How to get more Amazon reviews: four compliant ways, and one is worth more than the rest

There are four ways to ask an Amazon buyer for a review without breaking a rule. You can't run all four: three of them spend the same single ask per order.

The four ways

• A card in the box. Costs you printing. No eligibility bar. The wording is yours, and that's also where the risk of a violation sits. What's allowed on a card, and what gets accounts suspended.
• The Request a Review button in Seller Central. Free, sits on every order, and you can't change a word of what it sends. What the button sends, and what pressing it costs you.
• A buyer-seller message. Free, wording is yours, but your reason for writing has to come off Amazon's list. The reasons you're allowed to write, and the four limits on every message.
• Vine. $0, $75 or $200 per parent product, only while the listing has under 30 reviews, capped at 30 units you give away for good. What the Vine agreement actually promises.

Vine doesn't use this ask: its reviews come from reviewers Amazon invites, and sellers can't contact them.

Three of them share the same ask

The limit is one ask per order, not one per channel.

The review policy brings package inserts under its rules, so we read the limit as covering the paper card too:

The button and the API share that ask as well, and each knows what the other spent: a second attempt on the same order "returns a 403 status code." A card that asks plus an automated message that asks again is two asks for one order. Our insert card examples guide gives the same advice: pick one channel and turn the other off.

Review rate won't tell you anything

Say 1,000 orders ship, 30 buyers scan your card, and your review count goes up by 20 that month. Divide 20 by 30 and you can announce a 67% review rate.

But you can't show that any of those 20 reviews came from those 30 people. Reviews are anonymous, and Seller Central won't join them up for you.

The industry numbers in circulation are worked out the same way: a platform average of 1% to 2%, inserts adding a point, the button running 1% to 3%, all reviews divided by orders. Some of the people writing those reviews never saw your card.

A rate is worth something when both halves are about the same people, such as how many of the buyers who scanned your code said something back. Seller Central doesn't have that number; the feedback page your QR code points to can count it, if it tracks responses.

The FTC's rule is looser than Amazon's

What the FTC regulates is the "expressing a particular sentiment" part, as its own guidance says: "The rule does not prohibit giving incentives for reviews, as long as there isn't an express or implied requirement that the reviews have to express a particular sentiment."

Amazon is stricter: trading anything for a review is a violation, whatever the review ends up saying:

Advice like "incentives are fine as long as you don't require a positive review" is right about federal law and will still get your account actioned on Amazon.

The FTC's definition of something of value is broad:

A discount code on the card is something of value, and so is an entry into your monthly giveaway, even though no cash changes hands.

The rule took effect on October 21, 2024. In December 2025 the FTC sent warning letters to ten companies over possible violations, and the first conduct it named was buying reviews by conditioning payment on what the review says.

section 465.7 is about a business suppressing negative reviews on its own site, and has nothing to do with how you ask for reviews on Amazon.

Why the card is where to spend it

• The button: it lands as a notice among all the buyer's other Amazon emails.
• A buyer-seller message: if all you want is to check in on the buyer, you can't send it.
• The card: what it says, how it looks, what it asks for and where the QR code goes are all up to you. It's in the buyer's hands when they open the box, and it can't land in spam.

What goes on the card, and where the QR code points

Point the QR code at your Amazon listing and the card is wasted: the buyer has just opened the box, and you've sent them back to the page they ordered from. An email-capture page that offers something in return is the incentive-for-a-review trade described above.

For the wording, ask everyone the same way, attach no conditions, and copy from the examples sorted by risk level.

Policy doesn't say where the QR code should point. Point it at a page of your own that helps with the product and gives the buyer somewhere to tell you something's wrong.

Or see the demo first: ten seconds through the page a buyer actually sees.

Frequently asked questions

Can you ask for a review on an insert card?

Yes, if you ask everyone the same way. Amazon's documents say you may ask customers to leave a review; what breaks the rule is a condition: asking only the happy ones, asking for a positive review or five stars, or offering anything back. "Enjoying it? Leave a review" is conditional too, because it picks who gets asked.

Can you run an insert card and the Request a Review button on the same order?

No. The Communication Guidelines list "a repeat request (per order) for a product review or seller feedback" among messages that aren't permitted, and the review policy says its rules apply to package inserts too, so we count the card as an ask. You can keep only one of the two.

Does the FTC rule ban offering a discount for a review?

Only when the discount is tied to the review saying something in particular. 16 CFR 465.4 covers incentives "in exchange for, or conditioned expressly or by implication on" reviews "expressing a particular sentiment". Amazon's review policy doesn't care what the review says: a discount in exchange for one breaks it either way, so on Amazon the answer is still no.

Do star-only ratings count as reviews?

Under the FTC rule, yes. The definition ends: "consumer reviews include consumer ratings regardless of whether they include any text or narrative." A buyer who taps four stars and writes nothing has left a consumer review, and everything that applies to a written one applies to that.

What review rate should you expect?

There's no number worth quoting. Reviews are anonymous, so you can't tell which ones came from buyers who saw your card. What you can count is how many of the buyers who scanned your code replied.

Is Vine worth it before you have 30 reviews?

It's the only paid route Amazon runs itself, and eligibility closes as your organic reviews arrive, but what you get back is uncertain: the agreement promises no number of reviews, no tone, and no removal of a bad one. Count the units you give away in the cost, not just the $75 or $200 enrollment fee.

Related: Amazon insert card rules in 2026 | The Request a Review button: what it sends and what it costs | Where Amazon's review and insert rules are actually written | What the Amazon Vine agreement actually says | What are bad reviews costing you? Free calculator