Last year Amazon's share of the digital ad market hit 10% for the first time and it is expected to reach 15% by 2023. While the growth of Google and Facebook stagnates Amazon is on the rise. This is because it continues to release new features - the latest of which is the Amazon Marketing Cloud.
The Amazon Marketing Cloud is an analytics solution that aims to complement data available through the Amazon DSP. It allows advertisers to combine Amazon's tracking with their own data to generate in-depth insights into their cross-channel media performance.
This empowers advertisers to improve their campaigns - whether they sell products on Amazon or simply use Amazon advertising as part of their marketing strategy.
The Amazon Marketing Cloud - or AMC - is a cloud-based analytics tool for advertisers. It is notable for its privacy-first focus and custom reporting options. Advertisers can use it to store and analyze datasets from their Amazon advertising as well as their own internal data sources.
By bringing these attribution sources together in one interface the Amazon Marketing Cloud provides a holistic overview of campaign performance on Amazon and your own eCommerce site. This allows marketing teams to understand consumer behaviour and make better marketing decisions.
Advertisers can use the Amazon Marketing Cloud to analyze consumer actions including clicks impressions and conversions. As well as providing in-depth audience insights and campaign analysis this new technology also prioritizes privacy. Each dataset is pseudonymised so that marketers can only view aggregate reports.
The Amazon Marketing Cloud offers a reliable way to record and analyse audience engagement across a variety of channels and mediums. Here are some of the reasons why you should check it out:
As internet browsers end the use of third-party cookies marketers need to find other ways to implement cross-channel reporting. The Amazon Marketing Cloud offers a great alternative which puts privacy first and can help you provide consumers with a safe user-friendly experience.
Over the past few years marketers have said that measurement and analytics take up most of their resources. They also listed cross-channel attribution and audience identification at the top of their priority list. With the help of a skilled developer the Amazon Marketing Cloud can be set up quickly. Plus it's completely free to use.
Once in place it will allow you to optimise your campaigns increase your ROAS and improve your Amazon ACOS. It will also ensure your marketing team spends their time on activities that will impact your brand's bottom line.
The Amazon Marketing Cloud can generate reports using data from both Amazon Advertising and your own datasets. This allows advertisers to implement more insightful reporting across their channels. They can personalise the datasets and customise their reports to suit their needs. This means the headline metrics that are most important to your brand can appear front and centre so your team doesn't have to sift through pages of metrics to find the information they need.
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The Amazon Marketing Cloud is designed to maintain the privacy of end-users so only aggregate analytics are available.
Event-level data on individuals can't be seen and each aggregate report has to include data from at least 100 different users. This provides advertisers with insightful information without compromising the privacy of consumers.
Even when brands upload their own data to the Amazon Marketing Cloud to access greater cross-channel insights and implement custom attribution the data remains secure. Amazon can't view export or access this information in any way.
The platform's data clean room will then combine it with Amazon's tracking data linking consumer actions with impressions click and conversions on Amazon. This will help you better understand the impact of your marketing on and off Amazon. Brands can then create reports tailored to their unique business goals KPIs channels and marketing strategies.
The Amazon Marketing Cloud is only available to agencies and advertisers actively using the Amazon Advertising DSP. To qualify you must have planned or ran a campaign within the past 28 days. You also need to have an executed Amazon DSP Master Service Agreement.
To take advantage of the AMC self-service platform you will also require team members who are familiar with writing the SQL programming language.
It's also worth noting that if you'd like to use the Amazon Marketing Cloud API you'll need to have an Amazon Web Services account too.
Once you meet the eligibility requirements outlined above you'll need to contact your Amazon Advertising account executive to request access to the AMC self-service tool. Once approved a dedicated data clean room will be set up for your company's data.
These AMC self-service reports are created using SQL query-based analysis of event-level datasets. So you'll need a knowledgeable developer on board to help you access the right data.
To extract data from the Amazon DSP you'll need to create 'instances'. These are data management structures that contain information about your brand's performance. But they can't be created in-house so you'll need to ask your Amazon account executive to do it for you.
To upload your own pseudonymous datasets your developer will need to use a CSV file or the Amazon Web Services S3 bucket. Alternatively you can integrate your database with the Amazon Marketing Cloud via API.
Brands can also improve their campaigns with these tips and additional analytics tools.
While the Amazon Marketing Cloud primarily shines a light on the performance of your Amazon advertising Amazon Attribution is all about measuring how non-Amazon marketing channels affect your Amazon sales.
Along with Amazon Brand Analytics this complementary tool can be used to gain total oversight of your cross-channel marketing performance.
Sponsored Product Ads eat up a hefty 73% of retailers' Amazon ad spend. But brands should also be sure to adopt Sponsored Brand ads too.
These PPC-style ads feature a logo as well as three of your products. They are great for building brand awareness and introducing shoppers to new products. Plus they'll give you an edge over merchants who don't have solid branding behind them. They are ideal for startups but established brands have used them to increase their Amazon sales by 40% too.
Implementing a Where to Buy software platform is another great way to track how non-Amazon channels impact your Amazon sales. You can use this tool to add 'Buy Now' buttons to your eCommerce site search ads and social media posts. By providing visitors with the option to convert on Amazon you'll create a better user experience. But you'll also be able to track which channels generate sales on Amazon.
There is no doubt that the Amazon Marketing Cloud will help many brands succeed in a cookieless world. So now is the time to consider adding this tool to your marketing stack.
