📋 Overview
Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) is a secure, privacy-safe cloud environment that allows brand owners to analyze advertising and shopping data across multiple Amazon signals in ways that standard Ads reporting cannot. It connects touchpoints from Sponsored Ads, Streaming TV, display campaigns, and Amazon DSP into a unified view of the customer journey.
For brand owners who want to move beyond basic ACoS optimization, AMC unlocks a deeper layer of attribution, audience building, and cross-channel measurement. This article explains what AMC is, how it works, who can access it, and how to take your first practical steps with it.
🎯 Who This Is For
🌱 Beginner sellers
- Brand owners who have recently registered in Amazon Brand Registry and are running their first Sponsored Brand or Sponsored Display campaigns
- Sellers who have heard the term “AMC” and want to understand whether it applies to their business
- Anyone trying to understand why their ad clicks don’t seem to match their sales in Campaign Manager
🚀 Advanced sellers
- Established brand owners running multi-format campaigns (Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and/or Amazon DSP) who want unified attribution reporting
- Sellers who want to build custom audiences based on real purchase or engagement behavior and push them into DSP campaigns
- Advertising managers looking to measure true path-to-purchase and identify which ad touchpoints are driving first-time versus repeat buyers
🔑 Key Concepts You Need to Know
☁️ Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)
A cloud-based, privacy-safe data clean room provided by Amazon Ads. It stores pseudonymized (non-personally identifiable) event-level data from your Amazon advertising activity. You query this data using SQL to produce custom reports that are not available in standard Campaign Manager dashboards.
🔒 Data Clean Room
A secure environment where two or more parties can analyze combined datasets without either party being able to see the raw, identifiable data of the other. In AMC, Amazon holds the data; you write queries to analyze it in aggregate. Individual shopper identities are never exposed.
📊 Event-Level Data
Unlike Campaign Manager, which shows you summarized metrics (clicks, impressions, spend), AMC stores individual ad interaction events — impressions, clicks, purchases — tied to an anonymized user identifier. This lets you track a shopper’s journey across multiple touchpoints over time.
🛤️ Path-to-Purchase
The sequence of ad exposures a shopper experienced before completing a purchase. AMC lets you analyze whether shoppers who saw a Streaming TV ad first converted at a higher rate, or whether Sponsored Products alone drove the sale. This is multi-touch attribution in practice.
👥 AMC Audiences
Custom audience segments you build inside AMC using SQL queries based on real behavioral data (e.g., “shoppers who viewed my product detail page but did not purchase in the last 30 days”). These audiences can be exported directly into Amazon DSP for retargeting or prospecting campaigns.
🗄️ SQL (Structured Query Language)
The coding language used to ask questions of AMC’s database. If you are not familiar with SQL, you do not need to be an expert — Amazon provides pre-built query templates, and many advertising partners offer SQL support. Basic SELECT, WHERE, and GROUP BY logic covers most common use cases.
🔗 Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform)
Amazon’s programmatic advertising platform that lets you buy display, video, and streaming ad placements on Amazon-owned properties and across the web. AMC integrates tightly with DSP — audiences built in AMC can be activated directly in DSP campaigns.
📅 Lookback Window
The time period AMC uses when evaluating ad touchpoints for attribution. AMC retains data for up to 13 months, giving you a much longer analysis window than the default 14-day last-click attribution window in Campaign Manager.
🪜 Step-by-Step Guide: Getting Started with Amazon Marketing Cloud
1️⃣ Confirm Your Eligibility
AMC is available to Amazon Ads advertisers who run Amazon DSP campaigns or have a managed DSP relationship. You must also be enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry. Sellers running only Sponsored Ads (without DSP) can access AMC through Amazon’s AMC for Sponsored Ads offering, which was expanded to make AMC more broadly accessible — confirm current access eligibility directly in your Amazon Ads account or with your Amazon Ads account team.
- Log in to advertising.amazon.com
- Look for the Amazon Marketing Cloud option in the left navigation or top menu
- If not visible, contact your Amazon Ads account representative or check eligibility through the Ads console
💡 Pro Tip: Even if you are not running DSP today, understanding AMC now prepares you to activate it the moment you scale into DSP, avoiding a data gap in your historical reporting.
