Glossary

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)

Last updated: March 17, 2026

AMC defined: The Marketing Cloud

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) is a secure, cloud-based analytics platform that launched in 2021. It lets advertisers run cross-channel analyses and understand the complete customer journey – both on and off Amazon.

AMC is what’s known as a “clean room” solution: you can run deep analyses on Amazon’s data without any individual user-level data ever being exposed. All results are returned in aggregated, anonymized form.

The decisive advantage:

While standard reports only show which ad was clicked last, AMC reveals the entire sequence of touchpoints that led to the purchase. That’s how you understand how your different campaigns work together.

Core features and capabilities

Amazon Marketing Cloud offers a wide range of analytical capabilities that go far beyond standard reporting:

Cross-channel analysis

Combine data from Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display and Amazon DSP in a single, unified analysis. Understand how your different ad formats work together.

Path-to-conversion

Analyze the typical paths customers take on the way to a purchase. Which touchpoint combinations lead to conversions most often?

Reach & frequency

How many unique users are you reaching? How often does a user see your ad on average? Optimize contact frequency for maximum impact.

New-to-brand analysis

What share of your buyers are new customers? Which campaigns bring in the most new customers vs. repeat buyers?

Custom queries

With SQL queries you can build individual analyses tailored precisely to the questions you want to answer.

Attribution: Understanding the path to purchase

Attribution in AMC determines which campaigns receive “credit” for a conversion. You can adjust several parameters:

Lookback window

How far back do you look to capture touchpoints? AMC allows up to 28 days.

Attribution models

First-touch: 100% credit to the first touchpoint
Last-touch: 100% credit to the last touchpoint before the purchase
Equal-weight (linear): credit distributed evenly across all touchpoints
Position-based: more weight to the first and last touchpoint

Real-world example: A customer first sees a DSP ad, then a Sponsored Brands ad, and finally buys via a Sponsored Products ad. With last-touch, SP gets the full credit. With linear, it’s spread across all three – which is often more realistic.

Building custom audiences

One of AMC’s most powerful features: based on your analyses, you can build your own audiences and activate them directly in Amazon DSP.

Examples of custom audiences:

High-value customers: buyers with an above-average order value
Cart abandoners: users who added to cart but didn’t purchase
Multi-touchpoint converters: buyers who saw multiple ad formats
Competitor shoppers: users who viewed competitor products
Repeat buyers: customers who purchased at least twice

These audiences update automatically and can be used for retargeting or lookalike campaigns in DSP.

Access and technical requirements

AMC is available to advertisers with an active Amazon DSP account. There are, however, a few requirements:

Prerequisites

An active Amazon DSP account (managed or self-service)
Sufficient campaign volume to produce meaningful data
An AMC instance that has to be requested and set up

Technical know-how:

Custom queries require basic SQL knowledge (SELECT, WHERE, GROUP BY). That said, Amazon also provides ready-made templates and instructional queries that let you get started without any SQL knowledge. Most marketing teams need 2-3 weeks to learn the basics.

Cost: AMC itself is free. You only pay for your DSP campaigns. Setting up and using the platform incurs no additional fees.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

What’s the difference between AMC and Amazon Attribution?

Amazon Attribution measures the influence of external channels (Google, Facebook, email) on Amazon sales. AMC analyzes Amazon’s own advertising channels and enables deeper cross-channel analyses with greater flexibility.

How granular is the data in AMC?

AMC delivers aggregated data only – no individual user profiles. Every query must cover at least 100 users to return results. That protects privacy while still enabling deep insights.

Can I upload my own data into AMC?

Yes – via the “AMC Uploader” you can upload first-party data (e.g. CRM data, offline conversions) and connect it with Amazon’s data. This lets you analyze the complete customer journey across all channels.

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