Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC): A Powerful Clean Room Solution [Updated]

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) has quickly emerged as a game-changer for advertisers looking to leverage data-driven insights in a secure and privacy-safe environment. As a cloud-based "clean room" solution, AMC enables brands to analyze cross-channel campaign performance, understand audience behavior, and optimize advertising strategies without compromising user data privacy. In this updated guide, we'll explore how AMC empowers marketers to harness valuable insights while maintaining compliance with global data regulations, making it an essential tool for today’s data-conscious advertisers.

What is the Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)?

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) is a data analysis platform that helps advertisers gain deeper insights into their Amazon campaigns. It is one of the world's leading customer data platforms that provides advertisers with advanced analytics and data-driven insights by consolidating data from various sources, such as Amazon's advertising services and the advertiser's own datasets. AMC offers advertisers and marketers a more holistic view of customer behaviors and campaign performance across different channels, helping them make informed decisions to optimize their marketing strategies. The platform focuses on enhancing attribution, understanding audience segment data, and driving some of the highest conversion rates. 

When did Amazon Marketing Cloud come out?

Amazon Marketing Cloud was officially launched in 2020. It was initially available as a beta offering to selected advertisers, providing a powerful tool for those looking to leverage data-driven marketing and customer insights on Amazon's advertising platform.

How does AMC work?

AMC operates as a secure, cloud-based platform where advertisers can run custom queries to analyze their campaign data. By using Amazon Web Services (AWS Services) infrastructure and an AWS account, AMC allows advertisers to process raw data sets to uncover detailed insights. Here's how AMC works:

1. Data Integration: AMC integrates data from Amazon Ads (e.g., Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Display Ads) along with the advertiser's own data to create a unified dataset. This helps brands get a full view of user engagement and conversion paths.
2. Custom Queries: Advertisers can write SQL-based queries to extract granular insights and analyze campaign performance. These queries help break down complex customer journeys and uncover trends in user behavior.
3. Audience Insights: AMC enables advertisers to analyze audience segments, understand how different cohorts react to ads, and uncover opportunities for improved targeting and personalization for individual customers and shoppers.
4. Privacy-Safe Environment: AMC operates in a privacy-centric way, ensuring that individual user-level data is never exposed. Only aggregated and anonymized results are returned, which helps maintain compliance with privacy regulations.
5. Optimization: Advertisers can use the insights gained from AMC to refine their campaign strategies, optimize spend, and create more tailored marketing experiences that drive better outcomes.

At BeBold Digital, we specialize in boosting your brand’s presence on Amazon with customized marketing strategies. We also have deep expertise in the implementation and management of Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC). Book a call to learn more about us. 

What is the difference between Amazon Marketing Cloud and other Amazon advertising solutions?

Amazon offers a range of advertising solutions, but Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) stands out from the others by focusing on advanced data analytics, enabling deeper insights and cross-channel performance analysis. Here's a breakdown of how AMC differs from other Amazon advertising solutions to offer better results:

Focus on data analysis vs. campaign execution

• Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC): AMC is a cloud-based analytics platform designed to process and analyze large sets of data, providing insights into the performance of advertising campaigns. It is not a tool for directly running ads but is used to optimize campaigns based on detailed data analysis and successfully execute your Amazon advertising strategy.
• Other Amazon advertising solutions (Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display): These platforms are primarily used for campaign execution—creating, managing, and delivering ads across Amazon’s marketplace. They focus on specific ad formats and allow advertisers to target users based on shopping behavior, browsing history, or product search intent.

Granular data insights vs. Real-time ad management

• AMC: AMC allows advertisers to run custom queries (using SQL) to gain granular insights into their campaigns. This includes understanding how different audience segments interact with ads, tracking multi-touch attribution, and analyzing user journeys across multiple ad formats and channels. AMC provides holistic, cross-channel performance analysis, combining Amazon data with the advertiser’s own datasets for a complete view.
• Other advertising solutions: Amazon’s other solutions, like Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands, provide performance metrics at the campaign level (e.g., clicks, impressions, sales) but are more limited in their depth and analytical capabilities. They offer real-time ad management and reporting but don't offer the same cross-channel or multi-dimensional insights that AMC can provide.

Privacy-centric environment vs. Standard reporting

• AMC: A key feature of AMC is its privacy-centric framework. AMC processes data in an aggregated and anonymized way to ensure that individual user identities are protected. Advertisers can analyze data at a cohort level without accessing personally identifiable information (PII), making it compliant with privacy regulations.
• Other Amazon advertising solutions: While standard Amazon ad solutions also adhere to privacy standards, they typically offer more straightforward, standard performance reports and don’t require the same level of privacy precautions or custom data processing. Advertisers get general insights into campaign performance but without the detailed audience segmentation and journey mapping that AMC offers.