2️⃣ Set Up Your AMC Instance
Once access is granted, Amazon creates a dedicated AMC instance for your advertiser account. Think of this as your private, isolated data environment. All your ad event data is automatically populated into this instance — you do not need to upload anything manually.
- Your instance is linked to your Advertiser ID in the Amazon Ads ecosystem
- Historical data is backfilled up to 13 months from your instance creation date
- New event data flows in on a daily basis with a typical lag of 24–48 hours
3️⃣ Explore the Pre-Built Query Library
AMC includes a library of pre-built SQL query templates so you do not need to write queries from scratch. These cover the most common analysis use cases for brand owners.
- Navigate to the Query Library inside your AMC instance
- Start with foundational reports such as:
- New-to-Brand Purchase Rate — what percentage of buyers are first-time purchasers of your brand
- Path to Conversion — the sequence of ad types seen before a purchase event
- Overlap Analysis — how many shoppers were exposed to more than one of your ad formats
- Time to Conversion — average number of days between first ad exposure and purchase
💡 Pro Tip: Run the New-to-Brand query first. It is one of the most strategically valuable metrics in AMC because it tells you whether your campaigns are acquiring genuinely new customers or simply re-converting your existing base — a distinction that standard ACoS cannot make.
4️⃣ Run Your First Query and Interpret Results
Select a pre-built template, configure the date range and any filters (such as campaign type or ASIN), and execute the query. AMC processes the query asynchronously — results are typically ready within a few minutes to an hour depending on complexity.
- Results are returned as a downloadable data table (CSV format)
- Focus on aggregate metrics — remember, individual shopper data is never exposed
- Compare results across different date ranges (e.g., Q4 vs. Q1) to identify seasonal patterns
5️⃣ Build a Custom Audience Segment
One of the most immediately actionable AMC features is creating custom audiences for DSP retargeting. You write (or adapt) a SQL query that defines the audience criteria, and AMC generates an audience list that feeds directly into your DSP campaigns.
- Example audience: “Shoppers who viewed my ASIN detail page at least twice in the last 14 days but did not purchase”
- Example audience: “Shoppers who purchased from my brand more than 90 days ago but have not returned” (lapsed buyer win-back)
- Example audience: “Shoppers who purchased a competitor’s product in my category” (competitive conquest — requires DSP access)
Once the audience is generated in AMC, navigate to your Amazon DSP console and select it as the targeting audience for a display or video campaign.
💡 Pro Tip: Audiences built from AMC data are significantly more precise than standard DSP in-market audiences because they are based on your actual customer interaction data, not just category-level browsing signals.
6️⃣ Analyze Multi-Touch Attribution
Use the Path to Conversion query template to understand the role each ad format plays in driving purchases. Standard Campaign Manager uses last-click attribution, which gives all purchase credit to the final ad clicked. AMC shows you the full sequence.
- Identify whether awareness formats (Streaming TV, Sponsored Brand Video) consistently appear early in the conversion path
- Determine if shoppers who see three or more ad touchpoints convert at a higher rate than those exposed to only one
- Use this data to justify budget allocation across ad formats — moving beyond optimizing solely on last-click ROAS
7️⃣ Measure Incrementality
Incrementality measures whether an ad campaign actually caused a purchase that would not have happened otherwise. AMC supports incrementality studies that compare exposed vs. unexposed shopper groups to isolate true ad-driven lift.
- Work with your Amazon Ads account team or a qualified AMC partner to design a proper holdout test
- This analysis is especially valuable for DSP campaigns where attribution is harder to see in standard reporting
- Results tell you whether your upper-funnel spend is generating real incremental revenue or simply capturing demand that would have converted organically
💡 Pro Tip: Incrementality testing requires careful experimental design. Do not simply compare two time periods — you need a controlled holdout group running simultaneously. Consulting with an Amazon Ads certified partner significantly reduces the risk of drawing incorrect conclusions.
8️⃣ Connect AMC Insights to Campaign Optimization
AMC data is most valuable when it drives concrete changes to your live campaigns. Create a regular cadence for reviewing AMC outputs and translating them into campaign actions.
