Amazon Marketing Cloud: What Brands Can Learn From Data

What is Amazon Marketing Cloud and who actually needs it?

AMC is a cloud-based, privacy-safe clean room for analytics and audiences, which is built on pseudonymized signals.

A clean room lets advertisers analyze signals together while protecting shopper privacy. You can use templates, visual workflows or custom queries to answer a question. AMC returns aggregated, anonymous outputs, with aggregation thresholds that can limit analysis of small groups.

Core AMC access is available at no cost to eligible advertisers through a web UI and API. Optional paid features and third-party data subscriptions can add costs, alongside the time needed for setup and analysis.

Eligible Sponsored Ads advertisers can access AMC through self-service. Amazon separately directs advertisers seeking DVA+ advanced settings within Display, Video, and Audio to their Ad Tech Account Executive. Advertisers can also work through partners registered on the Amazon Ads Partner Network.

There are still plenty of sellers who see AMC as an enterprise tool that only the biggest advertisers need.

The self-service option for Sponsored Ads advertisers shows that this is not the case. However, what we see in practice is much simpler than that: mid-size brands skip AMC because nobody on their side or their agency’s side sets it up to answer a specific question.

Smaller advertisers can also use AMC where eligible. Its value depends on the business question, available signals and whether the audience is large enough to meet privacy thresholds.

The most common thing we hear from brands on sales calls is that their results have plateaued or their agency hasn’t come up with a new strategy in a long time. This is usually the point when someone becomes interested in tools like AMC.

The real question behind that is “what are we missing?" and AMC can only provide an answer to that once someone has decided what to search for.

What can AMC show that your Sponsored Products dashboard can't?

AMC adds flexible, cross-source analysis to regular campaign reports. Amazon provides hundreds of fields, including ad-attributed impressions, clicks and conversions, so you can define custom metrics and analyze eligible signals across campaigns.

We compare standard Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands reporting with what an AMC query adds in the table below.

You should read the table above as a division of labor. Your dashboard is what takes care of the day-to-day optimization, while AMC is what handles the overlap questions that underlie your budget split.

Sponsored Brands reports provide campaign metrics and useful acquisition signals such as new-to-brand performance. AMC adds custom analysis of eligible touchpoints across ad types, helping you investigate paths, audience overlap and frequency.

Our reporting connects advertising decisions to profit targets and next actions. AMC adds audience and journey analysis to that picture; product costs and margin inputs still need to come from the brand’s financial data.

Before adding another analytical layer, make sure your reporting can explain the relationship between ad spend, total sales and contribution margin.

How does AMC connect to Amazon DSP and new-to-brand strategy?

If you have not used DSP yet, here is a quick explanation.

Amazon DSP is Amazon’s programmatic platform for display and video advertising on Amazon and third-party properties. We manage DSP alongside Sponsored Ads where it fits the brand’s goals. AMC adds flexible analysis across eligible signals from these activities.

That is precisely where AMC comes in, thanks to a combined view of how the two work together. When we run Amazon DSP and AMC together on an account, there are three types of questions that we typically begin with:

• How many shoppers saw a DSP ad before clicking a Sponsored Products ad? This identifies a sequence worth investigating. The sequence alone cannot establish that DSP caused the later search or purchase.
• How do conversion rates and new-to-brand outcomes differ across ad-exposure paths? This can inform hypotheses for your new-to-brand advertising strategy. Testing is needed to establish incremental impact.
• Which audiences overlap with Sponsored Display retargeting? Use the answer to review frequency, exclusions and reach. Overlap can support a coordinated journey, so it should be assessed alongside cost and outcomes.

If you already use Sponsored Display, you can check our Sponsored Display vs. Sponsored Products comparison so you can see how the two split the work. If you’re also looking for partners to run DSP for you, it’s helpful to read our guide on choosing an Amazon DSP agency based on our criteria.

Answering these questions is only one part of the job, because someone still has to act on the answers. Our in-house platform, Olifant AI, analyzes each account daily against its profit target and suggests changes.

The account’s PPC specialist reviews recommendations against its targets and acts on the findings the same day. AMC supports deeper audience and measurement questions alongside daily campaign management.

