Winner Strip
hector
  • DSP
  • AMC
  • Sponsored Ads
Sign InBook a Demo
Footer background

Scale Profitably with Hector

Book a Demo
ISO 27001:2022 Certified
SOC Certified
SOC Certified Type 2
Partner AwardsPartner Awards
hector

The Most Powerful Platform for Amazon Ads Optimisation

  • Hector AI Global Inc
  • 8 The Green, STE B, Dover, Kent
    Delaware, 19901
  • Hector AI - APAC
  • Pinnacle Corporate Park, BKC,
    Bandra East, Mumbai 400098

Copyright © 2026 Hector. All rights reserved.

Unlocking Path to Conversion Insights with Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)

  • Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)
Unlocking Path to Conversion Insights with Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)
October 03, 2024

In today’s competitive e-commerce landscape, understanding how customers interact with your brand across multiple touchpoints is crucial. The typical customer journey often spans numerous channels and devices, and each interaction contributes to the final conversion. But how do you track and analyze this complex journey?

This is where Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) steps in. AMC provides advertisers with the tools to dive deep into customer behaviors, generating insights that help improve campaign strategies and optimize ad spend. One of the most impactful use cases of AMC is analyzing the Path to Conversion (PTC), which gives advertisers a granular view of the steps customers take before making a purchase.

What is the Path to Conversion in AMC?

The Path to Conversion in AMC allows brands to map out the path a customer goes through before converting. Unlike traditional last-click attribution models, which only credit the final interaction before a sale, the PTC insight gives a holistic view of the entire customer journey, capturing each touchpoint's contribution to conversion.

How Does AMC Provide Path to Conversion Insights?

AMC is powered by a cloud-based, privacy-safe environment where advertisers can query data from their Amazon advertising campaigns, including Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and Amazon DSP.

Path to conversion query can help you uncover the following:

Path to Conversion by Campaign Groups: This allows you to group your campaigns by category to identify the most popular path to conversion

Path to Conversion: Identify the paths your customers took before purchasing on Amazon

DSP Path to Conversion by Device: Identify the way shoppers switch between the devices as they move across the funnel to purchase on Amazon

Here’s how AMC helps you analyze the Path to Conversion:

  1. Data Aggregation: AMC consolidates vast amounts of anonymized, event-level data, capturing every interaction a user has with your Amazon ads.

  2. Custom Queries: Using SQL queries, you can segment data based on audience behavior and create custom reports that visualize the exact path customers take.

  3. Cross-Channel Insights: AMC doesn’t just capture Amazon Ads interactions; it can also ingest data from off-Amazon sources, providing a complete view of the customer journey.

  4. Detailed Attribution: AMC allows advertisers to move beyond simplistic attribution models. It offers multi-touch attribution (MTA) in AMC, where each touchpoint’s contribution can be quantified. You can identify how awareness, consideration, and conversion campaigns work together.

AMC Path to Conversion Query & Sample Output

Amazon provides the following sample query for path to conversion insights. 


Query template for DSP + Sponsored Ads


-- Instructional Query: Path to Conversion Campaign / DSP + Sponsored Ads--

/*Bug Fix (8/31/22): A new CTE, filter_impressions_dedupe has been added to dedupe values at user_id level in the filter_impressions CTE. Please refer to comments in the query to understand more. */

-- gather impressions  --

WITH impressions AS (

  SELECT

    -- OPTIONAL UPDATE Use the following code if you want to rename your campaigns. Update campaign_id and campaign group name. Make sure to comment out the campaign in the next line

    /*  CASE campaign_id 

     WHEN 11111111111111 THEN 'Display_Awareness'

     WHEN (222222222222) THEN 'Display_Conversion'

     ELSE 'Other' 

     END AS campaign,

     */

    --OPTIONAL UPDATE remove the campaign row below if you are using the campaign grouping code above.

    'DSP' AS product_type,

    campaign,

    user_id,

    MIN(impression_dt) AS impression_dt_first,

    SUM(impressions) AS impressions,

    SUM(total_cost) AS total_cost

  FROM

    dsp_impressions

  WHERE

    user_id IS NOT NULL -- AND campaign_id IN (11111111111111,222222222222)

  GROUP BY

    1,

    2,

    3

  UNION ALL

  SELECT

    --OPTIONAL UPDATE Use the following code if you want to rename your campaigns. Update campaign and campaign group name Make sure to comment out the campaign

    /*  CASE campaign 

     WHEN 'SP_campaign_name1' THEN 'SP_Awareness_name'

     WHEN 'SP_campaign_name2' THEN 'SP_Conversion_name'

     WHEN 'SD_campaign_name1' THEN 'SD_Awareness_name'

     WHEN 'SD_campaign_name2' THEN 'SD_Conversion_name'

     WHEN 'SB_campaign_name1' THEN 'SB_Awareness_name'

     WHEN 'SB_campaign_name2' THEN 'SB_Conversion_name'  