- If your Time to Conversion data shows an average of 7 days, ensure your DSP retargeting audience window is set to at least 7–14 days
- If your path analysis shows Sponsored Brand Video consistently appears in top-converting paths, protect that budget in your monthly planning
- If your New-to-Brand rate is declining, shift budget toward prospecting campaigns targeting new-to-brand audiences rather than retargeting existing buyers
🏪 Real-World Examples and Scenarios
📦 Scenario 1: Mid-Size Brand Discovers Upper-Funnel Value
Seller profile: A kitchenware brand with $800K in annual Amazon revenue, running Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and a small DSP budget.
The problem: The advertising manager noticed that Sponsored Brand Video campaigns showed high spend but low last-click attributed sales in Campaign Manager. Leadership was considering cutting the budget.
The action: The team ran AMC’s Path to Conversion query. Results showed that Sponsored Brand Video appeared as the first touchpoint in over 60% of multi-touch conversion paths, even though it rarely received last-click credit.
The result: Rather than cutting the format, the team maintained the Sponsored Brand Video budget and restructured their attribution reporting to use AMC’s multi-touch view as the primary measurement source. Overall conversion efficiency improved because they stopped under-investing in their highest-performing awareness format.
🔄 Scenario 2: Supplement Brand Builds High-Converting Lapsed Buyer Audience
Seller profile: A nutritional supplement brand with a strong repeat-purchase product line, running Amazon DSP in addition to Sponsored Ads.
The problem: Their Subscribe & Save subscriber count was growing, but they noticed a large portion of past buyers were not re-purchasing after their first order, suggesting subscribe-and-cancel behavior.
The action: Using AMC, they built a custom audience of shoppers who had purchased their flagship product 60–120 days ago but had not reordered. They activated this audience in a DSP display campaign featuring a product bundle offer with loyalty messaging.
The result: The lapsed-buyer retargeting campaign delivered a 3.2x ROAS against that audience segment — significantly higher than their cold prospecting campaigns — while reducing overall customer acquisition cost by re-engaging buyers who already had brand familiarity.
🌱 Scenario 3: Emerging Brand Uses AMC to Validate New-to-Brand Strategy
Seller profile: A newer skincare brand with 18 months on Amazon and $200K in annual revenue, recently gaining DSP access through a managed service partner.
The problem: The brand was unsure whether their advertising spend was growing their customer base or mostly re-advertising to existing buyers.
The action: They ran the AMC New-to-Brand query across a 90-day period, segmented by campaign type. The data revealed that their Sponsored Display campaigns had an 82% new-to-brand purchase rate, while their Sponsored Products retargeting had only a 19% new-to-brand rate — confirming which campaigns were driving actual customer acquisition.
The result: The team shifted 20% of their Sponsored Products retargeting budget into Sponsored Display prospecting. Over the following quarter, their new customer acquisition rate increased and overall brand revenue grew, validating the reallocation decision with data rather than assumption.
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
❌ Treating AMC as a Replacement for Campaign Manager
Why sellers make this mistake: After discovering the depth of AMC data, some advertisers become overwhelmed and try to manage all reporting through AMC, abandoning their Campaign Manager workflow.
What to do instead: Use Campaign Manager for daily operational decisions (bid adjustments, budget pacing, keyword management) and AMC for strategic analysis (attribution modeling, audience creation, incrementality measurement). They serve different purposes in the same analytics stack.
⚠️ Querying Too Short a Date Range
Why sellers make this mistake: To get quick answers, advertisers often run queries over 7 or 14 days — the same windows they’re used to in Campaign Manager. But AMC’s power lies in longer lookback windows where multi-touch journey patterns become statistically meaningful.
What to do instead: For path-to-purchase and new-to-brand analysis, use a minimum of 30 days. For category and seasonality insights, use 90 days or longer. Short windows produce sample sizes too small to draw reliable conclusions.
🚫 Ignoring Audience Minimum Size Requirements
Why sellers make this mistake: Sellers build highly specific AMC audiences (e.g., “purchasers of SKU X in the last 7 days in a specific zip code”) that are too small to activate in DSP. Amazon enforces a minimum audience size threshold to protect shopper privacy.