AMC also supports activation. You can build custom audiences from eligible engagement, conversion and first-party signals, then activate them across Sponsored Ads, video and display. For example, an advertiser could define an audience of shoppers with qualifying ad engagement who have not purchased within a chosen window, subject to available signals and audience thresholds. Amazon’s AMC product documentation describes both measurement and audience use cases.

What we do before recommending AMC to a brand

Before recommending AMC, we assess three things: the decision it will inform, how impact can be tested, and whether the account’s fundamentals support the analysis.

Start with one question

Before anyone on our team builds a query, we write down the single question we want AMC to answer.

We might want to know how many shoppers who bought via a Sponsored Brands ad also saw one of our DSP ads. Here’s another useful one: Are shoppers who saw a DSP ad more likely to purchase after clicking a Sponsored Products ad?

We pick questions like these because each one leads to a budget decision that we can actually act on.

Next, identify the decision the answer will affect. If DSP-exposed shoppers convert at a higher rate, use that association to design a test. Increase budget when a sound experiment supports additional sales at an acceptable cost.

When a question has no decision attached, this work becomes reporting for its own sake, and AMC ends up as just another dashboard that no one opens.

At Olifant Digital, we also keep every query to a single question, because one clear answer gives us something to move budget on, while a broad export of every field tends to end up as a long spreadsheet that no one on the team has time to read.

Test incremental impact with holdouts before scaling

We offer Amazon DSP as part of our advertising work. Before scaling, a properly designed holdout can test incremental impact where the campaign setup supports it. Randomly assign eligible shoppers to treatment and control groups, withhold the tested advertising from the control group, and compare outcomes by original assignment. Comparing shoppers who happened to see an ad with those who did not creates selection bias.

A turn-off test pauses a campaign and observes the change in total sales. It provides directional evidence, but seasonality, promotions, inventory and other advertising can influence the result. A simple before-and-after comparison is less conclusive than a randomized holdout.

A holdout analysis supported by AMC reporting has three steps:

1. Define the experiment. Establish comparable, randomly assigned treatment and control groups, the test duration and the primary outcome before launch. Check that the setup can enforce the holdout and the analysis meets privacy thresholds.
2. Compare the outcomes. Measure the same relevant conversion outcome across both assigned groups, using all available eligible conversions within the agreed measurement scope. Relying only on ad-attributed sales can miss the purchases the control group would have made anyway.
3. Calculate and evaluate lift. Subtract the control conversion rate from the treatment conversion rate for absolute lift. Divide that difference by the control rate for relative lift. Review sample size, uncertainty and the cost of the additional conversions before changing budget.

For example, a treatment conversion rate of 6% versus a control rate of 5% is an increase of 1 percentage point, or 20% relative lift. With 10,000 shoppers assigned to each group, that means 600 versus 500 conversions: an estimated 100 additional conversions. Under a valid randomized test, those additional conversions represent 16.7% of treatment conversions (100 ÷ 600). The 20% relative lift is measured against the control baseline.

Scale when the experiment provides sufficiently reliable evidence of additional conversions at an acceptable cost. If it does not, review the audience, creative, sample size and measurement design before drawing a conclusion.

Fix the base first

AMC can inform performance decisions, but weak listings still need direct attention. Break-even ACoS is the contribution margin percentage available before advertising, after product costs, Amazon fees and other relevant variable costs. Ad-attributed sales above that ACoS consume more than that contribution; assess the wider effect on total sales and profit as well.

Before doing any AMC work, you need to check ACoS against break-even on your top sellers and look at the conversion rate on your main listings.

One clear example of why the base is important is Onsen Secret. For them, we rebuilt the listings and ads around TACoS and profit, and the brand expanded from the US and Canada into Europe and Japan. Their published case study records +$95,934 per month from that work.

The Onsen Secret example shows the value of improving the underlying channel. Its published case study does not attribute these results to AMC. DSP and AMC should each be selected according to the brand’s objectives, available signals and economics.

From our accounts

The table separates our operating approach from published client results. The client results illustrate broader Amazon management work; they do not measure AMC-specific impact.

The practical order is to understand the account’s economics, keep campaign execution consistent, and use AMC when a specific audience or cross-channel question justifies it.

