Amazon Marketing Cloud: The Ultimate Guide

The Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) is a secure solution that uses Amazon Web Services to provide sellers with a holistic approach to data analysis without the risk of breaching any privacy.

It measures impressions, engagement, conversions, and revenue while maintaining the privacy of its customers. You can optimize your marketing campaigns based on your audienceโ€™s buying patterns by tracking the movements. 

  • Holistic Measurement: this can help in various areas like campaign measurement, audience analysis, media optimization, and more.
  • Flexible Analytics: use custom queries to explore unique questions and campaign opportunities
  • Cross-Media Insights: receive analytics from video, images, and audio to get a complete picture of the customer journey.
  • Privacy- Safe Environment: advertisers can only export aggregated and anonymous data from the AMC. 

The AMC is a brilliant solution to the problems many marketers have and provides extra information that is unavailable in regular reports. 

How the Amazon Marketing Cloud Works

Amazon marketing cloud is a practical way of viewing the success of your campaigns. It uses Amazon Web Services to give you a complete overview of your Amazon ad campaigns while implementing a strict privacy policy. 

To protect the privacy of their customers, Amazon ensures that all data collected must contain a minimum of 100 users and ensures advertisers cannot directly access the data. Despite this, the information gathered is still highly beneficial to advertisers. One thing of note is if you are a small or new business, you may get limited use out of the AMC. 

The AMC relies on having a decent amount of data to produce each instance. It also runs each instance from sales within 28 days past, so without an ongoing ad campaign, you may not have enough applicable data.

How does it collect data?

The cloud uses a customerโ€™s unique identification number to automatically track their actions after clicking on your ad. It identifies what ASINs were purchased together and how long after viewing an ad a consumer converted, which is very helpful for organizing your strategy. 

AMC records clicks, page navigation, add-to-cart, and check-out actions. All the information gathered is anonymous and presented as an overall percentage. Displaying information this way helps to understand your overall performance while maintaining the consumerโ€™s privacy.

The Amazon marketing cloud runs on cloud instances, which only contain data from one advertiser at a time. Each instance will hold the past 28 days’ worth of data and only this data will be provided with queries. 

The protocol can be different for the demand side platform, as multiple IDs can represent a single advertiser. In one of these cases, the information from the past 12.5 months will get stored in the instance. You cannot create these instances yourself, and it can take 3-5 days for them to be produced, so it is worth remembering if you are in this position. 

Benefits of using the Amazon Marketing Cloud

Here are my top 5 benefits of using the AMC. 

Cross-channel/platform reporting

The AMC can find an audience’s preferred channels by showing the number of times each was used and what actions were taken. 

Cross-platform, if you use other platforms like Google, it can combine them and show which platform is getting the most traffic. 

Customizable results

The AMC uses your programming language so your advertiser can focus on the data relevant to your goals. It has a customizable dataset, which you can adjust according to your needs. 

Saves a lot of time

There is never enough time, whether on a beach or advertising a business. However, with the AMC, you can save time searching through the campaign manager for your information and get down to the nitty-gritty. It can present notable data like โ€˜frequently bought togetherโ€™ without an excessive influx of data.

Find what you need quickly and implement it effectively!

Touchpoint analysis

AMC is beneficial as it can determine the return on ad spend at each touchpoint. 

For example, a customer may have researched your product after seeing a video ad, but the conversion wouldโ€™ve been identified from them researching your product. It is easy to neglect the path a customer takes and focus on the final conversions, but seeds of interest are consequential, especially with significantly priced products. 

Make the most of your money

AMC is free and includes incredibly beneficial information for your campaigns. Because of the vast amount of data available to your advertiser, it allows them to focus the campaigns in an expense-friendly manner.

Looking at your audienceโ€™s buying patterns will help to better direct spending and campaign strategies. Doing this will increase revenue by reducing unnecessary spending and increasing overall conversions.

When Would You Use AMC?

Reach your business goals

Use the AMC to collect specific data based on your business goals. Then use this to create a targeted approach to develop the most successful campaign in less time.

It also allows you to evaluate the success of previous campaigns for the development of new ones! 

Using multiple departments

The AMC works in duality with the marketing and analytics teams, creating a more effective method of sourcing information from the same place. Using the same location for information will aid in a cohesive approach to the campaign.

Use it for cross-media campaigns

You can identify where you are getting the most traction. It will help to visualize where you are receiving conversions and from which demographics. Then you can implement your findings for the most effective campaigns.

For speed

The Amazon marketing cloud is perfect when you want to streamline the advertising process. It gives you an immediate snapshot of how your campaigns are doing and allows for a quicker response time.

The system gives readable information to advertisers so that everyone is clear on what is happening within the business. It helps understand a campaign and reduces the need for an extensive explanation of a process.

Provides a complete picture

Due to the analytics and reporting capabilities, it can give you a complete overview of your ad campaigns. Itโ€™s unique in the sense that important information is available in an easy to comprehend way. With color coding and visual graphs, you donโ€™t need to be a genius to understand the data.

Eligibility

Using the Amazon Marketing Cloud is free, but there are still some requirements you should fulfill if you decide to use it. For example, it may be difficult for new sellers to use the platform as it requires a decent amount of customers to produce the aggregated data.

  • You should be spending a lot on advertising already: This is a way to highlight how developed your business and advertising strategies are. You often will want help from a professional to set up and use AMC.
  • You need to be a mature seller: You will need to have a DSP Master Service Agreement (MSA) with planned or live campaigns in the last 28 days. The AMC needs information and a good amount for each instance. Without campaigns on the go, it would be difficult to extract relevant amounts of data.
  • Have you got someone proficient in SQL programming language on your team? It is a customizable solution, but it is a self-service software that requires you to use structured query language to highlight the right signals.
  • You need to have an Amazon Web Services account: The AMC runs on Amazon Web Services, so you require this to use the software at all.

