Harnessing Amazon Marketing Cloud for Business Growth

For businesses that are into big, blue-sky thinking, Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) offers a wide-ranging and powerful analytics solution to grow in 2024 and beyond. As advertising sophistication and significant ad investment continue to grow, many businesses need deeper insights to make their marketing efforts more effective.

AMC gives actionable insights without sacrificing customer privacy, making it ideal for mature sellers looking to scale even bigger. This blog will explain what Amazon Marketing Cloud is, its key features, and how it can benefit Amazon-focused businesses.

What is Amazon Marketing Cloud?

Amazon ad revenues reached $37.7 billion in 2022, with continued growth enabling fierce competition and refinement on niches. Amazon has expanded its ad reach for sellers across the internet, making it simpler than ever to schedule and leverage Demand Side Platform (DSP) and Sponsored Brands advertising. It’s true that the Amazon Ads platform increasingly provides better and more sophisticated data for sellers, but larger businesses need more strategic cross-media insights for even enterprise-level operations.

To take ad optimization to the next level, Amazon created AMC. Built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), AMC data is handled in strict accordance with Amazon’s privacy policies. AMC can help advertisers with campaign measurement, audience analysis, media optimization, and more.

“AMC is a secure, privacy-safe, and cloud-based clean room solution, in which advertisers can easily perform analytics and build audiences across pseudonymized signals, including Amazon Ads signals as well as their own inputs,” says Amazon. But what exactly can AMC do and what features are most important?

Amazon Marketing Cloud Features

Data Integration

AMC integrates data across various Amazon advertising channels (like Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Amazon DSP) and other Amazon retail insights (like streaming, Amazon App use, etc). This provides businesses with a holistic view of how their advertising impacts customer behavior.

Custom Analysis

AMC allows advertisers to run customized queries using SQL. This improved granularity enables users to deep dive into specific aspects of campaigns, events, and audience behaviors. This flexibility allows for tailored analysis to ensure marketing spend effectiveness. Example reports might include audience reach and total impact during Black Friday events, paths to conversion across various channels, and segmented channel reach (regardless of creative, campaign type, etc.)

Privacy-Safe Environment

AMC is designed with privacy at its core. It aggregates and anonymizes data, ensuring that advertisers can access insights without compromising customer privacy. This data can not be exported or accessed even by Amazon. This may be particularly important for enterprise operations or businesses operating within multiple countries or legal domains.

Insightful Metrics

SQL options allow for a wide range of metrics, including conversion rates, sales attribution, audience definition, and customer reach. Use cases include understanding the full customer journey, evaluating previous campaigns and strategizing upcoming plans, maximizing spend more effectively, and seeing what medium makes sense. More robust metrics can certainly help advertisers understand the effectiveness of their campaigns and identify areas for improvement. With large advertising spends, this can be particularly useful for improving ROI.

Is Amazon Marketing Cloud Right for My Business?

Customized reports and the ability to generate the exact data points needed mean that businesses can make much more effective decisions in the advertising space. This can save a lot of time and resources. No matter the business model, custom KPIs, and personalized queries can help meet a business’ goals. That said, do you need AMC to move forward in Amazon Ads?

While AMC is technically open to all sellers, Amazon suggests the platform is for “mature” sellers. If you aren’t spending a significant amount on ads (hundreds of thousands or more across multiple ad types and platforms), it likely isn’t going to be that useful. The opportunity to see cross-channel data from search, display, audio, and video ads can be harnessed across multiple platforms, such as Facebook, Google, and streaming service ads. If you aren’t utilizing those ad types, AMC isn’t necessary. Likewise, sellers should already be using AWS for data storage to make the transition more seamless.

Technically, there are some other requirements. Users must have executed a DSP Master Service Agreement (MSA) and have planned or run campaigns within the last 28 days. AMC also requires the use of SQL, so to create and run queries, your business will need a team member able to execute on this end. Full-service Amazon agencies or advertising agencies may already be using AMC for your account on the enterprise side. If you are in doubt or have questions, Amazon recommends contacting an Amazon Ads account manager.

To begin using AMC, advertisers can start with their Amazon Advertising account login to access the AMC platform. From there, users can configure AMC to their exact needs and set up particular queries. Amazon also provides resources and guides to help maximize AMC’s capabilities, including documentation on how to query types and analyze the resulting data.

Help with AMC and Other Solutions

Newer sellers and sellers managing a smaller Amazon Ads budget may find AMC too complex for their current needs, but it is great to be aware of what options exist as sellers grow and scale their Amazon and omnichannel presence. While there is a learning curve and certain clear use cases, AMC is a comprehensive tool that every seller should know about. If you need a full-service advertising solution, eCommerce Nurse is an Amazon Ads verified partner and ready to help take your business to the next level. Have questions about AMC or other advertising and marketing needs? Contact eCommerce Nurse today.