What AMC Does
The Core Capabilities
Custom Audience Building. Create audience segments based on any combination of Amazon shopping signals: purchase history, browse behavior, search queries, ad interactions, and cart activity. These segments can be activated in DSP campaigns (and increasingly in Sponsored ads).
Examples of custom audiences:
- Shoppers who purchased from your category in the last 90 days but never bought your brand
- Shoppers who viewed your product 3+ times but didn’t purchase (high-intent non-converters)
- Shoppers who bought a complementary product (bought a yoga mat → target with yoga blocks)
- Lapsed customers (purchased 6-12 months ago, haven’t repurchased)
- High-LTV lookalikes (shoppers who resemble your best customers)
Cross-Channel Attribution. AMC shows how different ad types interact across the purchase journey. A shopper might: see a DSP display ad (awareness) → search a category keyword and click a Sponsored Products ad (consideration) → return directly and purchase (conversion). Standard Amazon reporting attributes this sale to Sponsored Products (last click). AMC shows the full path — revealing that DSP initiated the journey and deserves partial credit.
Incrementality Measurement. The most valuable AMC capability: measuring whether your advertising drives sales that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Not all ad-attributed sales are truly incremental — some shoppers would have purchased regardless. AMC can estimate the true incremental lift of your advertising, helping you understand the real ROI rather than the inflated last-click version.
Path-to-Purchase Analysis. Visualize the typical customer journey: how many touchpoints before purchase, which channels appear in the path, how long the journey takes, and where customers drop off. This informs optimal budget allocation across ad types.
New-to-Brand Analysis. Detailed breakdown of which campaigns, keywords, and audiences drive the highest rates of new customer acquisition. Critical for brands focused on growth rather than just retaining existing customers.
Who Should Use AMC
You’re Ready for AMC If:
You spend $10,000+/month on Amazon advertising across multiple ad types (Sponsored Products + Brands + Display, or Sponsored + DSP). AMC’s value comes from understanding cross-channel interactions — if you only run Sponsored Products, there’s limited cross-channel data to analyze.
You run (or plan to run) Amazon DSP. AMC’s audience-building capability is most powerful when activated through DSP. Custom audiences built in AMC can be directly deployed in DSP campaigns. Without DSP, you can still analyze data in AMC but can’t activate the insights as directly.
You have SQL capability (or an agency that does). AMC queries are written in SQL against Amazon’s data tables. There’s no drag-and-drop interface. You need someone who can write and interpret SQL queries — either in-house or through an agency with AMC expertise.
You want to answer strategic questions. AMC is for strategic analysis, not daily campaign management. If your questions are “should I bid more on this keyword?” — standard reporting answers that. If your questions are “which customer segments have the highest lifetime value?” or “what’s the incremental ROAS of my DSP spend?” — AMC provides answers that standard reporting can’t.
You Don’t Need AMC If:
- You spend under $5K/month on Amazon ads
- You only run Sponsored Products (no cross-channel data to analyze)
- You don’t have SQL capability and aren’t willing to hire for it
- Your optimization needs are addressed by standard Amazon reporting and third-party tools
Practical AMC Use Cases
Use Case 1: New Customer Acquisition Optimization
Question: “Which ad campaigns are actually bringing in new customers vs. just retargeting existing ones?”
AMC approach: Query new-to-brand purchase rates by campaign, keyword, and ad type. Identify: which keywords drive the highest new-customer percentage, which DSP audiences produce the most first-time buyers, and which campaigns are just recycling existing customers at acquisition-level cost.
Action: Shift budget from campaigns that primarily retarget existing customers toward campaigns with high new-to-brand rates. This grows your customer base rather than just maintaining it.
Use Case 2: Cross-Channel Budget Allocation
Question: “How should I split budget between Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and DSP?”
AMC approach: Analyze the path-to-purchase for your customers. If 40% of purchasers were exposed to a DSP ad before their purchase, DSP is contributing to 40% of revenue — even if last-click attribution only credits it for 5%. This reveals the true contribution of each channel.
Action: Reallocate budget based on true contribution rather than last-click attribution. Most brands discover DSP and Sponsored Brands are undervalued (contributing more than last-click suggests) and increase investment in those channels.
Use Case 3: Subscription and Repeat Purchase Targeting
Question: “Which customers are most likely to become repeat purchasers?”
AMC approach: Build a custom audience of shoppers who: purchased from your category, have a purchase frequency above average, and haven’t yet purchased from your brand. Target this audience through DSP with messaging focused on subscription/repeat purchase benefits.
Action: Deploy the custom audience in DSP campaigns with tailored creative (Subscribe & Save messaging, bulk discount offers). These are statistically the shoppers most likely to convert and become long-term customers.
Use Case 4: Incrementality Testing
Question: “If I cut my DSP spend, would sales actually drop?”
AMC approach: Run a geo-based incrementality test: maintain DSP spending in some regions, pause it in comparable regions, and measure the sales difference over 4-6 weeks. AMC provides the framework for clean test design and measurement.
Action: If DSP drives 20% incremental sales, the investment is clearly justified. If DSP drives only 2% incremental sales, the budget is better deployed elsewhere. Incrementality testing prevents both under-investing (in channels that truly drive sales) and over-investing (in channels that just take credit for organic purchases).
Use Case 5: Audience Overlap Analysis
Question: “Are my Sponsored Products and DSP campaigns reaching the same people, or different audiences?”
