Amazon Review Requests Explained

For more than a decade, paying for reviews could get you banned from Amazon. Now Amazon sells it. Review Requests is a new ad type that puts a review prompt in front of shoppers who already bought your product, and you pay Amazon for the placement.

This guide is for Amazon brand owners deciding whether to turn it on. You’ll learn how it works, which products qualify, how you get charged, whether it’s allowed and how to get access. We lined up about 25 of our brands to test it the week it was announced, so this is the practical version.

The short version

Review Requests is an ad type shown only to shoppers who already bought your product, asking them to leave a star rating and review, for example on the Amazon homepage.
Products need fewer than 1,000 reviews and your account must have no policy violations. Campaigns switch off automatically when a product reaches 1,000 reviews.
Amazon says products in its closed beta got 3x more ratings and reviews. Expect more reviews, not necessarily a higher star rating.
Billing is not fully settled: Amazon’s demo campaigns looked like pay per click, while its API documentation describes pay per review.
Only turn it on for products that already deliver a good customer experience.

1. What Amazon Review Requests Is (and What It Is Not)

Amazon announced Review Requests on September 29 at its unBoxed event. Almost every headline that day was about AI agents and new plugins, so it was easy to miss. Inside our team, the Slack channel was on fire.

Amazon has tried to help sellers get reviews before. None of it worked well. So first, separate Review Requests from the two tools you already know.

It is not Amazon Vine

Vine is Amazon’s program where shoppers who have opted in as reviewers receive your product and review it. It is still available and lets you get up to 30 reviews, though you usually get fewer. The problem: many Vine reviewers take the job far too seriously, so a critical review is more likely. You sold an insulated coffee mug. They reviewed it like a Michelin inspector.

It is not the Request a Review button

The Request a Review button in Seller Central triggers an email from Amazon asking the buyer to leave a review. Sellers started firing it on every order for every product. The emails lost relevance, and shoppers learned to ignore them.

It is an ad type

Review Requests is an ad. It’s the first Amazon ad type open to sellers that runs after the purchase, not before it.

2. How Review Requests Works for the Shopper

Think of it like any other campaign in your Amazon PPC (pay-per-click advertising, where you pay Amazon for ad placements). You pay for a placement on Amazon’s website and extended network. The difference is the goal: a review, not a purchase. Only shoppers who already bought your product see it.

Amazon says the ad can show in several places, with the homepage being one of them. A typical flow looks like this:

A shopper buys your product, and you already have Review Requests enabled in your ads account.
The next time they visit Amazon, perhaps a few weeks later, a small ad box on the home screen asks them to leave a review for the product.
They can rate it in one click by tapping a number of stars.
Just like a normal review, they then get the option to add photos, videos and written text.

3. Which Products Qualify

Not every account or product can use Review Requests. Check these before you plan a test:

No policy violations. If your account has any open policy violations, you need to resolve them before you can enroll.
Sellers and vendors. Both registered third-party sellers and vendors can use it.
Under 1,000 reviews. This is the most important rule. The product must have fewer than 1,000 reviews, and a running campaign shuts itself off automatically once the product reaches 1,000.

That cap tells you who this is built for. You’re launching a product or a brand. You have the budget. You know the product is good. And you’re dreading the stretch between zero and a couple hundred reviews, where traction is hardest to get. That’s where Review Requests earns its keep.

4. How You Get Charged

This is the part Amazon doesn’t seem to have worked out yet. In Amazon’s demo campaigns, it looked as though you pay per click, like a normal PPC campaign. Amazon’s API documentation, however, states that you pay per review.

They may be the same thing. If the ad shows empty stars and the shopper’s click sets the rating, one click is the review, and there’s no contradiction. Or Amazon is still working out pricing, which is normal for any Amazon beta. Either way, it’s rolling out to accounts now. You may already have access.

Amazon’s headline stat is that sellers in the closed beta, which started in June, got three times as many reviews as products and sellers that were not using it. That stat undersells it. If this works like any other paid placement, you can buy roughly as many reviews as your budget allows, up to the 1,000 cap. That’s the real value, because reviews are the hardest part of launching on Amazon.

5. Will It Raise Your Star Rating?

Not by itself. Review Requests will almost certainly get you more reviews. It won’t necessarily get you a better rating.

Here is the psychology. The average Amazon product has a review rate of about 1%, meaning one review for every 100 orders. People usually review when they’re thrilled or furious. A one-click prompt lowers the effort so far that anyone with an opinion will rate it. Expect more three-star and four-star reviews, and an overall rating that moves closer to the true customer experience of your product. That is exactly what Amazon wants: a review system with integrity.

