Launch announcement

Amazon Marketing Cloud announces custom audience creation and activation feature

1 May 2023

What’s launched?

Advertisers can now build custom audiences in Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) using SQL queries, and activate these audiences for use in Amazon DSP campaigns. Advertisers can configure custom queries or leverage query templates to build audiences utilizing all eligible signals in their AMC instance, across sponsored ads, Amazon DSP ads, Amazon Shopping Insights (beta) subscription, as well as advertisers’ own signals they choose to bring to AMC. This gives advertisers the option to help build more relevant audiences based off richer inputs anywhere customers spend their time. Advertisers also have the option to set the frequency of audience refresh, allowing the audiences created to stay timely and relevant.

Why is it important?

Advertisers have been using AMC to conduct custom analytics, and to obtain insights across marketing topics, such as campaign performance, media impact and audience relevancy. With the launch of AMC Audiences (beta), advertisers can now go one step further from deriving audience insights to directly creating custom audiences for use in Amazon DSP campaigns. Similar to how advertisers can run queries to build aggregated and anonymized AMC reporting today, advertisers have the flexibility to define their own queries and create custom audiences in AMC that best support their advertising and business goals, on top of utilizing audience options available in Amazon DSP.

Audiences created in AMC are in strict accordance with the same policy and size restrictions as other Amazon audiences, and are made available in Amazon DSP automatically. Advertisers can select AMC custom audiences for relevant line items similar to how regular Amazon DSP audiences are selected today. Advertisers can then monitor campaign and audience performance via standard reporting dashboards, as well as conduct custom analytics in AMC to generate insights and make continuous optimization.

Here are just a few examples of custom audiences that can be enabled by using AMC Audiences, grouped by advertising goals:

  • Awareness: Audiences who have engaged with Streaming TV ads but not yet exposed to display ads, or audiences who are over-exposed to ads across media channels (used for audience exclusion)
  • Consideration: Audiences who viewed product detail page multiple times after ads exposure, or audiences who added advertised products to wish list
  • Conversion: Audiences who explored certain keywords post ads exposure, or audiences who added product to cart but did not complete the purchase
  • Loyalty: Audiences who purchased from the brand last year but have no recent engagements, or audiences with high customer long-term value (CLV) based on past purchases

Who can use it?

  • Amazon Marketing Cloud users

Where is the feature available?

  • North America: United States, Canada, Mexico
  • South America: Brazil
  • Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sweden, Turkey
  • Middle East: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
  • Asia Pacific: Australia, India, Japan

Where do I access it?

  • AMC web-based UI, AMC Audiences API

Success stories

Beekeeper’s Naturals reached new shoppers in cost-efficient way using AMC Audiences

Containers and bottles filled with honey

In efforts of helping nutritional product company Beekeeper’s Naturals reach high propensity prospects, Perpetua Labs used AMC Audiences, and built segments around (1) those who actively explored relevant keywords and terms after exposing to sponsored ads, and (2) those who have engagement journey similar to the journey paths of the brand’s existing customers. Campaigns where the first segment was used achieved ROAS that’s 33% higher than the brand’s alternative approach, and campaigns where the second segment was used led to a 100% new-to-brand (NTB) purchaser rate.1

AMC Audiences helped improve a wellness brand’s media spend efficiency

A woman running

Revive upgraded audience strategy for a US-based wellness brand using AMC Audiences. The agency first utilized the feature to curate audiences who have viewed ads and added products to cart but haven’t completed purchases, and then set up remarketing campaign to re-engage these high-intent groups. In addition, the agency built custom audiences who clicked on ads but had little total ad exposures across channels, and initiated campaign to drive brand consideration. With the help of AMC Audiences, the remarketing campaign achieved a Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) that's 60% higher than the brand's benchmark, and the consideration campaign attained cost per product detail page visit that's only 50% of the brand’s equivalent campaigns in the past.2

AMC Audiences and Amazon Shopping Insights (beta) helped grow SimpliSafe’s ROAS by 109%

A man using a security system

Buy Box Experts (BBE) helped SimpliSafe, an advanced home security company, utilize AMC Audiences and their Amazon Shopping Insights subscription to refine their engagement strategy. The agency built audiences who engaged with SimpliSafe before, but have not seen ads or made purchases across retail outlets anywhere customers spend their time. Across the run time of campaigns where this new audience was used, SimpliSafe observed their ROAS increased by 109% and the cost per unit sold decreased by 65%. In addition, the campaigns also drove the brand further towards its goal to reach new shoppers, with a 29% lift in percentage of new-to-brand purchases among total purchases.3

Back to updates

1 Perpetua Labs provided data, US, 2023

2 Revive provided data, US, 2023

3 Buy Box Experts provided data, US, 2023