The AMC Stall-Out

Why Sticking to Basic Reports Leaves Growth on the Table

The latest benchmarking from our partners at Stratably reveals that Amazon Marketing Cloud adoption has stalled. Despite new certifications, features, and industry buzz, only a small fraction of brands are pushing AMC beyond the basics. Most remain stuck in basic reporting, while Amazon races ahead in DSP, streaming TV, and retail media. That stall-out creates a rare advantage. For brands ready to lean in, AMC isn’t just another tool, it’s the unlock to smarter audiences, sharper testing, and measurable impact that competitors aren’t tapping.

At Tinuiti, we see data access as table stakes. The edge comes from knowing how to turn AMC into action: audiences that outperform category benchmarks, campaigns that win new-to-brand customers at scale, and incrementality tests that prove what’s really moving the needle. Join Tinuiti’s AMC experts, Bob Avellino and Jordan Lampi, along with Stratably Founder & CEO, Russ Dieringer, for a behind-the-scenes look at how leading brands are putting AMC to work. You’ll walk away with the proven playbook for cutting waste, maximizing ROI, and turning AMC from untapped potential into measurable performance.

Russ Dieringer

Founder & CEO Stratably

Bob Avellino

VP of Commerce Innovation Tinuiti

Jordan Lampi

Commerce Media Strategist Tinuiti

Watch Now

Key Highlights

Beyond the AMC Stall Out: Unlocking Advanced Capabilities

Amazon’s Dominant Market Position

Amazon is now the largest U.S. retailer – surpassing Walmart in total merchandise volume, with growth 4 percentage points faster than overall retail. 44% of brands now consider Amazon a top-three strategic account.

Amazon’s advertising dominance – The platform is 12.7x larger than the second-biggest retail media network, with ad revenue growing 22% year-over-year to reach $69 billion in 2025.

The AMC Adoption Gap

Only 10% of brands use AMC to its full potential – Despite massive ad investment, advanced AMC adoption has remained flat at 9-10% year-over-year, creating a significant competitive advantage for early adopters.

Brands spend 9-11% of Amazon sales on advertising – This percentage continues climbing 50-100 basis points annually, with growing portions shifting to DSP requiring sophisticated measurement.

What is Amazon Marketing Cloud?

AMC is a privacy-safe data clean room that combines:

Sponsored Ads data
DSP campaign data
First-party advertiser data
13 months of historical data (standard) or 5-year lookback (optional)

Two main outputs:

Advanced measurement reporting
Custom audience creation for targeting

Advanced AMC Capabilities

Tinuiti’s cross-functional approach combines innovation teams, commerce strategists, business intelligence analysts, and product managers to unlock AMC’s full potential.

Foundational Audience Strategies

Add-to-Cart Remarketing – Target high-intent users who added products but didn’t convert, especially effective during promotional periods like Prime Day.

Temporal Purchasers – Identify shoppers who converted during specific events to cross-sell complementary products and build basket size.

Keyword Searchers – Combat high CPC costs by targeting non-branded search term audiences through lower-cost DSP campaigns instead of expensive sponsored ads.

Advanced Audience Targeting

Lapsed Purchasers – Re-engage customers who haven’t purchased in 6-12 months with targeted messaging about new products or offers.

Extended Lapsed Audiences (5-Year Lookback) – Reach customers who purchased 1-5 years ago, ideal for products with longer replacement cycles like luggage, electronics, or appliances.

Lookalike Audiences – Model your best customers (top purchasers, email subscribers, high-frequency buyers) to scale acquisition while maintaining quality.

Breakthrough Measurement Approaches

Multi-Touch Attribution Models

Move beyond last-touch attribution with:

First-Touch ROAS – Identify campaigns driving initial brand awareness
Last-Touch ROAS – Understand conversion drivers
Linear ROAS – Give equal credit to all touchpoints
Positional ROAS – Weight first and last touches more heavily

Key insight: Upper-funnel campaigns driving new customers often get cannibalized in standard reporting, but AMC reveals their true contribution.

Long-Term Value (LTV) Analysis

Track customer behavior beyond first purchase – Understand the 12-18 month value of acquired customers to optimize acquisition costs and retention strategies.

Identify decay curves – See when customers stop purchasing to create timely re-engagement campaigns at critical drop-off points.

Optimize new-to-brand CAC – Ensure customer acquisition costs align with long-term customer value, not just initial purchase ROAS.

Note: Requires Flexible Shopping Insights (FSI) for complete non-ad-attributed conversion data.

Holistic Business Impact Analysis

Separate correlation from causation – AMC combines retail data, ad console metrics, and conversion data to prove which advertising truly drives incremental growth versus appearing successful due to timing.

Understand organic vs. paid growth – With FSI enabled, analyze what portion of sales would have occurred without advertising investment.

Real Success Story: illycaffè

Challenge: Struggling to gain market share in coffee category dominated by two brands controlling 50% of market.

AMC-Driven Strategy:

Gateway ASIN analysis to identify top new-to-brand entry points
Path-to-purchase and first-touch attribution to prove streaming TV effectiveness
Long-term value analysis to optimize acquisition costs
Loyalty audience creation to reduce churn

Results:

99% lift in new-to-brand sales year-over-year
25% market share gain
#1 bestseller badge in ground coffee category
Exceeded sales goals through data-driven upper-funnel investment

Key Takeaways for Brands

Path-to-purchase requires deeper analysis – Understanding media type touchpoints isn’t enough; analyze ROAS through multiple attribution models.
5-year lookback unlocks hard goods opportunities – Essential for categories with longer replacement cycles beyond the standard 13-month window.
Flexible Shopping Insights reveals the complete picture – Distinguish between advertising-driven and organic growth to eliminate wasted spend.
Correlation doesn’t equal causation – Use AMC’s unified data view to validate marketing hypotheses before increasing investment.
Cross-channel application – AMC audiences work in both DSP and Sponsored Ads for bid boosting, maximizing their value.

Getting Started with AMC

Team Requirements:

Account managers to define business questions
SQL-proficient analysts for custom queries
Product managers for dashboard creation
Innovation teams for continuous optimization

Start with foundational audiences, measure performance, then layer in advanced strategies based on your specific business challenges and product lifecycle.

About the Speakers

Bob Avellino – Innovation & Growth Team, Tinuiti (Amazon Partnership Lead)

Jordan Lampi – Commerce Media Strategist, Tinuiti (DSP Specialist)

Russ Dieringer – Founder, Stratably (Independent Intelligence Firm for Consumer Brands)

For brands looking to improve ad efficiency and unlock hidden growth on Amazon, advanced AMC capabilities provide measurable competitive advantages in an increasingly crowded marketplace.