Marketplace advertising campaigns (Ads / PPC)
Allegro Ads, Amazon Ads, Kaufland Ads and Zalando Marketing Services. Your budget goes where the buyer is already searching, offer by offer, against the margin each offer carries.
Author: Iwona Lewanczyk Rompca · co-founder of Commercraft, e-commerce and marketplace expert · updated: September 2026
Marketplace advertising reaches buyers who already intend to buy, which makes it warmer traffic than social media. It is just as easy to waste, by paying for clicks you would have earned organically.
The click price you can afford comes out of your unit margin after commission, which is why the budget is set offer by offer instead of as one number for the account. Defending a position you already hold and buying a new one are separate campaigns with separate ceilings.
What we run
Allegro Ads
Allegro is Poland’s dominant marketplace, the local equivalent of Amazon. Its panel runs sponsored offers on a click auction (search results, left column, product page), display and video on impressions, and Ads Express for automated setup. Since 16 February 2026 the minimum click price in search runs from PLN 0.60 to PLN 0.80 depending on the category, and a dynamic target has to sit at least 25% above the minimum for its category.
Zalando Marketing Services
Zalando Marketing Services covers sponsored products, creative formats, on-site placements and influencer work, booked through the Ad Manager or with the partner team. Zalando ran 26,500 campaigns on it in 2024. The Partner Program itself works on invitations, so the advertising conversation starts once you are in.
Amazon Ads
Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display, run against advertising cost of sale (ACOS and TACOS) rather than clicks alone. Sponsored Brands and A+ content sit behind Brand Registry, which costs nothing but asks for a registered or applied-for trade mark, so we check that before the budget is planned.
Budget per offer, set by margin
The budget follows unit margin after commission, offer by offer, not an even split across the account. That is also what sets the click price you can afford: an offer in a category paying 16% commission carries a very different bid from one paying 5%.
How each platform charges for advertising
Four auctions, four sets of rules. The entry price and the smallest sensible test look different on each one.
| Platform | How you pay | What to know in September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Allegro Ads | Cost per click for sponsored offers in search, in the left column and on product pages. Display and video are sold on impressions. | Minimum click prices rose on 16 February 2026 by up to PLN 0.15 and now run from PLN 0.60 to PLN 0.80 by category. A dynamic target has to be at least 25% above the category minimum. |
| Amazon Ads | Cost per click across Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display. | Sponsored Brands needs Brand Registry. Amazon cut referral fees on several categories in December 2025 and January 2026, which changes the click price an offer can carry. |
| Kaufland Ads | Second-price auction, from 0.01 € a click. | Both subscriptions, Basic at 39.95 € and Plus at 59.95 € net a month, include 30 € of monthly credit for Sponsored Product Ads, which is enough to test a category before committing budget. |
| Zalando Marketing Services | Campaigns and placements booked through the Ad Manager or with the partner team. | 26,500 campaigns ran on ZMS in 2024. Entry to the Partner Program is by invitation. |
| eMAG | Promotional placements on the Polish and Romanian marketplace. | eMAG charges nothing for listing, the account or a subscription, so advertising is the variable cost on top of a commission of 7-25% by category. |
There is no reliable public benchmark for an average click price or an average ACOS on these platforms. A figure quoted as an industry average comes from another market or another category, so the baseline that means anything is your own first month of data.
The peaks are fixed dates and worth planning the budget around. In 2026 Smart! Weeks ran on 11-20 May, Prime Day on 23-26 June and Allegro Days on 7-13 September. Black Friday falls on 27 November and Cyber Monday on 30 November.
Sources: Allegro minimum click prices per sellify.pl and the Allegro Ads format overview in internetstandard.pl (March 2026); Kaufland Global Marketplace conditions, read in September 2026; Amazon fee changes announced on aboutamazon.eu in December 2025 and January 2026, and Brand Registry terms in Seller Central; corporate.zalando.com on Zalando Marketing Services (24 July 2025); eMAG marketplace conditions.
How we work
1. Audit and goals
We check which products have the potential and margin to carry advertising, and set a realistic goal: sales, visibility or defending a position.
2. Campaign structure
We build defensive campaigns (your own brand) and offensive ones (category, competitors) separately, because each has a different profitable cost per click.
3. Launch and bids
We start with considered bids and a budget per product based on margin.
4. Optimising for ROAS
We look at return on ad spend and conversion every day, cutting the phrases that generate cost without sales.
5. Reporting and recommendations
We report results clearly and recommend the next moves: where to add budget, what to pause, what to scale.
What really needs watching
- Paying for traffic you already get organically. Advertising an offer that already ranks first is often a waste of budget, so we adjust ROAS for organic sales.
- Splitting the budget evenly. Spreading budget evenly across the account kills profitability. We allocate it by the margin each offer carries after commission.
- Chasing somebody else’s ACOS. No reliable public benchmark exists for an average click price or ACOS on Allegro, Amazon.de or Kaufland. Targets come from your own margin.
- Advertising without a good product page. Advertising will bring the customer in, but a weak listing still will not convince them. Ads and content have to work together.
Who it's for and what you gain
Advertising makes sense when you want to launch new products faster, defend your bestsellers or enter a market where nobody knows your brand. Before the first campaign, check what the channel has to return in the ROI calculator. How the results are read week by week is on the analytics and reporting page, and the Allegro panel has its own guide: Allegro Ads.
About the author
Iwona Lewanczyk Rompca – co-founder of Commercraft. She works in e-commerce and marketplace sales every day, bridging the operational and business sides. · updated: September 2026