Custom queries and flexible analysis vs. Pre-defined metrics

• AMC: One of the standout features of AMC is its ability to support custom queries using SQL. This gives advertisers flexibility to explore specific data points, analyze custom attribution models, and build detailed reports based on their unique needs.
• Other Amazon advertising solutions: These platforms provide advertisers with predefined metrics such as impressions, clicks, and conversions. The reporting is typically standardized, with limited flexibility for custom analysis. Advertisers can view reports based on the data generated by Amazon’s ad platform but don’t have the option for deep-dive custom queries like in AMC.

Cross-channel analysis vs. Single campaign performance

• AMC: AMC excels at cross-channel analysis, allowing advertisers to evaluate campaign performance across multiple Amazon advertising formats and even external platforms if they integrate their own data. This enables a more comprehensive view of customer journeys, from discovery to purchase, across various touchpoints.
• Other Amazon advertising solutions: These are focused on the performance of individual campaigns within specific ad formats (e.g., Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands). Advertisers can monitor performance for each campaign separately but don’t get the broader, multi-channel insights that AMC offers.

How does AMC help in creating clean rooms?

A clean room in data analytics is a secure environment where multiple parties can share and analyze data collaboratively while maintaining strict privacy and security standards. In a clean room, data from different sources—such as an advertiser and a platform—can be combined, but the data remains anonymized and aggregated to ensure that no personally identifiable information (PII) is exposed or shared. Clean rooms allow companies to generate insights without compromising data privacy, making them valuable for businesses looking to collaborate on data-driven strategies while staying compliant with privacy regulations like GDPR or CCPA.

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) provides the infrastructure needed to create a clean room environment for advertisers and their partners. Here's how AMC enables clean rooms:

1. Secure Data Integration: AMC allows advertisers to integrate their own first-party data with Amazon’s advertising data. This data is uploaded into the AMC environment where it is processed in an anonymized and aggregated manner. By doing this, AMC ensures that no individual user data is exposed, maintaining strict data privacy standards.
2. Custom Querying in a Privacy-Safe Environment: In AMC’s clean room environment, advertisers can run SQL-based custom queries to analyze datasets, uncover insights, and optimize their campaigns. However, the results are always aggregated and cannot reveal any specific user information, ensuring the data remains secure and privacy-compliant.
3. Collaboration with Partners: AMC enables brands to collaborate with external partners, such as media agencies or technology vendors, in a privacy-safe way. By sharing data within AMC’s clean room, advertisers and partners can jointly analyze cross-channel performance, audience behavior, and other metrics without compromising data security.

Compliance with Privacy Regulations: AMC’s clean room is designed to comply with various global privacy laws, including GDPR and CCPA. This means that advertisers can analyze user behavior and campaign performance in a compliant manner, avoiding any risks related to data breaches or violations of privacy standards.

What are the benefits of Amazon AMC?

Here are some of the advantages of using Amazon AMC:

Improved data privacy and security

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) offers a privacy-first environment where user data is handled with utmost care. Data within AMC is processed in an aggregated and anonymized format, ensuring that no personally identifiable information (PII) is exposed. This makes AMC a secure platform for advertisers to analyze campaign data without violating privacy regulations like GDPR or CCPA. AMC’s privacy-centric design ensures that brands can extract meaningful insights without compromising the security of user data.

Seamless collaboration with partners

AMC enables advertisers to collaborate effectively with media agencies, technology partners, and other third parties by allowing them to securely share data for joint analysis. Brands can combine their own datasets with Amazon's advertising data to gain holistic insights into customer behavior across multiple channels. This collaborative capability enhances the ability to create more effective, data-driven strategies with partners, without risking data leakage or privacy concerns.

Cost-effective solution 

AMC is a cost-efficient tool because it helps advertisers optimize their marketing spend. By providing detailed analytics, AMC allows advertisers to understand which campaigns and strategies deliver the highest ROI, enabling more targeted and efficient allocation of marketing budgets. In addition, AMC helps eliminate the need for multiple third-party tools for data analysis, saving costs by centralizing the data analysis within Amazon's platform.

What is the registration process for AMC?

