International brands entering Türkiye usually meet the market through marketplaces before their own storefront gains traction. Trendyol and Hepsiburada are homegrown platforms, and Amazon operates Amazon.com.tr. All three sell ad placements inside their own search and category pages, but they give advertisers very different levels of control.
For brands used to Amazon in the US or Europe, the biggest adjustment is how little manual control the local platforms offer. Trendyol’s system is covered in detail in What Is Trendyol Ads?.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Criterion | Trendyol Ads | Hepsiburada HepsiAd | Amazon.com.tr Sponsored Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core product ad | Product Ads | Sponsored Products, One Click Product | Sponsored Products |
| Targeting | Automatic, no manual keywords | Automatic, based on selected products | Automatic, manual keywords (broad, phrase, exact), and product targeting |
| Pricing | CPM or CPC | Pay per click | CPC with advertiser-set bids |
| Search term reporting | Limited | Limited | Available |
| Other formats | Store ads, influencer ads, Meta-network CPAS ads | Keyword-triggered video ads, segment-targeted ads | Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display |
| Featured offer required | Yes (BuyBox) | Yes (BuyBox) | Yes (featured offer) |
What International Teams Should Expect
Amazon.com.tr feels familiar. Amazon Ads’ sponsored ads guide describes the same targeting options and core reports, including search term, targeting, and placement reports, available in other Amazon marketplaces. Existing Amazon playbooks transfer with localization.
Trendyol and Hepsiburada require a different mindset. With no keyword bidding, optimization happens upstream in the listing itself. Product title, category assignment, images, ratings, and price competitiveness determine where automated ads show and whether they convert. Listing quality work carries more weight than campaign settings.
Hepsiburada adds a keyword lever through video. HepsiAd lets brands attach keywords to video ads that appear at the top of search result pages. That gives brand teams a search-intent placement even though product ads themselves are automated.
Localization isn’t optional. Listings, ad creative, and customer service run in Turkish, prices are in Turkish lira, and inflation means price updates happen far more often than in euro or dollar markets. Automated ad systems read price competitiveness continuously, so stale prices hurt visibility quickly.
What’s Different About Hepsiburada HepsiAd
Hepsiburada’s ad platform, HepsiAd, uses automatic targeting for products you select and charges only for clicks. The One Click Product feature creates ads instantly for products where campaigns, bids, or coupons are already defined.
The standout feature is keyword-triggered video ads. When a shopper searches for keywords you attach to your video, your brand’s video appears at the top of the search results before product listings. This gives you a keyword-tied brand placement even though product ads themselves run automatically. It’s a bridge between automated systems and search-intent targeting.
New Seller Credits on Amazon Turkey
Amazon.com.tr offers new sellers a credit toward Sponsored Products ads. New sellers who create ads for qualifying products within 90 days of listing get up to 40,000 TL in advertising credit. Terms change periodically, so verify current conditions before launching your first campaign.
Break-Even ROAS Includes Commission
Marketplace ROAS can’t be judged like own-site ROAS, because commission and fulfillment come out of every sale.
| Item | Share of a sale |
|---|---|
| Sale price | 100% |
| Marketplace commission (assumed) | 20% |
| Shipping and packaging | 6% |
| Product cost | 45% |
| Contribution before advertising | 29% |
With a 29% contribution margin, break-even ROAS is 100 ÷ 29 ≈ 3.45. A marketplace campaign reporting 3.0 ROAS loses money on every attributed sale for this product. Commission rates vary by category and platform, so the calculation needs to be done per category.
Choosing Where to Start
| Brand situation | Starting point |
|---|---|
| Existing Amazon expertise, search-driven category | Amazon.com.tr Sponsored Products with manual keywords |
| Broad consumer category, strong reviews and pricing | Trendyol and Hepsiburada automated product ads |
| Launching brand awareness | HepsiAd video ads, Trendyol store ads, Amazon Sponsored Brands |
| Several resellers on the same listing | Win the featured offer before spending on ads |
Common Mistakes
The first mistake is advertising a product without holding the featured offer. On all three platforms, ads drive traffic to the product page, but only the featured-offer seller gets the sale.
The second is judging marketplace ROAS by own-site standards and forgetting to subtract commission and shipping. In the example above, a 3.0 ROAS appears healthy until the math includes the 20% commission and 6% fulfillment cost — then it’s a loss.
The third is siloing marketplace ad data from own-site strategy. Amazon’s search-term report tells you which searches convert; those searches are valuable additions to your Google Ads keywords or organic SEO strategy.
Summary
Türkiye’s marketplace ad systems range from fully automated (Trendyol) to manually controlled (Amazon.com.tr). On the local platforms, listing quality and pricing do the work that keyword management does elsewhere. On all three, ads only pay off when the brand holds the featured offer and when ROAS is judged against a break-even point that includes commission and shipping.