Overview

Amazon advertising is evolving beyond the basics of PPC. For agencies managing Amazon clients, relying solely on sponsored product and brand ads is no longer enough. Enter Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) and Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) – advanced tools that can elevate your strategy to the next level. These platforms enable precise audience targeting, full-funnel campaign reach, and deep data insights that were previously out of reach. In a recent webinar, Amazon advertising pioneer Jens Jokschat (Founder of PrimeUp, an Amazon-focused agency) revealed how DSP and AMC tactics can transform performance for Amazon agency professionals. This article synthesises those expert insights into a thought leadership narrative, showing you how to leverage DSP and AMC to drive better results for your clients.

Whether you’re an Amazon agency looking to break through a plateau or an enterprise seller seeking an edge, read on to learn how advanced Amazon DSP strategies and AMC analytics can help you find new customers, engage them across channels, and optimise campaigns for maximum ROI. We’ll cover what DSP and AMC are, how they work together, practical use cases (including eye-opening case studies like a 14× lift in website visits), and best practices for targeting and measurement. Let’s dive in and take your Amazon advertising approach beyond sponsored ads and into a truly data-driven, full-funnel strategy.

Demystifying Amazon DSP and AMC

Amazon DSP is Amazon’s programmatic advertising platform that allows advertisers (including agencies on behalf of clients) to buy display, video, and audio ads both on and off Amazon’s properties. Unlike sponsored ads that appear only on Amazon search results or product pages, DSP can reach audiences on Amazon-owned sites (Amazon.com, IMDb, Twitch, Fire TV, etc.) and thousands of external websites and mobile apps in Amazon’s ad network(advertising.amazon.com). With Amazon DSP, you can engage consumers at every stage of the funnel – from awareness (e.g. streaming TV commercials on Prime Video or Fire TV) to consideration (rich media display ads on websites) to retargeting (re-engaging those who viewed your product but didn’t buy). The key advantage is Amazon’s first-party data: the DSP taps into Amazon’s vast shopper data (300M+ active accounts) to target ads based on real purchase behaviour, interests, demographics, and even precise geolocation. In other words, Amazon DSP brings an unmatched edge in audience targeting by leveraging what people actually buy and browse on Amazon.

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), on the other hand, is a secure cloud-based analytics platform (clean room) where advertisers can combine and analyse data across all their Amazon advertising efforts (DSP, sponsored ads, etc.) and even import non-Amazon marketing data. AMC isn’t an ad-buying tool itself – it’s an analytics and attribution engine. It allows you to run custom queries to understand things like the customer journey across touchpoints, conversion paths, attribution beyond last-click, new-to-brand metrics, and more. With AMC, sophisticated agencies can measure the full-funnel impact of ads (for example, did exposure to a video ad lead to a later brand search or sale?) and even build custom audience segments based on behaviour to export back into DSP for activation. Essentially, DSP and AMC work hand-in-hand: DSP executes the campaigns, while AMC provides the insight to refine and optimise those campaigns. Jens Jokschat summed it up well: 

“The AMC is the pillar that brings the analytics to the table… it allows you to dig much, much deeper to analyse user journeys and cross-channel touchpoints, beyond what any single campaign report would show.”

Why Amazon DSP Is a Game-Changer for Agencies

For agencies managing Amazon brands, Amazon DSP offers capabilities you can’t get with standard sponsored ads or on other ad platforms. First and foremost is precision targeting. Amazon’s DSP lets you slice and dice audiences with incredible granularity using its exclusive shopping and demographic data. Think of any behaviour or attribute – you can probably target it. For example, you can target:

• In-market audiences based on recent shopping/browsing behaviour (e.g. people actively looking at products in a specific category).
  
  
• Interest and lifestyle segments derived from purchase history (e.g. “new parents,” “fitness enthusiasts,” or even niche groups like “first-time beauty product buyers”).
  
  
• Product viewers and considerers – people who viewed a specific product or brand detail page (yours or your competitor’s) but didn’t purchase. This means you can retarget high-intent shoppers or even conquest competitor audiences by targeting users who showed interest in a competing brand’s ASIN(improvado.io).
  
  
• Past purchasers or repeat customers for upselling or loyalty campaigns (using your own customer data securely matched in Amazon’s environment).
  