What to do instead: Design audience criteria broad enough to meet minimum size thresholds. Start with 30–90 day windows and category-level behavior rather than individual SKU-level filters. If an audience segment is too small, widen the criteria or extend the lookback period.
❌ Acting on AMC Data Without Statistical Context
Why sellers make this mistake: A query returns a striking number — for example, “shoppers who saw 4+ ad touchpoints convert at 5x the rate of 1-touchpoint shoppers” — and the advertiser immediately restructures their entire campaign strategy around it.
What to do instead: Correlation in AMC data does not automatically imply causation. High-intent shoppers naturally interact with more ads before buying. Validate insights through controlled tests (incrementality studies or A/B holdouts) before making large budget decisions based on a single query result.
⚠️ Not Establishing a Regular AMC Review Cadence
Why sellers make this mistake: Advertisers run AMC queries once during initial setup, find interesting data, but never build it into an ongoing workflow. AMC data becomes stale and disconnected from campaign management.
What to do instead: Schedule a monthly AMC review as part of your advertising planning cycle. Refresh key queries (new-to-brand rate, path analysis, audience performance) monthly, and link the outputs directly to your next month’s budget and bidding strategy decisions.
📈 Expected Results
When brand owners integrate AMC into their regular advertising workflow, they typically see improvements across several dimensions:
💰 More Efficient Budget Allocation
By understanding which ad formats and touchpoints contribute to conversions across the full funnel — not just at last-click — advertisers stop under-investing in high-impact awareness formats and over-investing in lower-funnel retargeting that captures demand rather than creating it.
👥 Higher-Quality DSP Audiences
Custom AMC-built audiences consistently outperform generic in-market DSP audiences because they are grounded in your actual customer data. Advertisers who activate AMC audiences in DSP campaigns regularly report higher ROAS and lower cost-per-acquisition against those segments.
📊 Clearer New Customer Acquisition Measurement
New-to-brand metrics from AMC give brand owners a clear signal on whether advertising is genuinely growing their customer base. This informs long-term brand health decisions that go well beyond short-term ACoS optimization.
🛡️ Reduced Risk of Misguided Optimization
Last-click attribution in Campaign Manager routinely misleads advertisers into cutting high-value upper-funnel spend. AMC’s multi-touch view reduces the risk of making budget cuts that hurt long-term performance while appearing to improve short-term efficiency metrics.
❓ FAQs
🤔 Do I need to know how to code SQL to use AMC?
Not necessarily for getting started. AMC provides a library of pre-built query templates that cover the most common use cases — you configure parameters like date ranges and ASINs without writing code. That said, to build fully custom analyses and audiences, basic SQL knowledge (SELECT, WHERE, GROUP BY, JOIN) is helpful. Many advertising partners and agencies also offer AMC SQL support if coding is a barrier.
🤔 Is AMC available to all Amazon sellers?
AMC has historically required an active Amazon DSP relationship, which typically means a minimum managed spend commitment. However, Amazon has expanded AMC access to include Sponsored Ads-only advertisers through certain programs. Access pathways evolve — check your Amazon Ads console or speak with your Amazon Ads account team to confirm current eligibility for your account type.
🤔 Can I see individual shopper data in AMC?
No. AMC is a privacy-safe clean room, which means all data is pseudonymized before you can query it. You will never see names, emails, addresses, or any personally identifiable information. All results are returned at an aggregate level. Amazon enforces minimum row count thresholds in query outputs to further protect individual privacy — if a result set is too small, AMC will suppress the output.
🤔 How is AMC different from the Brand Analytics reports in Seller Central?
Brand Analytics provides pre-built, summarized reports on search term performance, demographics, repeat purchase behavior, and market basket data — all accessed through a dashboard interface without any query writing. AMC operates at the event level and requires SQL queries, but in return offers far more flexibility: custom attribution windows, cross-format journey analysis, custom audience creation, and the ability to combine data points in ways Brand Analytics dashboards do not support. They are complementary tools, not substitutes for each other.
🤔 How far back does AMC data go?
AMC retains event-level data for up to 13 months from the date your AMC instance was created. Data does not backfill further than your instance creation date, which is one reason it is worth activating AMC early even if you are not ready to use it immediately — the data accumulation clock starts at activation, giving you a richer historical dataset to query over time.