Common mistakes brands make when they set up AMC

The most common mistake we see is that brands open AMC without having a clear question in mind. They have no budget decision to make, so they end up with plenty of data but nothing to act on.

A closely related problem is when AMC slowly turns into one more reporting screen and nobody uses the overlap data to actually change the spend.

Another mistake is treating attributed sales or an exposed-versus-unexposed comparison as proof of incremental growth. A valid holdout offers stronger causal evidence; a turn-off test needs careful interpretation.

Brands also add AMC before their reporting explains contribution margin, or use deeper analysis to postpone fixing weak listings and inefficient campaigns. The analytical work should support a decision the account is ready to implement.

Why brands choose Olifant Digital

Your account is managed by an Amazon specialist with 7+ years of experience. Our Amazon PPC management team covers Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display and Amazon DSP, connecting campaign decisions to the brand’s profit targets.

Olifant AI analyzes accounts daily against their profit targets and suggests changes. The assigned specialist reviews the findings and acts on them the same day.

Our published Wedge Guys case study records +$305,771 in monthly revenue and 391% Amazon sales growth from our broader Amazon management work. Our client retention rate is 98%, and we hold a 5.0 rating on Clutch.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need DSP spend to use AMC?

No. Eligible Sponsored Ads advertisers can access AMC through self-service without DSP spend. Amazon separately directs advertisers seeking DVA+ advanced settings to their Ad Tech Account Executive.

Amazon Ads Partner Network partners can also provide access. AMC can support analysis across Sponsored Ads, with DSP adding further touchpoints when it is part of the media mix.

How much does AMC cost?

Core AMC access is free for eligible advertisers. Amazon also offers optional paid features and third-party data subscriptions. Templates, visual workflows and Ads Agent support no-SQL use cases; custom SQL remains available for more advanced analysis. Budget for setup, interpretation and any optional services you choose.

Can a small brand use AMC?

Yes, an eligible small brand running Sponsored Ads can use AMC. Start with a specific question and confirm that the available data meets privacy thresholds. Small samples can limit both reporting and the reliability of a test.

Improve weak listings and understand contribution margin alongside the analytical work. Access to a clean room cannot by itself resolve poor conversion or inefficient ad spend.

Is Amazon Marketing Cloud worth it?

Amazon Marketing Cloud is worth it when you have a specific question that will change how you spend your budget.

For example, it can identify overlap between DSP and Sponsored Products audiences, analyze purchase paths or build custom audiences for activation. To establish whether a campaign caused additional sales, combine the analysis with a suitable experiment. A simple turn-off comparison needs caveats about other changes during the test.

How is AMC different from Sponsored Brands reporting?

Sponsored Brands reporting provides predefined campaign metrics, including acquisition measures. AMC enables custom analysis across eligible sources. Amazon provides up to 25 months of ad traffic signals; that window should not be assumed to cover every signal type or query.

AMC returns aggregated views of touchpoints and audience overlap. This can help you investigate how campaigns work together, while individual shoppers remain anonymous.

How to decide if AMC is right for your brand

AMC is useful when you have a specific measurement or audience question and a decision attached to the answer. If the decision depends on proving additional sales, plan the experiment before increasing spend.

First, review your channel mix. Sponsored Ads alone can provide useful AMC analyses. DSP and Sponsored Display add further touchpoints for overlap, frequency and journey questions.

Next, you need to pick one clear question to answer, for example, how many of your new-to-brand customers saw both a Sponsored Brands ad and a DSP ad.

If you are working with an agency, ask which decisions AMC has informed and how the agency distinguishes attributed results from incremental impact. For DSP testing, ask whether the proposed design is a randomized holdout or a directional turn-off comparison.

Check whether your reporting explains contribution margin and total account performance. Make sure campaign optimization, inventory and listing work can support the decisions that AMC informs.

AMC cannot replace basic optimization, so you should sort out any ACoS or conversion problems that you might have first.

If you want to connect DSP and Sponsored Ads decisions to profitable growth, our team can review your measurement setup, audience strategy and account economics. If performance does not improve in 60 days, we refund our management fees. Get your free marketing plan from Olifant Digital.