Search promotion is the only major marketplace advertising tool where you pay not for clicks and impressions but a share of an order that has actually happened. It sounds like a free lunch, and on the whole the tool really is the safest one to start with, but "pay per order" has economics of its own, and without doing the math it quietly eats your margin. Here are the mechanics and the numbers.
How pay per order works
You set a bid as a percentage of the product price. Ozon lifts the card in search and in categories, and charges you only when the ad leads to an order. The higher the bid, the higher your priority among the competitors who are bidding for the same slot.
The key difference from Trafarety, Ozon's automated display ad format: there you buy traffic and carry the conversion risk yourself, here the risk sits with the platform, and no order means no spend. The budget cannot burn out on clicks, which is why sellers often switch this tool on first and keep it running in the background permanently.
What the tool is good at
- A safe start. A burned budget is impossible here in principle: you pay only out of sales.
- Predictable economics. Spend always equals the bid times the total of ad-driven orders, so the tool's ad spend share (DRR) is known in advance.
- Background mode. Switch it on at the minimum bid and the card gets a small boost without daily supervision.
What it is bad at, and where the catch hides
- The bid is charged on every ad-driven order in full. At a margin of 25%, a bid of 10% takes almost half the profit on those orders.
- Bid competition. In competitive categories sellers bid aggressively for a noticeable effect, and the "effective" bid can end up above your margin.
- It is a discount, just an invisible one. A share of the order should be built into the price in advance, in the same way as promotions and the SPP loyalty discount.
How to choose the bid
- Calculate the SKU's net margin using unit economics, after commission, logistics and taxes.
- The upper limit for the bid is the point at which an ad-driven order is still profitable. Above that you are paying for turnover, not for profit.
- Start at the minimum bid, running in the background across the whole assortment, and raise it selectively on priority SKUs and in season.
- Once a week check the report: the share of ad-driven orders and the combined ad spend share (DRR) for the product, Trafarety included.
Combining it with the rest of your advertising
The mature account setup: search promotion as a risk-free background plus Trafarety as controlled acceleration on your best sellers. The overall picture of the formats is in the Ozon advertising hub. And remember: any advertising only scales the card, so it is content and price first, bids second.
FAQ
"What is search promotion on Ozon?" An advertising tool with pay per order: the seller sets a bid as a percentage of the price, Ozon lifts the product in search and in categories, and charges money only for the orders the ad brought in.
"What bid should I set in search promotion?" Start at the minimum and raise it selectively. The upper limit is the bid at which an ad-driven order is still profitable on the SKU's net margin.
"How is search promotion different from Trafarety?" In the payment model and the risk: Trafarety sells traffic (clicks or impressions) with no guarantee of an order, while search promotion takes a percentage of a sale that has actually happened.
"Can search promotion run at a loss?" The budget does not burn, but at a bid above your margin every ad-driven order loses money. This tool goes into the red not in spend but in profit, and that is visible only through unit economics.
