September 12, 2023
August 5, 2022
Clients are very aware that of the big publisher groups, Amazon has more granular and verified data than anyone. This is especially true if you’re selling on their platform.
Advertisers have always been keen to get their hands on this information about their consumers and advertising performance but due to strict privacy and customer-centric concerns, Amazon has been reluctant to share any such detailed information.
However, to meet the needs of advertisers, in Q4 2019 Amazon quietly launched the Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) which coincided with many job ads posted for Amazon and also by Deloitte, Omnicom and Publicis.
Ad Exchanger wrote one of the first articles about Amazon’s new “clean room” in August 2019 followed by articles across publishers including Retail Dive. AMC would reportedly enable advertisers to analyze Amazon’s vast advertising and retail data at the most granular level – but they’re not permitted to export this sensitive consumer data.
While AMC has been operational since late 2019 with select advertisers, there still remains scant little information about it publicly; indeed, a Google search for “Amazon Marketing Cloud” brings up mention of the competitor Salesforce Cloud, and only a couple of articles discuss AMC directly.
This blog post is not sourced from any official or confidential information but as many clients are interested to learn more, we have compiled what has been reported and are sharing this understanding and our hopes for what AMC can provide clients.
AMC can simplistically be seen as Amazon’s version of the Google Ads Data Hub, which Google describes as follows:
“With Ads Data Hub, you can upload your first-party data into BigQuery and join it with Google’s event-level ad campaign data. Combining your data with Google’s event data can unlock insights, improve advertising efficiency, help you achieve data-driven business goals, and yield more effective campaign optimization. Results from Ads Data Hub are aggregated over a group of users, which allows Google to provide more complete data and still maintain end-user privacy.”
In a nutshell, AMC is a similar “clean room” environment where clients can contribute their own data (for example website visitation, CRM program, social channel interaction and search data) and analyze this alongside log-level Amazon data that could be derived from any of their properties. Remember that Amazon is much more than Amazon.com, it’s Prime Video, Prime Music, Kindle, Fire Tablet, FireTV, Ring, Zappos, Whole Foods Market, GoodReads, Go Stores and many others. When aggregated, that’s a lot of customer data. And because of the single sign-on across their properties, Amazon is able to tie all of the user behaviors and information back to a known individual.
AMC is Amazon’s way of giving clients access to more granular data upon which they can perform analysis aimed at improving a brand’s performance and insight. Importantly, all analysis is carried out in a secure and privacy compliant environment. And in a world where cookies will soon disappear, Ad Exchanger wrote that AMC will play a big role in brand’s leveraging 1st party audiences.
Uniquely, with the plethora of assets Amazon owns and the verified shopping data and retail operations, we believe Amazon clients ccould derive insights beyond just media/advertising and impact the breadth of their marketing activities.
It’s important to note that AMC isn’t a ready made dashboard or a drop-and-drag visual interface. You can’t just get access to every insight at the touch of a button. Think of it like a massive data dump from multiple sources, and you need experts to analyze, interpret and visualize the findings.
AMC is entirely API-driven and users need familiarity with APIs, querying languages, JSON, and AWS services as well as sophisticated analytics tools.
Amazon is apparently waiving fees for selected advertisers. Podean is working with some of the most accomplished data scientists in the marketing field to develop AMC solutions to clients, ranging from the development of use cases through to setup, analysis, interpretation and application of the findings. More detail about Podean’s capabilities can be found HERE, and please get in CONTACT if we can assist you.
September 12, 2023
September 12, 2023
August 5, 2022
Emily…
James comes to Podean with a wealth of marketplace knowledge having worked at Amazon Corporate for 5+ years. He worked in many different roles and groups during his time there from Seller Support to Vendor Management. From recruiting and onboarding 3P sellers to new categories, handling highly escalated executive level contacts, and managing vendor relationships he brings an inside understanding of how Amazon works. James is passionate about online retail and brings a client and customer centered approach as the Head of US Retail Operations. Before his e-commerce focused life, James worked across industries that have always focused and delivered results in customer service, account management, and inventory management.
With more than 15 years of experience Alejandro has led some of the most edgy projects in the LATAM region and has built-up high-performance teams from both agency and brand sides. Working with Havas he put together a Consumer Engagement unit for Pepsi. He led a WPP digital solution for L’Oréal and while working with Mediacom he redesigned Coca-Cola’s media team. Most recently he was a fundamental part of Danone’s media transformation into a brand salience unit. He was born and raised in Mexico City, loves being outdoors, listening to music and spending time with his 7-year-old daughter.
Danielle leads media globally for Podean. She previously led the Amazon and e-commerce division at performance marketing agency, Merkle (part of Dentsu). Danielle has deep expertise across all facets of Amazon advertising – DSP, sponsored ads, audio, out of home and beyond. She has delivered significant growth for some of the world’s largest brands including Nestle, managing tens of millions of advertising spend on their behalf.
Before Podean, Travis Johnson was Founder and President of Dentsu’s Amazon-focused consultancy, Sellwin. Prior joining Dentsu he was Global CEO of Ansible Mobile in New York, and also held CEO positions in Australia for media agencies UM, Initiative and Cadreon. He was an Adweek Media Allstar in 2017 and has won over 50 International Awards across his career.
Maddie leads our client management team and also marketing for Podean. Maddie’s team operates as an extension of our client’s teams – anticipating their needs, thinking proactively, and always delivering on time. Maddie is also responsible for all aspects of Podean marketing, from blogs and email newsletters to PR, content, and advertising.
Lizzy manages the Podean media team across any, and every, media solution offered by Amazon and other marketplaces. Whether it’s search/sponsored ads, DSP display and video, Twitch, audio or activations we have the experts to deliver. Every client that her team has worked on has seen a step-change in media effectiveness and sales versus their previous operations.
Jonathan Hawkins leads Podean’s European operations, working with clients spanning all categories. His team assists brands with every aspect of setup and optimization across the region including supply chain advice, logistics, retail operations, analytics and media management. P Before joining Podean, Hawkins was Commercial Director of Square Up media, owners of media properties including Escapism, Foodism and Square Mile. During his decade at Square Up he led editorial, content and most recently commercialisation and sales with a focus on digital products and ecommerce growth.
We have hand-picked the best and brightest Amazon talent from around the USA and the world. Our delivery team of 6 New York based, and 17 Amazon and marketplace marketing specialists ensure our clients receive the best campaign performance. They are experts in retail management, performance media optimization, but also video, analytics, AMC, voice, creative and higher impact executions.
Ashley has covered all aspects of digital marketing in his career, having led digital media for Initiative Media Australia, then managed a team of cross-functional digital salespeople at Mi9 (MSN) and was most recently the Managing Director of ecommerce conversion optimization software company, Ve. Ashley’s leadership, collaboration skills and entrepreneurial spirit drive the Australian business.
Mark is a 20+ year digital leader and before Podean was EVP at Reprise where he successfully launched IPG’s Amazon Center Of Excellence. Prior to this, Mark led mobile and innovation agency Ansible. Earlier in his career he was the Founder and CEO of Concep, an email and performance marketing agency with offices in the UK, USA and Australia.
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