To register for Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), advertisers need to follow these steps:

1. Request access: AMC access is usually granted to eligible advertisers who use Amazon's Demand Side Platform or other Amazon Advertising products. Interested brands can reach out to their Amazon Advertising account manager to request access to the AMC platform.
2. Account set-up: Once access is approved, Amazon will help the advertiser set up an AMC account. This process involves configuring the necessary permissions and establishing data-sharing protocols to ensure that advertiser data is integrated properly to get the best results.
3. Data integration: Advertisers will work with their account manager or a technical partner to integrate their advertising data into AMC. This may include datasets from Amazon Ads as well as the advertiser’s own first-party data.
4. Training and support: Amazon provides resources and training to help advertisers learn how to use AMC, including how to write custom SQL queries to analyze their data.
5. Start analyzing: Once the setup is complete, advertisers can begin running custom queries and analyzing their campaign performance data through AMC.

What are the minimum requirements for using Amazon Marketing Cloud?

Here are the eligibility criteria to adopt AMC, fulfil your advertising goals, and meet different campaign metrics - 

• Use of Amazon DSP data: AMC is typically available to advertisers who are already running campaigns through Amazon’s Demand-Side Platform (DSP) or other Amazon Advertising products, such as Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands.
• Data volume: Since AMC is designed to handle large datasets, it is ideal for advertisers with significant ad spend and enough data to warrant deep analysis. Smaller advertisers may not benefit as much from the advanced features of AMC.
• Technical expertise: Advertisers need to have some level of technical expertise or support, as AMC requires SQL knowledge to run custom queries. Brands without in-house data analysts might need external help or training to maximize AMC’s capabilities.
• Amazon Advertising account manager: Access to AMC is typically granted through an Amazon Advertising account manager, meaning that brands should have an existing relationship with Amazon's advertising team.

What are the reporting capabilities of AMC?

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) offers powerful reporting features that allow advertisers to dig deep into their campaign performance and gain actionable insights. Some of the key reporting abilities include:

• Cross-channel performance: AMC provides a comprehensive view of how campaigns perform across different ad formats (e.g., Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands) and media channels. This allows advertisers to track customer journeys across touchpoints and assess the effectiveness of multi-channel strategies.
• Attribution analysis: One of AMC’s top features is its ability to perform multi-touch attribution. Advertisers can see how different ad interactions contribute to conversions, allowing them to better allocate their marketing budget and optimize their campaigns for higher ROI.
• Audience insights: AMC allows advertisers to break down their audience into specific cohorts based on various attributes like behavior, engagement level, or product interaction. This segmentation helps brands better understand how different customer groups respond to campaigns and how they progress through the sales funnel.
• Custom querying: With AMC’s SQL-based interface, advertisers can create custom queries to analyze specific data points tailored to their needs. This flexibility goes beyond pre-defined reports, allowing for more granular insights into campaign performance.

Conversion path analysis: AMC helps advertisers analyze detailed conversion paths to understand how different touchpoints contribute to the customer’s journey. This data can reveal which ad formats, times, or channels are most effective in driving conversions.

What data is available in AMC's subscription-based reports?

Amazon Marketing Cloud's subscription-based reports offer a wealth of aggregated, anonymized data to provide advertisers with in-depth insights into their campaigns. These reports typically include:

• Audience insights: Detailed breakdowns of customer segments based on demographics and behaviors.
• Attribution metrics: Multi-touch attribution data, highlighting how different ad interactions contribute to conversions.
• Ad performance: Performance metrics across Amazon’s advertising products like Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Amazon DSP.
• Conversion data: Information on how users interact with ads before making a purchase. These insights help advertisers optimize their ad strategies and identify opportunities for better targeting and resource allocation.

How to improve reporting and measurement with clean room insights?

Clean rooms, like Amazon Marketing Cloud, provide a secure environment to combine first-party and third-party data while ensuring data privacy. To improve reporting and measurement using AMC's clean room insights, advertisers can:

• Conduct detailed audience analysis to understand the full customer journey across different channels.
• Perform cross-channel attribution modeling to see how multiple touchpoints impact conversions.
• Tailor campaign strategies by analyzing custom queries and adjusting based on data-driven insights.
• Collaborate securely with partners to share anonymized data, improving measurement and performance analysis without compromising privacy.

These practices help refine reporting accuracy, enhance targeting, and drive better ROI from advertising efforts.

How are advertisers using Amazon Marketing Cloud today? 

