What is Amazon Marketing Cloud?

Covering everything from online music and TV streaming to retail and artificial intelligence, it seems Amazon has got its hands in just about everything. As the tech tycoon continues to grow, it comes as no surprise to learn it’s entered the world of marketing and cloud computing too. 

Cue: Amazon Marketing Cloud. 

Its most recent version, which launched in 2021, is offering marketers a new set of tools with which to perform in-depth analyses of campaign and audience data. There’s a lot to unpack with this new technology, so let’s get started on our way to understanding what it is and how it can be used to make more informed marketing decisions moving forward. 

Here’s an overview of what we’ll cover:

• Amazon Marketing Cloud: A Quick 101
• Benefits of Using the Amazon Marketing Cloud
• Who is Eligible to use AMC
• How AMC can Lead to Marketing Campaign Success
• Additional Amazon Advertising Tools 

Amazon Marketing Cloud: A Quick 101

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) is, in a nutshell, the internet’s gift to the data-obsessed. 

It’s a cloud space that is capable of storing and analyzing a number of datasets—both from the advertisers themselves and from any marketing campaign carried out via Amazon Advertising. It keeps track of campaign events so that marketing teams are better able to understand audience actions and tendencies.

An “event” in programming refers to an action that occurs on a web page as a result of a user’s behavior. This can be something as simple as a mouse click or the press of a certain key on a keyboard that triggers a web-related response.

What other types of data can Amazon Marketing Cloud report on? Here’s a look at a few that are useful to keep an eye on:

• Impressions – This is the total number of times an advertisement renders on a web-enabled device.
• Engagement – How many users click on (engage with) your content.
• Conversions – A conversion does not always have to equate to a sale. It is simply defined by the number of times a visitor to your website completes a desired goal set by the advertisers.
• Revenue – The money you make from your campaign performance.

As with any campaign, these are key performance indicators (KPIs) that provide a valuable analysis regarding the successes and, sometimes, blunders of the particular advertisement under review. Having this data all in one place, however, lends itself to insightful cross-channel evaluation that can help make targeted adjustments to campaigns moving forward. 

What are the Main Benefits of Using Amazon Marketing Cloud? 

Amazon itself cites the primary advantages of this platform as offering control, choice, and clarity to its users which, in broad terms, sounds great—right? 

But what exactly do these benefits look like within the framework of the cloud environment? 

Let’s have a look at that now.

• Choice – Advertisers using AMC are able to use their own programming language, known as an SQL (Structured Query Language) to extract relevant data. This may be a project that’s better suited for the software engineering team, but this freedom of choice is a useful way for marketers to be able to pinpoint the data that’s most pertinent to their research. 
• Control – AMC provides its users with total control and freedom to personalize the datasets available to them. It offers analytics reports that are completely customizable so that marketing teams can get right to the core of their objectives without having to sift through pages of less relevant data first. 
• Clarity – With AMC, there’s no confusion about what’s working and what’s not. Get a clear, holistic view of how customers interact with a brand and vice versa by comparing performance across a number of different channels. 

The overarching benefits? Customization and access to an abundance of data. Just be sure your team has knowledge of SQLs since it does not come as a ready-to-use interface. 

Who Can Use Amazon Marketing Cloud?

Given its advanced features, Amazon Marketing Cloud may not be suitable for just anyone. In fact, Amazon has currently set a few eligibility requirements in order to have access to this unique marketing tool. In order to qualify, you’ll need:

• To be an advertiser or an advertising partner
• To be active on Amazon DSP (demand-side platform)
• Resources who are familiar with writing SQL

Before incorporating Amazon Marketing Cloud into your marketing strategy, be sure you and your team are equipped with the skills needed to get the most out of it. 

How Can Marketers Benefit from Amazon Marketing Cloud? 

Now that we’ve developed a deeper understanding of the AMC functions as well as who is likely to benefit from them, let’s consider how these mechanisms translate into marketing success. Amazon Advertising provides an introduction to the Amazon Marketing Cloud which highlights a number of attractive benefits that marketers will be able to take away from this platform.  

