AMC custom audiences have revolutionized how brands target shoppers on Amazon. If you’re looking to maximize your advertising ROI through precision targeting, understanding how to build custom audience using AMC data is essential for success in today’s competitive marketplace. NuvoRetail’s Amazon Marketing Services help brands unlock the full potential of Amazon Marketing Cloud for advanced audience targeting strategies.
Table of Contents
- What Are AMC Custom Audiences?
- Why AMC Custom Audiences Matter for Amazon Marketing
- Prerequisites for Building Custom Audiences
- 7 Steps to Build Custom Audience Using AMC Data
- Popular AMC Audience Insights Templates
- Real-World Use Cases for Amazon Marketing Cloud Custom Audiences
- Best Practices for AMC Data Audience Building
- Conclusion
What Are AMC Custom Audiences?
AMC custom audiences represent a powerful feature within Amazon Marketing Cloud that enables advertisers to create highly specific audience segments using SQL queries or built-in templates. Unlike traditional targeting options available through Amazon DSP, these custom audiences allow you to leverage behavioral signals, purchase history, and cross-channel engagement data for precision targeting.
Amazon Marketing Cloud serves as a secure, privacy-safe data clean room built on Amazon Web Services. This AMC Amazon Marketing Cloud environment lets you analyze pseudonymized signals across multiple touchpoints while maintaining customer privacy. The platform introduced the custom audience creation feature in May 2023, and it has since become an indispensable tool for sophisticated Amazon marketing strategies.
The beauty of AMC custom audiences lies in their flexibility. You can utilize signals from sponsored ads, Amazon DSP campaigns, Amazon Shopping Insights subscriptions, and even your own first-party data that you bring into AMC. This comprehensive approach to AMC data audience building ensures your targeting reaches shoppers based on their actual behaviors rather than assumptions.
Why AMC Custom Audiences Matter for Amazon Marketing
The global e-commerce marketplace exceeds $6.3 trillion in value, with Amazon commanding a significant market share. In this vast landscape, reaching the right customers at the right moment separates successful brands from struggling ones. AMC audience insights provide the granular data needed to achieve this precision.
Traditional Amazon Advertising Services offer targeting based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. However, AMC custom audiences take this further by enabling behavioral analysis that wasn’t previously possible. You can now target shoppers who viewed your product multiple times without purchasing, clicked on your sponsored ads without converting, or abandoned their shopping carts.
For brands working with an Amazon Marketing Agency India or any Amazon Marketing Service Agency globally, leveraging AMC solutions has become a competitive necessity. The Tinuiti case study demonstrates how The Honest Company achieved 172% higher ROAS and 65% lower new-to-brand CPA by targeting cart abandoners through AMC custom audiences.
Prerequisites for Building Custom Audiences
Before diving into AMC custom audiences creation, ensure you meet these requirements:
Access Requirements: Following Amazon’s unBoxed 2024 announcements, AMC is now available to all advertisers regardless of DSP spend. This democratization of Amazon Marketing Cloud means more brands can leverage these powerful AMC solutions for their marketing services Amazon campaigns.
Technical Knowledge: While SQL knowledge helps for advanced queries, Amazon provides built-in instructional templates that make AMC custom audiences accessible to marketers without coding experience. An Amazon Marketing Cloud Agency can assist with complex query development if needed.
Data Availability: Your AMC instance must contain sufficient signal data. This includes sponsored ads engagement, DSP impressions, and conversion events. The more data available, the more sophisticated your AMC custom audiences can become.
7 Steps to Build Custom Audience Using AMC Data
Step 1: Access Amazon Marketing Cloud
Navigate to your Amazon Ads console and select “Measurement and Reporting.” Click on “Amazon Marketing Cloud” to enter your AMC instance. This is where all your AMC audience insights and custom audience creation happen.
Step 2: Navigate to the Audience Tab
Click on the “Audience [Beta]” tab within your AMC dashboard. This section houses all tools needed for building AMC custom audiences and managing existing segments.
Step 3: Choose Your Creation Method
Click “Create Audience” to see two options:
- Create with instructional query: Use Amazon’s pre-built templates for common use cases
- Create with custom query: Write your own SQL for advanced AMC custom audiences
For beginners, instructional queries provide an excellent starting point for understanding AMC data audience building.
Step 4: Select Your Query Template
Amazon offers five built-in instructional queries covering the most valuable use cases:
- Detail page viewers who haven’t purchased
- Sponsored Product ad clickers without conversion
- Keyword-based audience targeting
- Cart abandonment audiences
- Custom behavioral segments
These templates serve as excellent foundations for your Amazon Marketing Cloud custom audiences strategy.
Step 5: Configure Audience Parameters
Enter a descriptive name for your audience and set the refresh frequency. Regular updates ensure your AMC custom audiences remain current and relevant. Choose from daily, weekly, or custom refresh schedules based on your campaign needs.
Step 6: Customize Your Query
Modify the SQL query to match your specific requirements. Adjust parameters like lookback windows, ASIN filters, and engagement thresholds. This customization is where AMC custom audiences truly shine, offering targeting precision impossible through standard Amazon marketing options.