  
• Geographic targeting by ZIP code – Amazon knows exactly where its customers live (from Prime shipping addresses), so you can serve location-specific ads. This is incredibly useful for brands with physical stores or region-specific promotions, allowing you to pinpoint ads around certain cities or areas in a way that Google or Facebook often can’t match.
  
  

Jens highlighted that Amazon’s first-party shopper data is a unique goldmine: 

“With all the shopping information – the products you’re buying, not only for you but maybe for your spouse, family, kids – Amazon reveals a lot about your life and spending behaviour. This is something only Amazon can bring to the table, combined with the ability to target by postal code. It’s pretty powerful.” 

In short, Amazon DSP allows agencies to find and refine the exact audiences most likely to buy, using real purchase intent signals rather than just demographic proxies. These capabilities often outperform the interest targeting of platforms like Google Display or Meta, giving your clients a competitive edge.

Another game-changer is the expanded reach Amazon DSP provides. With one platform, you’re not confined to Amazon’s website – you can deliver ads across the open web, on mobile apps, and on streaming TV. For instance, you can run 15-60 second video commercials on streaming services via Amazon’s OTT inventory (including Prime Video ads that appear during shows on Amazon Prime, and Fire TV ads on the Fire TV home screen) to build top-of-funnel awareness. Your ads can also appear on popular sites Amazon owns or partners with (IMDb, Twitch, Goodreads, news sites, etc.), dramatically extending your brand’s visibility beyond Amazon’s walls(improvado.io). All of this is purchased through Amazon’s DSP on a CPM basis, often at competitive rates. As an agency, this means you can run truly full-funnel campaigns for your clients using a single Amazon-centric ecosystem – capturing consumers’ attention with cinematic TV ads and display banners, then closing the loop by retargeting them with sponsored product ads or display ads that drive the final purchase.

Finally, Amazon DSP offers premium placements and creative formats that can elevate your clients’ brand presence. For example, unskippable video ads on Fire TV (big-screen living room experiences) lend instant credibility and capture 100% share-of-voice during their slot. DSP also supports responsive e-commerce creatives that dynamically pull in product images, prices, and reviews – great for retargeting campaigns to remind shoppers of the exact items they viewed. And new formats continue to emerge (Amazon is even rolling out audio ads on Amazon Music via DSP). The bottom line: agencies embracing Amazon DSP can differentiate themselves by delivering both the scale and the sophistication that modern brands demand – reaching more of the right people, in more places, with more engaging creative. It’s a potent addition to the Amazon marketing mix once you’ve mastered the basics of sponsored ads.

From PPC to Full-Funnel: Integrating DSP with Sponsored Ads

Many Amazon-focused agencies start with managing sponsored ads (Sponsored Products, Brands, etc.) – the “endemic” advertising that reaches shoppers already searching on Amazon. But as competition intensifies, your clients may feel they’ve maxed out PPC – bidding on all relevant keywords and saturating Amazon search. This is where DSP comes into play as the next stage of growth. Jens Jokschat described it not as “icing on the cake” but as the logical next layer once your Amazon fundamentals are strong. By integrating DSP with your existing sponsored ad campaigns, you create a holistic, full-funnel strategy: DSP brings in new prospects at the top and middle of the funnel, while sponsored ads and a well-optimised product detail page seal the deal at the bottom of the funnel.

A simple example of synergy: retargeting with DSP to boost conversion rates. One PrimeUp client (a luggage brand) had long relied on Sponsored Products to drive sales. They wondered if layering DSP display ads could help convert shoppers who didn’t buy on the first try. Jens’ team set up DSP campaigns to retarget users who had clicked the client’s sponsored ads or viewed their product, but hadn’t purchased. The DSP ads followed those high-intent users off Amazon with reminder banners and lifestyle images of the luggage.

The result? It worked exceedingly well. They found a significant audience pool to retarget via DSP, and conversion rates surged when shoppers had more than one touchpoint. In fact, “if people get in touch with more than just one ad format and one click, it can highly improve the conversion rate,” Jens noted. This demonstrates how DSP can squeeze more efficiency out of your existing traffic – a critical tactic for competitive categories. Instead of letting a warm lead go cold after one site visit, you re-engage them and nudge them over the finish line.

