Battle Notes · Amazon Ads
Is your brand ready for Amazon Marketing Cloud? What changed when AMC opened to sponsored-ads advertisers
Your brand is ready for Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) when three things are true: you have sponsored ads history worth analyzing, a question your standard reports can’t answer, and someone who can act on the result. Access is no longer the hurdle. Since September 2025, Amazon lets every sponsored ads advertiser open AMC from the ads console. Here is what changed, and a readiness checklist.
What is Amazon Marketing Cloud?
Amazon describes AMC as “a secure, privacy-safe, and cloud-based clean room solution.” It launched in 2019 and lets advertisers analyze pseudonymized signals from Amazon alongside their own inputs.
The difference from your normal campaign reports is control. Amazon’s AMC FAQ says standard reporting gives you predefined metrics, while AMC lets you run custom queries on event-level and user-level signals. Its launch article lists “their most loyal customers, custom audiences for remarketing, the path to conversion” among the things advertisers can explore.
What changed when AMC opened to sponsored ads advertisers?
AMC used to sit behind Amazon DSP. In Amazon’s words, DSP usage “had always been a mandatory prerequisite to register AMC.” Access then opened in two steps:
- October 2024: partners. Amazon expanded eligibility so that partners registered with the Amazon Ads Partner Network could register AMC for clients who only use sponsored ads. The same month, Amazon extended AMC audiences to sponsored ads campaigns.
- September 2025: every sponsored ads advertiser. Amazon announced that AMC is available to all advertisers running sponsored ads campaigns: “anyone using Sponsored Products, Sponsored Display, Sponsored Brands, or Sponsored TV.” Its release note describes “instant, self-service access for sponsored ads advertisers directly within their Amazon Ads account.”
How do you get an AMC instance, and what does it cost?
For sponsored ads advertisers, the route is the ads console. Amazon’s release note points you to AMC “in the left hand navigation bar, under Measurement & Reporting.” From there, the launch article says, “advertisers can get started in just a few clicks.” You can also use AMC through a partner registered on the Amazon Ads Partner Network, Amazon’s product page says.
On cost, the same page says: “Amazon Marketing Cloud is available at no cost to eligible advertisers via web-based UI and API.” Two caveats are worth knowing. The page also invites you to “Subscribe to Paid Features (beta) powered by Amazon Ads and third-party providers,” and the AMC Agreement reserves Amazon’s right “to charge for any service or feature, including data sets.”
Check this in your account: Open Measurement & Reporting in the ads console, confirm the AMC option appears, and note who on your team can open it.
What data does AMC need from you?
AMC starts with your advertising history. Amazon notes that advertisers could already use ad signals from Sponsored Products, Sponsored Display, Sponsored Brands and Amazon DSP in AMC when it added Sponsored TV signals. The product page says AMC gives you access to 25 months of ad traffic signals.
You can add your own data, too. Amazon’s product page says advertisers can “upload their own pseudonymous inputs into a dedicated Amazon Marketing Cloud clean room environment,” and that “the information you choose to upload stays within your dedicated AMC instance.” The AMC Agreement is strict on format: personal data can only be uploaded as pseudonymized data. Involve whoever owns privacy at your company before anyone uploads anything.
Check this in your account: List the ad types you’ve run and for how long, because that ad history is what AMC has to work with.
Do you need SQL to use AMC?
Not to start. The new AMC homepage “features a set of no-code analysis templates that provide valuable, visualized insights for advertisers new to AMC.”
SQL matters once your questions get specific. The launch article says users with SQL skills can “explore deeper analytics through low-code templates in the use case library” or open “the query editor for advanced, custom-query capabilities.” AMC also has an Instructional Query Library, “a repository of SQL queries that can be directly utilized or customized by AMC users,” each with “business context, usage instruction, and query result interpretation guidance.” The product page adds Ads Agent (beta) to help users construct custom queries.
The real question isn’t SQL. It’s whether someone owns AMC and turns its results into campaign changes.
Not sure what AMC could add to your account? and we'll send you a $-weighted opportunity map.
How do AMC audiences work with sponsored ads?
Audiences are where AMC turns into media decisions. Amazon’s product page says “Audiences created in AMC can be directly activated for media buying across sponsored ads, video ads, and display ads.” For sponsored ads, Amazon’s October 2024 update says advertisers can use rule-based or lookalike AMC audiences in Sponsored Display targeting, and AMC audiences “in Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands bid boosts.”
Amazon also suggests an order of operations: it recommends advertisers “start by exploring standard Amazon Ads audience options first, then use AMC to build custom audiences” when they need more.
One dependency is easy to miss. A bid boost raises your bid for shoppers in an audience, but a Sponsored Products ad still needs an eligible product: if it “isn’t the Featured Offer or is out of stock, your ad will not display.” We covered that in why your Amazon ads stop when you lose the Buy Box.
What do AMC’s privacy rules mean in practice?
AMC answers questions about groups of shoppers, not individuals. Amazon’s product page says “AMC only accepts pseudonymized information” and “You can only access aggregated, anonymous outputs from AMC,” with built-in aggregation thresholds to protect user privacy. The AMC Agreement adds that query results “will contain aggregated, anonymized data and will not contain personally identifiable information.”
Amazon doesn’t state the threshold values on those pages. Before you plan around a narrow question, such as one ASIN in one week, run it and see what comes back.
How do you know if your brand is ready for AMC?
Work through this before you open AMC, or before you ask a partner to.
| # | Check | Why it matters | Where to look |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AMC appears in your ads console | Confirms you can open it yourself | Measurement & Reporting |
| 2 | Your sponsored ads campaigns are in good shape | AMC works from your campaigns’ ad signals | Campaign manager |
| 3 | Advertised products are eligible to serve | Audiences can’t help ads that won’t display | Campaign manager flags |
| 4 | You’ve run more than one ad type | Path-to-conversion questions compare ad types | Campaign manager |
| 5 | Someone owns AMC | Results need someone to act on them | Your team |
| 6 | Privacy has approved any data upload | Uploads must be pseudonymized | AMC Agreement |
| 7 | You’ve tried standard audiences | Amazon recommends starting there | Audience targeting |
If rows 2 and 3 fail, fix the account first. Our 12-point Amazon Ads audit checklist covers eligibility, search terms, bids and budgets. If you sell supplements, see our Amazon Ads audit for supplement brands.
If you’d rather not start alone, ShelfRadar can help with both steps: if you don’t have an AMC instance yet, we can create one for you, and we can build and target audiences such as cart abandoners or New-to-Brand shoppers, using AMC data. Amazon experts review every recommendation and present it for your approval.
Check this in your account: Write down the questions your standard campaign reports can’t answer today; those are your first AMC queries.
Frequently asked questions
Who can use Amazon Marketing Cloud?
Amazon says AMC is available to all advertisers running sponsored ads campaigns, including Sponsored Products, Sponsored Display, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored TV. Sponsored ads advertisers can open it under Measurement & Reporting in the ads console.
Is Amazon Marketing Cloud free?
Amazon says AMC is available at no cost to eligible advertisers through its web interface and API. Paid Features (beta) are a separate subscription, and the AMC Agreement reserves Amazon’s right to charge for features and data sets.
Do you need to know SQL to use AMC?
No. The AMC homepage includes no-code analysis templates with visualized results. Users who know SQL can work from low-code templates in the use case library, the Instructional Query Library or the query editor.
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