AMC approach: Query the overlap between audiences reached by each ad type. If 80% of your DSP audience already sees your Sponsored Products, DSP is redundant — you’re paying twice to reach the same people.
Action: Adjust DSP targeting to minimize overlap with Sponsored Products audiences. Focus DSP on reaching people your Sponsored campaigns can’t: shoppers who haven’t searched for your category, shoppers in the awareness stage who haven’t expressed purchase intent, and audiences defined by behavioral signals rather than keywords.
AMC Technical Setup
Accessing AMC
AMC is available through the Amazon Ads console. You need: an Amazon Advertising account, DSP access (required for most AMC features), and acceptance of AMC’s terms of service.
The AMC Interface
AMC provides a SQL query editor where you write queries against Amazon’s data tables. The main tables include:
| Table | Contains |
|---|---|
amazon_attributed_events |
All ad-attributed impressions, clicks, and conversions |
dsp_impressions |
DSP display and video impression data |
sponsored_ads_traffic |
Sponsored Products, Brands, and Display event data |
audience_data |
Audience segment membership and behavioral signals |
asin_summary |
Product-level performance data |
Getting Started
Option 1: In-house data team. If you have SQL-proficient analysts, they can write AMC queries directly. Amazon provides documentation, sample queries, and a growing library of pre-built Instructional Queries that answer common questions without custom SQL.
Option 2: Agency with AMC expertise. Most brands access AMC through their agency. The agency’s data team writes queries, interprets results, and translates insights into campaign actions. AMC expertise is a differentiator among agencies — not all agencies offer it. At GigaCommerce, AMC analysis is available in our Scale plan ($12,000/month).
Option 3: AMC partners. Companies like Pacvue, Skai, and Intentwise have built AMC-integrated platforms that provide pre-built dashboards and analysis on top of AMC data — reducing the SQL requirement. These tools cost $500-$5,000/month depending on features and data volume.
AMC Limitations
Data is aggregated and anonymized. You can’t see individual customer data. All queries return aggregated results (e.g., “500 customers who viewed your product 3+ times” — not the names or contact information of those 500 customers). This is by design — AMC is a clean room environment that protects consumer privacy.
14-day attribution window. AMC uses a 14-day lookback window for most attributed events. Purchases that happen more than 14 days after an ad interaction may not be captured, potentially underrepresenting the value of upper-funnel campaigns.
Learning curve. AMC requires SQL knowledge and understanding of Amazon’s data model. The first 2-4 weeks involve learning the table structure, query syntax, and data nuances. Pre-built Instructional Queries reduce this curve but don’t eliminate it.
Minimum spend thresholds. Some AMC features (particularly audience activation) require minimum advertising spend levels. Amazon hasn’t published fixed minimums, but practical utility begins at $10K+/month in Amazon advertising.
AMC vs Standard Amazon Reporting
| Dimension | Standard Reporting | AMC |
|---|---|---|
| Attribution model | Last click, 7-14 day window | Multi-touch, customizable |
| Cross-channel analysis | Separate reports per ad type | Unified analysis across all ad types |
| Custom audiences | Limited (Amazon’s pre-built segments) | Unlimited (any combination of signals) |
| Incrementality | Not available | Available (geo-based and holdout testing) |
| New-to-brand depth | Basic percentage | Detailed segmentation by campaign, keyword, audience |
| Path-to-purchase | Not available | Full journey visualization |
| SQL required | No | Yes |
| Minimum ad spend | None | $10K+/month recommended |
| Audience activation | Through DSP standard audiences | Through DSP with custom AMC audiences |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AMC free?
Yes — AMC access itself has no additional charge for Amazon advertisers. You pay your normal advertising costs (Sponsored ads CPC, DSP CPM). The cost is in the expertise required to use it: either in-house SQL analysts or agency AMC capability.
Do I need to run DSP to use AMC?
For the full AMC experience (including custom audience activation), yes — DSP access is required. You can access some AMC analytics with only Sponsored ads, but the most valuable features (audience building, cross-channel attribution, incrementality) require DSP data.
How is AMC different from Brand Analytics?
Brand Analytics provides pre-built reports on search behavior, market basket analysis, and demographics — no SQL required. AMC is a raw data query environment that provides deeper, custom analysis with no pre-built limitations. Brand Analytics is for operational insights; AMC is for strategic analysis. Use both.
Can AMC tell me which keywords to bid on?
Not directly — that’s what search term reports and Brand Analytics are for. AMC tells you higher-level strategic insights: which customer segments to target, how channels work together, and whether your advertising is truly incremental. These insights inform keyword strategy indirectly but don’t replace campaign-level optimization.
How often should I run AMC analyses?
Monthly for most brands. Major strategic analyses (incrementality tests, customer segmentation, budget reallocation) are quarterly exercises. Daily or weekly AMC queries are unnecessary and not how the tool is designed to be used.
Next Steps
Want AMC insights for your brand? Our Scale plan ($12,000/month) includes AMC analysis, custom audience building, and cross-channel optimization. Get your free audit → and we’ll assess whether AMC would add value for your specific advertising program.
Keep reading:
- Amazon DSP Advertising: Complete Guide →
- Amazon Ad Types: SP vs SB vs SD →
- Amazon ACoS vs TACoS: Which Metric Matters? →
Last Updated: March 2026