Another scenario: using DSP to prospect beyond Amazon search. Sponsored ads only reach people who are already searching on Amazon. But what about those who aren’t (yet) actively searching, or who might not even think of Amazon for a certain product? DSP’s audience targeting lets you find potential buyers upstream. For instance, you could target “home décor enthusiasts” browsing design blogs with an attractive furniture ad that links to Amazon – planting the seed for a product they didn’t know they needed.

You could also target shoppers who bought a complementary product (say, people who purchased cameras in the past 6 months – perhaps they’d be interested in your camera backpack). This kind of upper-funnel awareness and consideration campaign brings new users into the fold, who can later be re-marketed via sponsored ads or direct search. In PrimeUp’s experience, brands that diversify into DSP see a broader pipeline of shoppers eventually make their way to Amazon search or product pages. In one case, running a burst of Prime Video and display ads during Black Friday week led to a measurable uptick in Amazon brand searches for that brand (more on that case study shortly) – proving that DSP can indirectly fuel your PPC results by driving brand interest.

The key is coordinating messages and objectives across channels. An expert agency will use DSP and PPC in tandem: for example, show a video ad highlighting the brand story or problem-solution angle on streaming TV (to build awareness), then serve a sponsored brand ad or DSP display ad with a promotion (to those who engaged) to drive the purchase. All the while, ensure the Amazon product listings (images, A+ content, reviews) are polished – because once you bring them to Amazon, the on-page conversion is critical.

With this full-funnel approach, agencies can deliver results beyond what siloed PPC or disconnected display campaigns would achieve. You’re meeting the customer at multiple touchpoints on their journey, increasing the likelihood of conversion dramatically. As Jens put it, “in simple terms, the more channels and touchpoints users get, the more likely they are to finally purchase” – whereas a single touch (just one ad format) often isn’t enough.

Advanced Targeting Tactics to Try on Amazon DSP

One of the most exciting aspects of Amazon DSP is experimenting with its rich targeting options to uncover high-performing audience segments. Here are a few advanced tactics Amazon agencies should consider:

• Competitor Conquesting by ASIN – Identify a key competitor product that your client’s target market often buys or considers. Using DSP, target ads to shoppers who viewed or purchased that specific ASIN (or brand). For example, if you manage a niche electronics brand on Amazon, you could serve ads to people who recently browsed the category leader’s product. This steals market share by reaching users before they buy the competitor, potentially swaying them with your product’s value prop. 
  
  Amazon’s DSP even lets you target “lookalikes” of your competitor’s customers(improvado.io), effectively creating a conquest funnel. Pro tip: Use creative that directly addresses why shoppers should “switch” or consider the alternative (your client’s brand). Monitor ROAS on these conquest campaigns – often they’re great for awareness, but you’ll want to track how many eventually convert on your side (possibly via an increase in branded searches or detail page views).
  
  
• Lifestyle and In-Market Audience Segments – Amazon offers pre-defined segments like “Luxury Beauty Enthusiasts” or “Health & Wellness – Weight Training” based on long-term shopping behaviour. Test these segments to find new pockets of relevant consumers. In PrimeUp’s case study for a beauty brand, they targeted an AMC-derived segment of “new-to-category” beauty shoppers (people buying beauty items on Amazon for the first time). 
  
  This segment turned out to have the highest ROAS of all, despite being a small slice of the audience. The learning was clear: even a niche segment can be highly efficient if it contains genuinely high-intent newbies. By identifying that and allocating more budget there (while perhaps reducing spend on broader, lower-ROAS segments), they improved overall campaign efficiency. The takeaway: use AMC or Amazon’s audience insights to find which segments deliver strong return, then double down on the winners. Don’t be afraid to allocate budget unevenly to focus on high-performing audiences.
  
  
• Sequenced Retargeting – Think beyond a single retargeting pool. With DSP, you can set up different audience stages: e.g. Viewed Product – No Purchase (7-day), Viewed Product – No Purchase (30-day), Past Customers (180-day). You can then tailor creatives and bids for each. Perhaps in the first 7 days after someone views your Amazon product, you show an ad emphasising a limited-time promo or coupon to urge immediate action. For those who still haven’t purchased by 30 days, you might show a different creative (e.g. “Still looking for X? Here’s why our product solves [pain point]”) to rekindle interest. 
  
