Amazon has recently introduced the Responsive eCommerce Creative (REC), an ad format that allows advertisers to generate an ad automatically and include up to 20 ASINs per creative. The benefits are:

1. Optimization: The machine selects the top performing products for display
2. Awareness: The machine is aware of items that are out of stock and does not promote these ASINs until the inventory replenishes
3. Auto-resize: the automatic feature decreases the time it takes to create ads by up to 90%
4. Placement: Opens access to high value placements

Creating the ad itself is quicker and easier compared to the existing Dynamic eCommerce Ads (DEA), which requires manually creating unique creative for each ASIN and creative size desired. You can search by item, ASIN or upload a list of ASINs when creating the REC. Visually for the consumer, the ad is the same as a typical DEA unit. There are still benefits of Display Ads, which include the ability for the Display Ad to support customization of the ad. REC advertisements cover a large amount of use cases and support more ASINs and sizes per creative, so the two ad types are complements to each other, rather than interchangeable.

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Some things to be aware of with the REC beta launch:

1. Advertisers are not able to turn off underperforming ASINs
2. Advertisers can remove ASINs and edit the creative, however there will be an approval process from Amazon
3. There is no reporting between ad sizes for now, though this functionality is expected to be added in the future
4. REC is only available from a seller account and requires having an ASIN for the product (limits use to endemic advertisers only)

The features of this launch are very interesting and, with some development and improvements, can help brands gain impressions and improve conversion rates, as the REC can be displayed on competitors’ product detail pages. Additionally, the features included in the new ad unit show investment in merging some of the advanced functionality built out with the Sponsored Product Ads (such as pausing with Out-of-Stock or Lost Buy Box). On top of this, advertisers can expect to see significant time savings with campaign launching and take advantage of more ad sizes vs. DEA.