Advertisers across the world, including those from countries like the United States, India, United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, and Netherlands, are leveraging Amazon Marketing Cloud to optimize their campaigns in several impactful ways:

• Refining audience targeting: AMC's detailed audience segmentation capabilities help advertisers discover new customer segments and refine targeting strategies. By analyzing how different cohorts engage with ads, brands can deliver more personalized and relevant ads that improve conversion rates.
• Optimizing multi-channel campaigns: With AMC’s cross-channel insights, advertisers can track how various ad formats—like Sponsored Products or DSP ads—work together to drive engagement. This enables them to identify underperforming channels and optimize budget allocation for better performance.
• Enhancing attribution models: Advertisers use AMC to create more accurate attribution models, analyzing the customer journey from the first touchpoint to conversion. This allows them to understand the value of each ad interaction and make data-driven decisions on which campaigns to scale.

Collaborating with external partners: AMC’s clean room capabilities allow advertisers to collaborate with external partners, such as media agencies or data providers, in a secure and privacy-compliant environment. This enhances joint campaign analysis without compromising data security.

How to get started with an Amazon Marketing Cloud Account?

If you're new to Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), here’s how you can get started:

1) Setting up your account

Once you have met the various criteria of eligibility, reach out to your Amazon Advertising account manager to request access. Once approved, Amazon will guide you through the setup process, which includes connecting your existing Amazon Advertising data and integrating any first-party datasets you want to analyze.

2) Understanding the dashboard

AMC’s default dashboard serves as your main interface for accessing data, running queries, and viewing reports. The dashboard provides high-level campaign insights, and from there, you can dive into custom queries and reports to explore specific performance metrics. Familiarize yourself with key sections like audience insights, cross-channel performance, and attribution analysis to make Amazon Marketing Cloud work effectively.

3) Exploring the features

AMC offers a wide range of features designed to give advertisers deep insights into their campaigns:

• SQL query builder: Run custom queries to explore data in a granular way.
• Attribution reporting: Understand how each touchpoint contributes to conversions.
• Audience Segmentation: Break down your audience into actionable cohorts.
• Cross-Channel Analytics: Analyze campaigns across multiple ad formats and platforms.

4) Getting help

Amazon offers several resources to help you navigate AMC:

• AMC documentation: Amazon provides comprehensive documentation that outlines how to use the platform, run queries, and interpret data.
• Account manager support: Your Amazon Advertising account manager is available to provide guidance, answer questions, and help with any technical challenges you encounter.

Training resources: Amazon offers tutorials and training sessions to help advertisers become proficient with AMC’s features and reporting capabilities.

How to optimize marketing and advertising experiences with AMC?

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) provides a wealth of tools to enhance and fine-tune marketing and advertising strategies. By leveraging its powerful data capabilities, advertisers can achieve better performance and more efficient ad spend. Here's how to optimize your marketing and advertising experiences with AMC:

1) Perform conversion rate analysis by ad exposure mix

One of AMC’s strengths is its ability to track how different ad exposure combinations impact conversion rates. By analyzing how users interact with various ad formats (such as Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Display Ads) across Amazon’s ecosystem, you can understand which combinations drive the most conversions. This helps advertisers to:

• Identify high-converting ad placements and invest more in those that perform best.
• Understand cross-channel synergies, seeing how ads in different formats contribute to the customer journey.
• Optimize ad exposure frequency to ensure the right balance between visibility and conversion without over-saturating potential customers.

2) Adopt a privacy-safe environment

AMC operates within a privacy-safe environment where all data is aggregated and anonymized, allowing advertisers to perform deep analysis while maintaining compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR or CCPA. By using AMC’s privacy-first approach, brands can:

• Ensure data security while still obtaining actionable insights.
• Collaborate securely with partners and other stakeholders without exposing sensitive data.
• Meet global privacy standards while analyzing user behavior and campaign effectiveness.

This approach not only protects customer data but also helps brands avoid legal issues related to privacy breaches, building trust with consumers.

3) Create custom audiences for targeted campaigns

AMC’s audience segmentation capabilities allow advertisers to create custom audiences based on specific behavioral, demographic, and interaction data. You can segment audiences into smaller, more precise groups for highly targeted ad campaigns, which leads to:

• Improved relevance of ad content, resulting in higher engagement rates.
• Reduced ad spend waste, ensuring your ads are reaching the right people at the right time.
• Personalized marketing experiences, driving stronger customer relationships and loyalty.

By tailoring ads to specific audience segments, brands can deliver more effective campaigns that resonate with their target customers.

4) Perform omnichannel impact analysis

AMC enables advertisers to analyze the performance of their campaigns across multiple channels, offering insights into how various ad formats and touchpoints influence the customer journey. With omnichannel impact analysis, advertisers can:

• Track the customer’s path from first ad interaction to conversion across different touchpoints, such as Amazon DSP, Sponsored Products, and external media.
• Allocate the budget more effectively by identifying the most effective channels and ad combinations.
• Adjust strategies in real-time, based on data-driven insights from across multiple platforms.