  And past customers might see an ad for a related product or new model to drive repeat business. This kind of granular retargeting funnel maximises conversion chances by delivering the right message at the right time. It also prevents over-spending on stale leads; you might cap frequency or stop ads after a certain time if they haven’t converted (more on frequency next).
  
  
• Frequency Capping and Optimal Exposure – With great power (to serve lots of ads) comes great responsibility: you don’t want to annoy or oversaturate your audience. Amazon DSP allows frequency caps (e.g. max 5 impressions per user per day). Finding the sweet spot for ad frequency can significantly boost campaign efficiency. In an analysis of three Black Friday week campaigns, PrimeUp found that the ideal range was around 12–16 impressions per user over the campaign duration for maximising conversion likelihood. 
  
  Below that range, users might not see enough messaging to be convinced; above that range, additional impressions showed diminishing returns in purchase lift. While this “sweet spot” can vary by campaign, it’s a valuable exercise to use AMC to analyse time-to-conversion and frequency. Pro tip: Run an AMC query to see conversion rate by number of ad impressions seen – and use that to inform your frequency cap (ensuring most users see at least the effective number of ads, but not excessively more). This data-driven approach prevents waste and avoids user fatigue, yielding a better ROI on your DSP spend.
  
  
• Geo-Targeting for Brick & Mortar Impact – If your client has physical retail stores or region-specific sales goals, leverage DSP’s pinpoint geo-targeting. For example, a retail brand ran a Fire TV ad campaign targeted only to viewers in cities where the brand had stores, inviting them to visit during a holiday sale. They saw not only an uplift in online sales in those regions but also an anecdotal store traffic increase. Even if Amazon can’t directly track offline sales, you can coordinate such campaigns with store promotions and use geographic sales lift as a success metric. This tactic lets Amazon advertising influence offline outcomes – a great value-add an agency can provide to omnichannel brands.
  
  

By creatively deploying these targeting tactics, agencies can help clients achieve specific objectives: whether it’s conquering a competitor, launching a new product to a receptive niche, or driving repeat purchases. Always test and iterate – Amazon’s audience landscape is rich, and the best-performing segment might surprise you. The goal is to find those high-impact, high-ROI segments and focus your spend there for maximum return.

Case Study Highlights: DSP and AMC in Action

To illustrate the power of DSP + AMC, let’s look at a few real-world examples (drawn from the webinar and agency case studies) that showcase what’s possible:

• Streaming TV + Display = 14× Website Visits – A non-endemic advertiser (an online travel agency) wanted to boost traffic to its website using Amazon’s audience data. They ran a campaign with Prime Video Ads (15-second commercials on streaming TV) targeting a broad travel enthusiast segment. By itself, the TV ad generated interest but limited direct response (after all, you can’t click a TV ad). The agency then layered in mobile/desktop display ads via DSP to the same audience pool. These display ads provided an easy click-through path for anyone who saw the TV ad and became interested. 

The outcome was astonishing: users who were exposed to both the TV and display ads were 14 times more likely to visit the travel site than those who only saw the TV spot. In effect, the combo of sight (TV) + immediate action (display) delivered a one-two punch. This underscores a crucial lesson: when using upper-funnel ads like streaming TV, always follow up with digital ads to capture the demand you generated. It’s a low-hanging fruit many advertisers miss. The agency now routinely recommends that any client investing in Amazon OTT (over-the-top TV ads) should allocate budget for a complementary display retargeting campaign to maximise ROI.

• Black Friday Full-Funnel Blitz – For a group of endemic Amazon brands (in supplements, beauty, and cookware), PrimeUp orchestrated an ambitious Black Week campaign using four channels in tandem: Sponsored Product Ads, Sponsored Brands, DSP Display Ads, and DSP Streaming TV Ads (Prime Video and Fire TV). The idea was to blanket high-value audiences with messaging during the critical deal period and see how multi-touch exposure affected sales. Results were telling. Brand awareness and consideration shot up – in one brand’s case, Amazon search queries for their brand name jumped 2.4× after users saw a Prime Video ad, and an impressive 5× when they saw both a Prime Video and a Fire TV ad. This indicates that Amazon’s OTT ads do drive real interest (people grabbed their phones and searched the brand). But did those translate to sales? Partly – conversion rates did increase among the multi-channel exposed group, though some viewers needed additional nudges.