And unlike the third-party review services of the past, nobody is paid to be nice. That’s why it beats Vine for most products: the reviewers are regular buyers. It’s also why it won’t fix a weak rating.

If your rating is the problem, improve the things that shape the customer experience first:

Product design
Packaging and the unboxing experience
Your brand story
Any communication with customers after the purchase

Once most of your incoming reviews are positive, hit the gas. That’s what Review Requests is for.

6. Is Paying for Reviews Even Allowed?

If you have sold on Amazon for a few years, this is the obvious question. The FTC (the US Federal Trade Commission) has put a lot of pressure on Amazon over the integrity of its customer reviews. Amazon responded by putting even more pressure on sellers. A few years ago it banned incentivizing any kind of review, not only positive ones. “Leave us an honest review and get 20% off your next order” is explicitly banned, and that rule still applies to everything you do outside this program.

We see Review Requests as the first sign of that pendulum swinging back. The FTC rules prohibit incentivizing a positive review, and in this program the shopper is not incentivized at all. You pay Amazon for visibility. The buyer gets an easy way to leave an honest review. Amazon collects the check, as always.

7. How to Get Access to Review Requests

Amazon is pushing newer features through its Ads Agent (its AI-first ads console) and the Amazon Ads API (the interface software uses to manage your ads). Here’s the process we’re running across our accounts:

Clean up your account. Check Account Health in Seller Central and resolve anything that could make you ineligible.
List your eligible ASINs. An ASIN is Amazon’s unique product ID. Live products under 1,000 reviews should qualify. Only include the ones that deliver a good customer experience, or you’ll just collect more negative reviews faster.
Check the Ads Agent. Open the Ads Agent inside the ads console and see whether Review Requests is already enabled for your account.
Ask for access. Amazon says you can contact it to request access. If you have an account manager, email them. If you do not, open a new Seller Support ticket in Seller Central and request access to the beta.
Use the API. The feature is already live in Amazon’s API, so you can also enroll through third-party software or an MCP (a connector that lets an AI assistant like Claude work with your Amazon data), such as the Sophie Society MCP.

8. Where This Is Heading: Pay to Play, or a Reward for Better Brands?

There’s a grimmer read. Review Requests takes something sellers used to get for free, or hack together themselves, and charges for it. Plenty of sellers worry Amazon will keep squeezing the orange until the marketplace is 100% pay to play and the best-funded players, private equity and venture-backed startups, always win.

We disagree. The program follows simple incentives, and it rewards brands with a good product and a good customer experience. Those brands get to the success they’d probably have reached anyway, just sooner:

More good reviews earlier means your ad spend converts better.
Better conversion helps you rank organically.
A higher review count supports a higher click-through rate (the share of shoppers who click your listing after seeing it) than competitors on the same keyword, which helps that ranking stick.

It’s not about big versus small. It rewards the better brand.

Testing new Amazon ad types across client accounts is part of what our Amazon PPC agency team does every week. Launching a product? Pair Review Requests with our Amazon listing optimization guide and our Amazon ranking strategy so the extra reviews land on a listing that converts.

FAQ

Is Review Requests the same as Amazon Vine?

No. Vine sends your product to opted-in reviewers and caps you at 30 reviews. Review Requests is an ad that asks your real buyers to rate the product they already purchased.

Which products are eligible for Review Requests?

Live products with fewer than 1,000 reviews, sold by registered third-party sellers or vendors whose accounts have no policy violations. Campaigns turn off automatically at 1,000 reviews.

Do you pay per click or per review?

It is not fully clear yet. Amazon’s demo campaigns suggested pay per click, while the API documentation says pay per review. If a single click on the stars counts as the review, both descriptions may be accurate.

Will Review Requests improve my star rating?

Not necessarily. It should bring in more reviews, including more three-star and four-star ones, so your rating moves toward the real customer experience. Fix the product experience first if your rating is weak.

Is it against Amazon’s rules to pay for reviews this way?

Review Requests is Amazon’s own program. You pay Amazon, and the shopper receives no incentive. Offering buyers discounts or rewards for reviews outside the program is still not allowed.

How do I get access to Review Requests?

Check the Ads Agent in your ads console. If it is not there, ask your account manager or open a Seller Support ticket, or enroll through the Amazon Ads API using third-party software or an MCP connected to Claude.