     ELSE 'Other' 

     END AS campaign,

     */

    --OPTIONAL UPDATE remove the campaign row below if you are using the campaign grouping code above.

    ad_product_type AS product_type,

    campaign,

    user_id,

    MIN(event_dt) AS impression_dt_first,

    SUM(impressions) AS impressions,

    SUM(spend) AS total_cost

  FROM

    sponsored_ads_traffic

  WHERE

    user_id IS NOT NULL -- AND campaign IN ('SP_campaign_name1','SP_campaign_name2','SD_campaign_name1','SD_campaign_name2','SB_campaign_name1','SB_campaign_name2')

  GROUP BY

    1,

    2,

    3

) -- gather conversions --

,

converted AS (

  SELECT

    -- OPTIONAL UPDATE Use the following code if you want to rename your campaigns. Update campaign_id and campaign group name. Make sure to comment out the campaign in the next line

    /*  CASE campaign_id 

     WHEN 11111111111111 THEN 'Display_Awareness'

     WHEN 222222222222 THEN 'Display_Conversion'

     ELSE 'Other' 

     END AS campaign,

     */

    --OPTIONAL UPDATE remove the campaign row below if you are using the campaign grouping code above.

    campaign,

    user_id,

    MAX(conversion_event_dt) AS conversion_event_dt_last,

    SUM(product_sales) AS product_sales,

    SUM(purchases) AS purchases

  FROM

    amazon_attributed_events_by_traffic_time

  WHERE

    purchases + total_purchases_clicks > 0

    AND user_id IS NOT NULL --OPTIONAL UPDATE if you want to select specific campaigns, use the following filter.

    -- AND (campaign_id IN (11111111111111,222222222222)

    -- OR campaign IN ('SP_campaign_name1','SP_campaign_name2','SD_campaign_name1','SD_campaign_name2','SB_campaign_name1','SB_campaign_name2'))

  GROUP BY

    1,

    2

) -- only include impressions that happened before conversion event time --

,

filter_impressions AS (

  SELECT

    i.user_id AS imp_user_id,

    c.user_id AS pur_user_id,

    i.campaign,

    i.impressions,

    i.impression_dt_first,

    -- DSP cost is reported in millicents. To calculate the cost in dollars/your currency, divide the cost value by 100,000.Sponsored Ads spend is reported as microcents. Divide by 100,000,000 to get the cost in dollars/your currency.

    IF(

      i.product_type IN (

        'sponsored_products',

        'sponsored_display',

        'sponsored_brands'

      ),

      (i.total_cost / 100000000),

      (i.total_cost / 100000)

    ) AS total_cost,

    c.conversion_event_dt_last,

    COALESCE(c.product_sales, 0) AS product_sales,

    COALESCE(c.purchases, 0) AS purchases

  FROM

    impressions i

    LEFT JOIN converted c ON c.user_id = i.user_id

    AND c.campaign = i.campaign

  WHERE

    (

      (

        c.user_id IS NOT NULL

        AND i.impression_dt_first < c.conversion_event_dt_last

      )

      OR c.user_id IS NULL

    )

),

-- order campaigns based on impression event time--

ranked AS (

  SELECT

    NAMED_ROW(

      'order',

      ROW_NUMBER() OVER (

        PARTITION BY f.imp_user_id

        ORDER BY

          f.impression_dt_first

      ),

      'campaign',

      f.campaign

    ) AS campaign_order,

    imp_user_id

  FROM

    filter_impressions f

  WHERE

    f.imp_user_id IS NOT NULL

) -- create campaign path group by user --

,

assembled AS (

  SELECT

    ARRAY_SORT(COLLECT(DISTINCT a.campaign_order)) AS path,

    a.imp_user_id

  FROM

    ranked a

  GROUP BY

    a.imp_user_id

)

/* Bug Fix: Start of Section added on 8/31/22 to dedupe values at user_id level */

,

filter_impressions_dedupe AS (

  SELECT

    imp_user_id AS imp_user_id,

    SUM(impressions) AS impressions,

    SUM(total_cost) AS total_cost,

    MAX(IF(pur_user_id IS NOT NULL, 1, 0)) AS pur_user_id,

    MAX(product_sales) AS product_sales,

    MAX(purchases) AS purchases

  FROM

    filter_impressions

  GROUP BY

    imp_user_id

),

/* Bug Fix: End of Section added on 8/31/22 to dedupe values at user_id level */

-- assemble impressions, clicks and conversions --

assembled_with_imp_conv AS (

  SELECT

    path,

    COUNT(DISTINCT a.imp_user_id) AS reach,

    SUM(b.impressions) AS impressions,

    SUM(b.total_cost) AS imp_total_cost,

    SUM(b.pur_user_id) AS users_that_purchased,

    SUM(b.product_sales) AS sales_amount,

    SUM(b.purchases) AS purchases

  FROM

    assembled a

    LEFT JOIN filter_impressions_dedupe b

    /*Bug Fix: Updated on 8/31/22 to dedupe values at user_id level*/

    ON a.imp_user_id = b.imp_user_id

  GROUP BY

    path

)