The analysis also looked at purchase rates by journey path: the highest conversion rates were for users who encountered all three – OTT, display, and a sponsored ad – reinforcing that the full-funnel approach yielded the best outcome. Meanwhile, users who only saw a single ad format (especially only a TV ad or only a single sponsored ad) converted at the lowest rate. Another insight was the earlier mentioned optimal frequency: around 12–16 ad impressions per user over the 10-day period was the sweet spot for driving peak conversions. Armed with these insights, the brands reaped strong sales during Black Friday, and the agency could quantitatively demonstrate the value of an integrated DSP strategy.

• Measuring Incremental Sales – A question often asked: does running DSP actually grow my total sales, or just shift around demand that would’ve come through anyway? One webinar audience member voiced skepticism that DSP metrics looked good but didn’t lift the top line long-term. Jens’s response highlighted the importance of incrementality testing. In PrimeUp’s experience, a well-executed DSP campaign can increase overall sales by +0–20% depending on the scenario. For instance, using AMC, they set up hold-out groups (control vs. exposed) to see the true incremental sales from a campaign. In some cases, results came back as, say, +12% incremental revenue attributable to DSP (meaning those sales would not have occurred without those ads). In others, poorly targeted campaigns showed 0% lift (indicating the ads were hitting people who would buy anyway). 

The lesson for agencies: Always design experiments or use AMC’s analytical tools to measure incremental lift. Don’t just trust the DSP’s attributed conversion metrics at face value; confirm how much new business your campaign is driving after accounting for the baseline. Moreover, Jens advised that promotional creatives tend to have a bigger immediate sales impact than generic branding: if your goal is short-term sales during, say, Cyber Monday, use DSP to blast out a compelling offer or discount – you’ll likely see a stronger uptick in attributable sales versus a campaign that’s just about brand messaging. In short, DSP can absolutely boost the top line, but it must be targeted strategically and measured rigorously.

These case studies collectively demonstrate DSP’s versatility: it can amplify brand reach and awareness, orchestrate a full-funnel crescendo during key events, and drive measurable incremental growth – if used wisely. The common thread is an AMC-backed approach: using data to plan (who to target), execute (which channels/formats to combine), and then analyse (what worked, what didn’t). Now, let’s delve more into that measurement aspect.

Measurement and Attribution Best Practices

One of the biggest mindset shifts for agencies using DSP is moving beyond the familiar world of last-click attribution and ACoS that we live in with sponsored ads. DSP operates higher up the funnel, so its impact is often indirect or delayed – which makes proper measurement crucial. Here are some best practices to truly understand the impact of DSP campaigns:

1. Embrace Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) – Don’t judge your DSP solely by immediate “view-through” or last-touch sales. Use Amazon Marketing Cloud to apply different attribution models. For example, run an analysis with a linear attribution model, which gives equal credit to every ad a user saw before purchasing (versus last-click, which gives 100% credit to the final ad). You may discover that a DSP video ad contributed to many eventual sales that were officially credited to a sponsored ad. With AMC, you can quantify that assist value and justify the DSP spend. Amazon is actively improving multi-touch attribution capabilities (there’s talk of a built-in MTA solution rolling out by 2025), so forward-looking agencies should get comfortable with these concepts now.
   
   
2. Leverage Amazon’s Brand Lift Surveys – Amazon DSP offers a feature called Brand Lift (for qualifying campaigns with sufficient reach,) which uses Amazon’s Shopper Panel to survey a controlled group of Amazon users. Essentially, Amazon will poll groups of people who saw your ad vs. not seen, asking questions like “Do you recall seeing an ad for [Brand]?” or “Which of these brands are you familiar with/prefer?” and “How likely are you to purchase [Product] in the next 3 months?”. The results show the lift in awareness, ad recall, brand favorability, and purchase intent attributable to your campaign. This is incredibly useful for upper-funnel campaigns where immediate sales aren’t the goal. 
   
