Signals that shape decisions: How to build connected journeys across the funnel

There’s no shortage of conversation about signal-led marketing right now, but for many advertisers, the same patterns keep surfacing in their strategies. Global plans rolled out across regions without pressure testing the basics, success measured on last-click return on ad spend (ROAS), and signals treated as something to review after the work is done instead of shaping what happens while it’s live.

Everything looks tidy on a slide. Growth, less so. The gap is usually the giveaway.

Solutions from Amazon Ads work best when they’re working as one, bringing intent, media, creative, and commerce closer together to help brands think in journeys rather than isolated touchpoints. But that only happens if signals are allowed to actively challenge decisions, not just confirm them after the fact.

The shelf still matters

One of the most common places this breaks down is the “digital shelf.” Media gets asked to work harder than it reasonably can when availability is patchy, product detail pages are underdeveloped, or ratings and reviews lag behind competitors. When performance dips, the instinct is to tweak the plan. Often, the issue sits with the fundamentals.

The strongest programs are disciplined about this. Teams align early, pressure test the shelf across locales, and scale when demand can be supported. When that happens, media stops compensating and starts accelerating.

You see it in healthier halo sales and steadier performance through lead-in and lead-out periods. Brands that fix the shelf first tend to spend less time firefighting mid-campaign and more time building something sustainable.

Last click isn’t the full story

Another familiar pattern is the industry’s fixation with last‑click ROAS. It’s neat, it’s comforting, but it rarely tells the whole story. A more useful approach is to look at a broader set of signals, including total sales, new‑to‑brand contribution, and category share. By showing how different moments across journeys work together, these measures can help reveal whether you’re building future demand or simply harvesting what was already there.

This is where Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) becomes especially useful. AMC lets brands run custom queries across the full range of Amazon Ads insights available, surfacing path-to-conversion analysis, audience overlap, and new-to-brand attribution windows. These insights help reframe the measurement conversation entirely. Instead of defending spend channel by channel, teams can show how different moments across the journey work together. At Publicis, we take this a step further with Publicis Warehouse, which connects AMC audiences to ASIN profitability, net revenue drivers, and incrementality. Upper funnel activity stops being a leap of faith when it becomes clearer what it contributes over time.

Follow demand, not habit

Demand signals play a similar role. Category-level search trends and competitive intensity offer a precise view of where attention is shifting than historical performance alone. Even so, many plans still default to the same hero products out of familiarity.

Brands that follow demand tend to move faster, waste less spend, and pick up broader and more resilient growth earlier. The payoff is usually broader category momentum and stronger new‑to‑brand acquisition, not just short-term wins.

Timing does the heavy lifting

Timing matters just as much as format choice. Samsung’s La Traversée Twitch activation during the holiday period is a good example of what happens when attention, format, and moment line up properly. By aligning high‑impact placements with key Twitch events, the campaign more than doubled expected impressions and delivered strong post‑view engagement.¹

The lesson lies in respecting when audiences are most receptive by understanding where they are in their journey and showing up at moments that naturally move them forward, rather than spreading impact thinly and hoping frequency does the job.

It’s a useful reminder that planning around moments of heightened attention can help unlock scale and efficiency that static plans rarely deliver.

First-party signals, properly used

Finally, there are first-party signals. Too often, these are treated as something to ring-fence, as opposed to activate. When brands responsibly connect their own customer intelligence with Amazon Ads, these signals can help sharpen acquisition, improve measurement, and help brands make smarter decisions while campaigns are still live.

This is where identity infrastructure matters. Through solutions like Publicis Connected Identity, brands can connect consented signals across media, commerce, and CRM environments in a privacy-safe way, creating a clearer view of customer behavior while protecting customer privacy and maintaining trust. Combined with tools like Amazon Marketing Cloud and Publicis Warehouse, that creates a stronger understanding of incrementality, acquisition, and long-term value across the customer journey.

If there’s one takeaway from all of this, it’s that signals only matter if they change behavior. To drive sustainable growth, brands need to stop treating media, creative, and commerce as separate disciplines. Retail media isn’t a lower‑funnel add‑on; with Amazon Ads, it’s a full‑funnel solution that works best when brands think in connected journeys.

Sources

¹ Partner-provided data, 2025.

About the Author

Amo Aujla-Tse is the Retail Media Strategy Partner - Commerce at Publicis Media, helping deliver bold, commercially-driven strategies that connect commerce journeys, integrate brand and shopper insights, and unlock measurable revenue growth for brands across pureplay and omnichannel retailers. Amo is recognized for building strategic retailer and ad tech partnerships that create lasting competitive advantage, and for championing a rigorous test, learn, and innovate agenda that turns emerging opportunity into scalable impact. Her expertise cuts through complexity, breaks down organizational silos, and drives alignment across stakeholders at every level.