This holistic view helps advertisers optimize campaigns across channels, ensuring maximum reach and effectiveness.

Why is AMC under-adopted?

Despite its advanced capabilities, Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) remains under-adopted by many advertisers across the world. Here are some key reasons:

1. Technical complexity: AMC requires users to have a strong understanding of SQL to run custom queries and extract data insights. This level of technical expertise can be a barrier for many brands, particularly those without dedicated data analysts or developers on their teams. For smaller advertisers, this complexity might make AMC seem inaccessible or too difficult to use.
2. Lack of awareness: Many advertisers, especially those new to Amazon Advertising, may not be aware of AMC and its full potential. Amazon tends to focus more on promoting its more popular tools like Sponsored Products, leaving AMC underrepresented in broader advertising discussions.
3. Data volume requirements: AMC is best suited for advertisers with significant ad spend and large datasets, which means smaller businesses may not see enough value in the platform. The advanced analytics of AMC is most effective when applied to large-scale campaigns with multiple touchpoints and ad formats, making it less appealing for advertisers with limited budgets.
4. Slow onboarding Process: Access to AMC is granted through an Amazon Advertising account manager, and the onboarding process can be time-consuming. This slower onboarding and setup may discourage some advertisers from adopting the tool, especially if they are looking for more immediate results.
5. Misconception About Cost: Some advertisers may assume that using AMC is prohibitively expensive due to the advanced nature of the platform and the assumption that it’s primarily for large enterprises. While AMC is cost-effective in optimizing ad spend, the initial investment in time and resources to learn and use the platform can seem daunting.

These factors contribute to AMC’s under-adoption, despite its powerful capabilities to transform marketing strategies and optimize advertising efforts. As brands gain more awareness and technical support, AMC adoption is expected to grow, particularly among advertisers looking to leverage data-driven insights to boost performance.

How can BeBold Digital help with AMC implementation?

At BeBold Digital, we excel in helping brands enhance their presence on Amazon through expertly tailored marketing strategies, including the effective implementation and management of Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC). As a full-service Amazon agency, we have a deep understanding of the platform's complexities and utilize our expertise to boost visibility and drive sales for our clients.

Our dedicated team focuses on optimizing product listings, managing advertising campaigns, and leveraging AMC's powerful insights to maximize performance. By combining data-driven analysis with innovative strategies, we craft customized solutions that resonate with target audiences and foster sustainable growth within the Amazon marketplace.

Additionally, we empower brands to sell without the burden of inventory, employing cutting-edge fulfillment methods to streamline operations and enhance profitability.

Book a call to learn more about us. 

Conclusion

Amazon Marketing Cloud stands out as a powerful clean room solution, offering advertisers the ability to harness valuable insights while maintaining strict data privacy standards. By leveraging the rich data available in AMC's subscription-based reports, brands can gain a deeper understanding of audience behaviors, campaign performance, and attribution metrics. Furthermore, the clean room environment facilitates secure collaboration and measurement across channels, allowing marketers to make data-driven decisions with confidence.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Amazon Marketing Cloud, and how does it work?

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) is a cloud-based platform that enables advertisers to analyze campaign performance and audience data using SQL-based queries. It works by integrating multiple datasets in a privacy-safe environment, providing insights into ad performance across Amazon’s ecosystem and external channels.

2. What types of data can I analyze using Amazon Marketing Cloud?

AMC allows advertisers to analyze Amazon ad campaign data, including Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and Amazon DSP. It also supports first-party data uploads (e.g., CRM data) and third-party data for comprehensive audience and performance insights.

3. How do I access Amazon Marketing Cloud?

You can access AMC by requesting it through your Amazon Advertising account manager. Once approved, you’ll gain access to the platform, where you can upload data, perform custom queries, and analyze your advertising performance across channels. Note: AMC works only in certain browsers.

4. What are the key features of Amazon Marketing Cloud?

Key features of AMC include SQL-based queries for custom insights, cross-channel analytics, audience segmentation, attribution modeling, and a privacy-safe environment for data integration. It helps advertisers understand customer behavior and optimize ad strategies.

5. Can I integrate Amazon Marketing Cloud with other analytics tools?

AMC provides insights that can be exported and used alongside other analytics tools. However, direct integration with third-party tools is limited due to privacy restrictions, so advertisers typically use AMC insights in combination with external platforms like Google Analytics.