   For instance, an awareness campaign might show a +20 point lift in brand awareness and +15 point lift in purchase intent, indicating the campaign successfully moved consumers along the funnel. As an agency, you can present these metrics to your client as proof of impact beyond ROAS. Jens highlighted that you can even segment these lift results by frequency or audience – e.g. seeing that users who saw 10+ impressions had significantly higher ad recall than those who saw only one ad. That insight again feeds into optimising your frequency strategy. The key takeaway: Use brand lift studies to capture the intangible benefits of DSP (like brand equity building) in a tangible way.

3. Monitor Post-Exposure Behaviours – A clever metric Amazon agencies track is brand search lift or detail page view lift after ad exposure. We saw this in the case study: Prime Video ads led to a spike in brand searches. You can set up AMC queries to measure “number of brand keyword searches by users who were exposed to X ad” versus a control. Similarly, track “add to cart” or wishlist events by exposed users. These micro-conversions signal that your DSP ads are driving shopping engagement, even if the purchase happens later. If you see a big lift in these leading indicators, you know the campaign is doing its jo,b creating demand.
   
   
4. Always Isolate a Control Group – Whenever feasible, design your campaign to have a hold-out audience (a random percentage of your target that is withheld from seeing the ads). This could be done by splitting a geographic region (e.g. run ads in 80% of states, hold out 20% as control) or using AMC to randomly bucket users. Then compare sales or other outcomes in the exposed vs. control group. This is the gold standard for proving incrementality. If the exposed group outperforms by +X%, that’s your incremental lift. If they perform the same, your ads didn’t really drive new sales (time to retool your strategy). Brands often appreciate this level of rigour, and it protects you as an agency – you can confidently claim credit for real growth.
   
   
5. Dive Deep into AMC for Journey Analysis – Use AMC to map common conversion paths. For example, you might find many users saw a video ad, then a display ad, then searched on Amazon and clicked a sponsored ad to purchase. Knowing this, you can attribute proper value to that first video touch. You might also find, say, that showing a video ad first makes your sponsored ads 30% more effective for those users (e.g. higher click-through or conversion rate). These insights help in budget allocation – you might decide it’s worth spending on videos to “warm up” audiences and then retarget them via sponsored ads because the overall blended cost per acquisition drops. This is the kind of sophisticated strategy that separates leading agencies from the pack.

In summary, don’t shortchange measurement. It’s tempting to look at DSP only through the lens of ACOS or direct ROAS – but that often undervalues its contribution. Instead, pair DSP with AMC analysis and brand lift metrics to get the full picture. As Jens noted, measuring upper-funnel impact is a bit like classic market research meets digital – you have to ask if people recall your ads and watch how their behaviour changes over time. The agencies that master this will be able to justify ad spend to clients with hard data and continuously refine their tactics for greater success.

Conclusion: Stay Ahead of the Curve (CTA)

Amazon DSP and AMC represent the next frontier of Amazon advertising for agencies – a chance to move beyond basic PPC and deliver holistic, innovative campaigns that drive both brand growth and sales performance. The strategies discussed – from harnessing rich audience data and OTT ads, to multi-touch retargeting and deep analytics – can set your agency apart as an Amazon advertising thought leader. By investing in these capabilities, you’ll help your clients reach customers that competitors miss, extract more value from every touchpoint, and future-proof their marketing in an increasingly data-driven, omnichannel world.

As Amazon continues to expand its ad tech (with features like no-code AMC queries and improved multi-channel attribution on the horizon), now is the time to build expertise in DSP and AMC. Start by testing on a small scale, use AMC to learn and iterate, and soon you’ll develop playbooks for consistent success – whether it’s a product launch, a seasonal promotion, or a brand-building initiative.

Turn Amazon Data Into Agency Growth with AMC

If analytics is your edge, AMC is your amplifier. MerchantSpring’s Amazon Marketing Cloud module lets you go beyond surface metrics—unlocking path-to-purchase insights, audience segmentation, and performance attribution that other dashboards can’t touch.

Discover how your campaigns truly drive conversions, where to optimize spend, and how to give clients a data story they can’t ignore.

📊 If you know someone obsessed with analytics, invite them to explore AMC—book a demo today.