, AI-controlled experience.

❝

Imagine uploading your product … and Amazon decides everything else.

Watch the campaign by campaign breakdown of a $1m product launch on Amazon
by Chris Rawlings.

You'll get an inside look at each of the top 10 best performing campaigns that drove a million dollars in sales in one year with one new product launch on Amazon.

Plus a step-by-step guide on how to set each one up yourself. 

Watch the full video instantly here

🧻  AMAZON CONTINUES to ROLLOUT 2-PART TITLES

As Prem Gupta points out on Linkedin, Amazon is now actively implementing its two-part title structure across multiple categories. It’s usually a descriptive title followed by a clarifying phrase after a dash or pipe.

If you haven’t updated your listings yet, now’s the time.

✅ Why it matters: Adopting the new format can help improve discoverability, click-through rate, and compliance—especially as Amazon increasingly favors listings that follow style guides.

👉 Start testing the new structure on key ASINs and monitor performance.

 🔗 BDSN MYSTERY LINK of the DAY 🔗

😱  WORSE THAN AMAZON LOSING INVENTORY? FINDING IT!

Ina Steiner of eCommerce Bytes points out Amazon’s new FBA reimbursement policy is causing headaches.

But here’s something even more frustrating: when Amazon finds your “lost” inventory. .. months later … after it’s expired or worthless, and then reverses your reimbursement and charges you disposal fees. 

Yes, really.

🧾 Real Seller Scenarios:

  • One seller had seasonal chocolate inventory lost in September 2024, only for Amazon to "find" it February 2025 with most units expired or within 30 days of expiration.

  • Amazon told them: "Since we found it, it's now your responsibility." Reimbursement reversed. Removal fees charged. Ouch.

  • Another seller posted:

“We spent hours uploading photos and invoices to get partial reimbursement. Then months or years later, Amazon finds the items, reverses the reimbursement, and makes us pay to remove them. Total loss: time, inventory, and now extra fees.”

  • A third seller in May said:

“I got hit with a $1,100 reimbursement reversal for inventory lost 5+ months ago. I don’t even sell those products anymore!”

🔁 The Policy Problem:

In March 2025, Amazon changed how reimbursements work. Instead of paying sellers the retail value, they now reimburse based on manufacturing cost. And even that can be reversed if inventory later turns up regardless of condition.

📦 The Catch-22 for Perishables and Seasonals:

There’s still no clear Amazon policy protecting sellers when perishables or seasonal goods are lost and later recovered in unsellable condition. You're left footing the bill and holding the bag, sometimes literally.

🔎 Seller Tip:
If this happens to you, escalate immediately through Seller Support. Keep documentation of all expiry dates, seasonality relevance, and case logs. But brace yourself, it’s an uphill battle.

🥃 PARTING SHOT

“The secret to life is deceptively simple: it’s always having something to look forward to, doesn’t even matter how small or mundane.”

✌🏼 Have a great Fourth of July weekend!

See you again on Monday.

The answer to today’s STUMP BEZOS is
Japan is the 17th market for TikTok Shop