> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.laurence.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Overview

> How Amazon search, ads and demand work, as we have measured them, and how to read these pages

These pages explain how Amazon works. Most of what people believe about Amazon ads comes from Amazon's own guides and industry habit; where we have measured something ourselves, the measurement wins, and every page says which is which.

## How to read these pages

Every factual claim carries one of four labels:

| Label | Meaning |
| - | - |
| `Measured` | We measured it on our own accounts and reports. The source names the sample and the date. |
| `Amazon-documented` | Amazon states it in its documentation, its API, or its reports. |
| `Our convention` | A rule or default we chose. It is not a fact about Amazon. |
| `Unmeasured belief` | Widely assumed, by us or by the industry, but not yet measured. Treat it as a hypothesis. |

A number can be true and still be specific to its sample: a measurement on a few stores in one month is evidence, not a law. When two sources disagree, each page prints the most recent measurement on the largest sample and says what it was.

## Five things most advertisers get wrong

1. **A bid mostly buys entry, not a better price.** Raising a bid wins far more auctions than it changes where the ad lands or what a click costs. See [The Auction](https://www.laurence.com/docs/amazon/the-auction.md).
2. **Many clicks are charged the full bid.** Amazon's auction does not behave like the clean "pay just above the next bidder" auction most guides describe. See [The Auction](https://www.laurence.com/docs/amazon/the-auction.md).
3. **Organic clicks fall smoothly down the page.** There is no cliff after the first row: each place lower loses a little, and beyond the top ten the click rate sits on a low floor. See [Organic and Paid](https://www.laurence.com/docs/amazon/organic-and-paid.md).
4. **Every demand source ranks searches well and counts them badly.** Each one is reliable for which search is bigger, not for how big. See [Demand and Markets](https://www.laurence.com/docs/amazon/demand-and-markets.md).
5. **Nobody has measured how much paid sales lift organic rank.** It is the most common belief in the industry, and ours too; it is still a hypothesis. See [Organic and Paid](https://www.laurence.com/docs/amazon/organic-and-paid.md).

## The pages

| Page | What you will learn |
| - | - |
| [How a Shopper Buys](https://www.laurence.com/docs/amazon/how-a-shopper-buys.md) | The path from a search to an order, and the products, listings, sellers and Buy Box along it |
| [Sponsored Ads](https://www.laurence.com/docs/amazon/sponsored-ads.md) | The three ad products, how campaigns are built, and how targets match searches |
| [The Search Results Page](https://www.laurence.com/docs/amazon/search-results-page.md) | What a shopper sees after a search, where ads sit, and what organic rank means |
| [The Auction](https://www.laurence.com/docs/amazon/the-auction.md) | How a click is priced, what a bid buys, and the FTC case about Amazon's auction |
| [Placements](https://www.laurence.com/docs/amazon/placements.md) | How clicks, conversion and cost differ between Top of Search, Rest of Search and product pages |
| [Organic and Paid](https://www.laurence.com/docs/amazon/organic-and-paid.md) | How organic rank drives sales, and what advertising does and does not do to it |
| [Demand and Markets](https://www.laurence.com/docs/amazon/demand-and-markets.md) | Where we see shopper demand, what each source misses, and how we define markets and niches |
| [Measuring Results](https://www.laurence.com/docs/amazon/measuring-results.md) | How Amazon reports what ads did, the traps in that reporting, and the accounts and data we read |
| [Glossary](https://www.laurence.com/docs/amazon/glossary.md) | Every term used in these pages |


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