In recent weeks, Amazon Product Listing Ads have been surfacing in Google’s paid shopping results.  Amazon increasing its shopping presence through Google Product Listing Ads will (and should) strike fear into smaller retailers that will have trouble competing with the potentially monstrous budget of the online retail superstore.

In the past, Amazon has run standard text-based search ads, but remained absent from Google’s shopping listings. But with Product Listing Ads now dominating Google’s eCommerce traffic, Amazon may be looking to step its foot into the game, despite formerly being unwilling to play ball with Google – fearing that doing so could help strengthen Google’s position as the leader in product-based searches.

Online retailers can make use of Google AdWords’ Auction Insights report to see how Amazon and other retail competitors are affecting their share of search impressions and average cost-per-click.