If you are a good candidate for AMC, get in touch with your account manager to discuss if it is a suitable route for you. 

Safety 

The AMC is highly focused on privacy. It is a cloud-based cleanroom solution for advertisers. A clean room provides aggregated and anonymized user information while providing advertisers with unidentifiable insights. 

All inputs are pseudonymized, and all outputs are aggregated and anonymous, which cannot be individually accessed. Plus, any information you choose to upload stays within your cloud and cannot be exported or accessed by Amazon. 

Moreover, each aggregation requires 100 unique users to protect their privacy. It still allows for impactful reports while maintaining the anonymity of your customers.

Analytics & Reporting

AMC is a cloud-based cleanroom solution used to make your advertising more successful. The customization capabilities of your cloud mean you receive the analytics and reports required. It gives your business more potential to reach its individual goals.

This solution enables cross-channel and cross-platform analytics. They work together to show the bigger picture of your ad campaigns. See what is working and where without compromising the privacy of your customers.

Which AMC reports you can produce:

  • Campaign reach, frequency, and total impact
  • Types of audience interactions on the path to conversion
  • Amazon Ads campaign effectiveness
  • Custom channel reporting 

AMC enables a holistic approach to advertising, showing your ad campaign’s overall performance. Find where you should be spending more on advertising or where you are neglecting by looking at what your personal audienceโ€™s patterns are. Taking the extra work out of analyzing your DSP data.

Amazon Marketing Cloud Subscription

Amazon has recently released a subscription service that will give you access to even more audience analysis. Donโ€™t fret, all of the regular reports and analytics are available, but with the subscription, you get extra product-level data rather than just advertising data. 

It shows how customers interact with your products concerning your advertising. For example, it can show you information on add-to-carts and subscribe and save. It is helpful because it fills in the gaps left by AMC usually. It saves a lot of time by presenting you with beneficial analytics rather than figuring it out yourself. 

This is the extra information available:

  • Total browse
  • Add-to-cart
  • New Subscribe and Save (SNS)
  • Added to wish lists
  • Customer review page visits
  • Product detail page views
  • Amazon Store visits (brand store engagement)
  • Non-ad attributed purchase metrics for products (including product purchased and product purchased using one-click)

How to Use the Amazon Marketing Cloud

There has been a lot of discussion about how advantageous the AMC is for your campaigns but how would you put that into practice? 

Create A Gateway ASIN

The AMC can help you to identify which of your products is the โ€˜gateway ASINโ€™ meaning, which ASIN drives the most new-to-brand conversions. 

Create a custom solution to identify the product with the most first-time traction and repeat purchases. 

The gateway ASIN can be crucial data for a campaign as it shows what your audience is looking for/ attracted to; you can use this to implement a similar campaign for other products or increase the ACOS on that particular product. For example, expand your cross-channel advertising in the neighboring categories of that product to attract more interested customers.

Find Your Target Location 

You likely already know about designated market areas if you use Amazon to sell fresh produce. You can use the AMC to identify the top locations within the designated areas to reach new customers. 

AMC data can identify the top geographical locations of purchases. By highlighting where the most repeat or new-to-buy orders are coming from, you can see where the most sales are happening. Then you can adjust your strategy based on your findings and business targets. 

Either increase your spending on advertising in those specific areas or where there are fewer conversions and missing reach. It depends on the budget and goals but would prove more difficult without the AMC. 

Measure The Impact of Different Campaigns

A brilliant capacity of the Amazon marketing cloud is the cross-campaign examination. You can assess which combination of ads works best for your campaigns. 

For example, if you are running a full-funnel campaign with sponsored products, display, and O+O. AMC can identify the conversion rate regarding the exposure of various combinations of ads. It is helpful when trying to confirm the effectiveness of your strategy.

Is it Worth It?

There is no black-and-white answer. Whether you use the amazon marketing cloud is dependent on whether it will work for you.

We have a client who loves to use the AMC as it gives a clear overview of how their campaigns are doing. It is much easier to use than the DSP platform and can help to implement immediate changes without intense thought. The platform is visual and easy to navigate, which can be a massive positive for many people.

The solution is brilliant for mature sellers who spend a lot on advertising. However, for newer sellers or those who donโ€™t currently run many ad campaigns, it may be good to assess whether it is the best solution for you to use at the moment. It gives you the information you canโ€™t find on the campaign manager, which is highly beneficial.

Even though it is free to use, you may need a tool to access it if you do not have a programmer. Have a conversation with your account manager about whether it is right for you. They will know your business goals and current strategies! 

Tips for Using the AMC

My parting gift to you for making it this far is a few handy tips to keep in mind when using AMC: 

  • Know your business goals and what you need to do to reach them! 
  • If you use AMC for multiple departments, communicate and work together.
  • Take your time when you are setting up.
  • Know your programming language or use a third-party tool. 

Here at Clear Ads, we successfully use the Amazon marketing cloud with our clients! We have seen the benefits and know how to use the software. 

With over a decade of experience in digital advertising, we have become a sought-after agency for Amazon advertising. We have helped hundreds of businesses achieve their potential because we are confident in what we do.

If you would like to know whether the AMC is right for you; or have a conversation about how we could help to grow your business, then request a callback today!

See how we can help you maximise revenue from your ad spend

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