SELECT

  path,

  reach AS path_occurrences,

  impressions,

  imp_total_cost,

  users_that_purchased,

  sales_amount,

  purchases,

  (users_that_purchased / reach) AS user_purchase_rate

FROM

  assembled_with_imp_conv


Here’s the sample output of the above query



Benefits of Path-to-Conversion Analysis in AMC

  1. Optimized Ad Spend: By understanding which ad interactions and campaigns drive conversions, advertisers can allocate their budget more efficiently. Knowing the role of each touchpoint allows for better optimization across the funnel.

  2. Multi-Touch Attribution: AMC’s path to conversion provides MTA, ensuring advertisers don’t over-attribute success to bottom-funnel ads. Instead, it quantifies the impact of upper-funnel campaigns, helping brands justify and optimize awareness and consideration efforts.

  3. Enhanced Audience Segmentation: By analyzing the most common customer paths, advertisers can create more refined audience segments. For example, if certain customers require multiple brand touchpoints before converting, you can target them with a series of ads to nurture them through the funnel.

  4. Campaign Adjustments in Real-Time: With PTC insights, advertisers can tweak their campaigns in real-time. For instance, if certain ads in the journey are underperforming, you can adjust the creative, messaging, or frequency to improve the overall funnel efficiency.

  5. Personalized Customer Journeys: Understanding how customers move through your funnel enables you to tailor your ad strategies to specific audience needs. Personalization becomes more achievable when you know exactly how customers are interacting with your brand at each stage.

Example: Practical Use of AMC’s Path to Conversion Insights

Imagine you're running a campaign for a brand selling fitness equipment on Amazon. Your ads are running across different formats, including Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Amazon DSP. The goal is to drive sales of a premium treadmill.

  • Using AMC’s Path to Conversion insights, you discover that the average customer who purchases a treadmill engages with 7 touchpoints before converting. This journey starts with a Sponsored Display Ad that introduces the brand, followed by interactions with Sponsored Brands and Amazon DSP ads that retarget interested customers.

  • You find that customers who engage with both the Sponsored Brands Video and Sponsored Products Ads are 20% more likely to convert than those who only interact with one ad type.

  • Further analysis shows that for high-value customers, the combination of upper-funnel video ads followed by retargeting through Sponsored Display Ads drives more conversions than focusing purely on bottom-funnel tactics.

Armed with these insights, you adjust your ad strategy, increasing investment in Sponsored Brands Video and running more retargeting campaigns for users who engaged with the video ads but haven’t yet converted. Over time, this improves both conversion rates and return on ad spend (ROAS).

How Can Hector Help You?


Hector’s powerful reporting dashboard simplifies accessing AMC insights, eliminating the need for complex SQL queries. With an intuitive interface, it delivers actionable insights that empower you to make timely, informed decisions.


Unlock the potential of AMC with Hector and drive incremental growth for your brand.


If you’re new to AMC, Hector can help you get started by setting up your very own AMC instance.



Conclusion

Amazon Marketing Cloud’s Path to Conversion insight is a game-changer for brands looking to understand the full scope of the customer journey. By offering multi-touch attribution and detailed insights into how customers interact with ads across different formats and channels, AMC empowers advertisers to optimize campaigns more effectively, improve ad spend, and ultimately drive higher conversions.

By leveraging these insights, you can break free from the limitations of last-click attribution and make data-driven decisions that truly reflect how customers interact with your brand. With AMC, the path to conversion is no longer a mystery but a roadmap for success.



Frequently Asked Question

The Path to Conversion in AMC provides a detailed view of all touchpoints a customer interacts with before making a purchase, offering a more holistic approach than last-click attribution models.

AMC aggregates data across multiple channels and devices, allowing advertisers to analyze how customers engage with ads, which helps optimize campaign strategies and ad spend.

Key benefits include optimized ad spend, multi-touch attribution, enhanced audience segmentation, real-time campaign adjustments, and personalized customer journeys.

By understanding which touchpoints lead to conversions, advertisers can refine ad strategies, focusing on impactful ads and adjusting underperforming ones in real-time.

Hector’s reporting dashboard streamlines access to AMC insights, eliminating the need for complex SQL queries, helping advertisers make informed decisions quickly.

Back to Blogs
Share:

Post Comments

On this page

  • What is the Path to Conversion in AMC?
  • How Does AMC Provide Path to Conversion Insights?
  • Path to conversion query can help you uncover the following:
  • Here’s how AMC helps you analyze the Path to Conversion:
  • AMC Path to Conversion Query & Sample Output
  • Benefits of Path-to-Conversion Analysis in AMC
  • Conclusion
Book A Demo