Step 7: Create and Activate
Click “Create Audience” to finalize your segment. Once created, AMC custom audiences automatically sync to your Amazon DSP account and, following recent updates, to your sponsored ads campaigns as well. You can use these audiences for Sponsored Display targeting or bid modifiers in Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands.
For expert guidance on this process, consider consulting with the best Amazon marketing agency specializing in AMC solutions.
Popular AMC Audience Insights Templates
Cart Abandonment Audiences
Target shoppers who added products to their cart but didn’t complete purchase. These high-intent audiences typically deliver exceptional conversion rates when retargeted through AMC custom audiences campaigns.
Detail Page Viewers
Create audiences of shoppers who viewed your product pages multiple times. Multiple views indicate strong interest, making these prospects ideal for AMC custom audiences remarketing.
Sponsored Ad Engagers
Target users who clicked your sponsored ads without converting. These AMC custom audiences represent warm prospects who showed initial interest but need additional touchpoints.
Keyword-Based Audiences
Perhaps the most intriguing option, this allows targeting shoppers who searched specific keywords without purchasing. For example, a dog food brand can target people searching “premium dog food” who haven’t bought.
Lapsed Customer Audiences
Reach customers who purchased previously but haven’t engaged recently. The AMC audience insights from purchase history enable effective win-back campaigns.
Learn more about measuring campaign impact in NuvoRetail’s guide to measuring campaign impact with AMC data.
Real-World Use Cases for Amazon Marketing Cloud Custom Audiences
Cross-Selling and Up-Selling
Using AMC Product Overlap analysis, identify customers who purchased products A and B but not C. Create AMC custom audiences targeting these specific shoppers for cross-sell campaigns. This precision targeting dramatically improves campaign efficiency.
Sequential Messaging
Build AMC custom audiences of shoppers exposed to streaming TV ads but not display ads. This enables coordinated, full-funnel campaigns where each touchpoint builds on previous interactions.
Frequency Management
Create exclusion audiences of over-exposed users to prevent ad fatigue. AMC custom audiences work for both positive targeting and strategic exclusions.
Lookalike Expansion
AMC offers lookalike audience capabilities that use machine learning to find prospects similar to your best customers. During Prime Day 2024, brands using lookalike AMC custom audiences saw 972% more impressions and 194% higher ROAS compared to seed segments.
Loyalty Campaigns
Target high-value repeat customers with exclusive offers. AMC audience insights help identify your most profitable customer segments for retention-focused Amazon online marketing services.
For comprehensive optimization strategies, explore NuvoRetail’s Amazon Marketing Cloud Optimization Guide.
Best Practices for AMC Data Audience Building
Start with Clear Objectives
Define your goals before creating AMC custom audiences. Whether driving awareness, consideration, conversion, or loyalty, your objective shapes the audience parameters and query logic.
Test and Iterate
Launch AMC custom audiences with smaller budgets initially. Analyze performance, refine segments, and scale winning audiences. Amazon marketing experts recommend continuous optimization based on real campaign data.
Maintain Audience Freshness
Set appropriate refresh frequencies to keep AMC custom audiences current. Stale audiences contain outdated signals that reduce campaign effectiveness.
Combine with First-Party Data
Integrate your customer data with Amazon signals for richer AMC custom audiences. This combination enables highly personalized targeting that neither data source could achieve alone.
Monitor Audience Size
AMC custom audiences must meet minimum size thresholds for privacy compliance. If your segment is too small, consider broadening parameters or using lookalike expansion.
Align Creative with Audience
Develop specific messaging for each AMC custom audiences segment. Cart abandoners need different creative than lapsed customers or new prospects.
Working with an experienced Amazon Marketing Cloud Agency ensures these best practices translate into measurable results for your brand.
Conclusion
AMC custom audiences have transformed Amazon advertising from broad targeting to precision marketing. By leveraging Amazon Marketing Cloud’s powerful data capabilities, brands can reach exactly the right shoppers at the right moments in their purchase journey. Whether you’re targeting cart abandoners, engaging lapsed customers, or expanding reach through lookalike audiences, AMC custom audiences deliver the granular control modern Amazon marketing demands.
The seven-step process outlined above provides a clear roadmap for building effective audience segments. From accessing your AMC instance to activating audiences across DSP and sponsored ads, each step builds toward more efficient advertising spend and improved campaign performance.
For brands seeking to maximize their Amazon Marketing Cloud investment, partnering with Amazon marketing experts who specialize in AMC solutions ensures optimal implementation and ongoing optimization.
Take Your Amazon Advertising to the Next Level
NuvoRetail’s Amazon Marketing Services team specializes in AMC custom audiences strategy and implementation. Our Amazon marketing experts help brands unlock the full potential of Amazon Marketing Cloud for precision targeting and improved ROI.
Take the next step in your Amazon marketing journey:
Contact NuvoRetail today to discuss how AMC custom audiences can transform your advertising performance.