• Maximizing your investment – The better you understand your customers and how they use different channels, the more appropriately you’ll be able to direct your campaign dollars. This way you can be sure that the investment you make is well-targeted and likely to generate higher returns. 
• Understanding the needs of your campaign – By having greater access to datasets and taking a look at them side-by-side, campaigns with a broad focus will be able to more accurately refine their audience and find specific opportunities for optimization. 
• Improving your campaign results – Whether you’re aiming to increase revenue or to encourage customers to complete a form on your website, Amazon Marketing Cloud can help you to boost conversions and, therefore, improve the overall results of your campaign. When it’s clear where, exactly, your campaign can be optimized, the easier it is to generate the desired results. 
• Combining media channels – Use AMC to find out what your audience’s preferred channels are, how often they use them, and what kinds of actions are taken on each one. With this information you can choose to combine your top-performing channels to maximize reach and generate high-quality leads. 

Other Amazon Advertising Tools to Power Up Your Marketing Plan

Beyond Amazon Marketing Cloud, there are a number of other advertising tools that marketers may want to be aware of for use in their upcoming campaigns. Consider your marketing objectives as well as your desired campaign channel in order to find the right tool for your purposes. 

Here’s a look at a few of the available Amazon Advertising options:

• Amazon DSP – Expand your audience by displaying your advertisements across the Amazon platform as well as the company’s publishing partners. It’s available in a number of countries and comes included with metrics analysis to help you evaluate the efficacy of your campaigns.
• Amazon Live – Create a more informed consumer by engaging with them in real-time. Put a new product on display, give a demonstration of how it’s used, and open the floor for questions to be asked by potential customers via the live chat feature. 
• Audios Ads – If you think you’d be more likely to connect with your target audience during their screen-free time, use this Amazon Advertising tool to build audio ads (10 to 30 seconds in duration) that can be played for consumers to hear while using Amazon Music. Plus, any business can take advantage of this ad space, regardless of whether or not they sell their products on the Amazon Marketplace. 
• Sponsored Display – These types of sponsored ads may appear on the Amazon home page, product pages, and even third-party websites. Target by product relevancy or by audience and control how much you spend by setting a fixed budget and bidding on clicks. 
• Amazon Posts – If your company already has a presence on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, consider repurposing images you’ve already curated to use on Posts. It’s free to post the content you want and you can expect to find it in the Amazon shopping app. This is an effective way of encouraging Amazon shoppers to browse your products and also to provide them with inspiration about how your offerings can bring value to their life. 

Can’t decide on just one? Consider a strategy that combines a few different approaches and use Amazon Marketing Cloud to help you assess the results of each. 

Find a Growth Solution with the Help of Power Digital

With so many advertising and data analytics tools available, it can sometimes be challenging to discern which ones will provide your team with the highest return on investment. Keep in mind—there is no singular approach that guarantees marketing success. Instead, it’s a continual process of experimenting, evaluating, and adjusting as you go along. 

Let Power Digital help you find the growth strategy that works for you. Whether it’s gathering data from the Amazon Marketing Cloud, running a campaign with the help of another Amazon Advertising tool, or building a personalized marketing plan from scratch, we are eager to unlock your marketing potential. 

We can answer all of your questions, such as: what is Amazon Explore? Is Amazon FBA worth it? What is AWS? Or even how to get a UPC for Amazon? 

Let’s create your success story today, together. Contact our digital marketing agency today.

Sources: 

1. Amazon Advertising. Introducing Amazon Marketing Cloud (beta). https://advertising.amazon.com/blog/introducing-amazon-marketing-cloud
2. Amazon Advertising. AMC Key Benefits. https://learningconsole.amazonadvertising.com/uploads/resource_courses/targets/20727/original/index.html?_courseId=3572#/page/6080b62f20ec6c57a8f57995