What are AMC Paid Features & How Do You Use Them?

Personalization, measurement, and efficiency drive performance in the ecosystem of digital advertising, while data is the fundamental and most powerful asset a brand can have. For advertisers, Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) has emerged as a powerful solution that helps marketers analyze campaign performance at a granular level. The free tier supports SQL-based querying on core Amazon Ads datasets but lacks access to advanced datasets and integrations.

Continue reading to explore AMC paid features, how they work, and how brands, especially in competitive markets like India, can leverage them to sharpen their advertising strategy and maximize ROAS.

A Quick Recap: What is Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)?

Amazon Marketing Cloud is a cloud-based data clean room developed by Amazon Ads. It allows advertisers to run advanced, SQL-based queries on aggregated Amazon advertising data. Unlike Amazon's standard advertising console reports, AMC provides event-level data that can be used to map the entire customer journey, from impressions and clicks to conversions and post-purchase behavior.

Most importantly, AMC offers a privacy-safe environment, meaning that all the data is pseudonymized and aggregated, ensuring compliance with data regulations. This makes it ideal for advertisers who want meaningful insights without compromising consumer privacy.

Why Choose AMC Paid Features?

The free version of AMC offers strong foundational analytics; however, it has its limitations. For e-commerce brands searching to connect online and offline behaviors, integrate third-party insights, measure incrementality, or run complex multi-channel attribution models, the standard (free) version may not be sufficient.

AMC paid features allow brands to:

• Access additional datasets (beyond ads).

• Integrate with third-party providers.

• Unlock organic shopping behavior signals.

• Perform more advanced cohort and audience analysis.

• Automate & schedule complex analytics queries.

For brands that drive by performance, these AMC paid features open the door to a much deeper and actionable understanding of advertising impact.

Overview of AMC Paid Features

Here are the most impactful AMC paid features available today:

1. Amazon Flexible Shopping Insights

This feature boosts AMC's visibility beyond paid ads by including organic or unattributed signals like detail page views, add-to-cart, and purchases.

This allows advertisers a more holistic view of the buyer journey, not just the parts impacted directly by ads.

For example: For example, a user may see a Sponsored ads query in AMC without clicking, but later returns and purchases the product organically. The Flexible Shopping Insights can connect these dots, helping brands evaluate how awareness ads contribute to eventual conversions, even when attribution is indirect.

2. Amazon Audience Segment Insights

These are modelled, anonymized insights and not used for deterministic targeting.

These sections could consist of:

• Customers in the market

• Lifestyle groups (for example: Skincare lovers, fitness enthusiasts, etc.)

• Purchase and household trends

This enables advertisers to customize their messaging for various audience types, improve creative methods and polish targeting.

For example, use Audience Segment Insights to understand characteristics and apply learnings to DSP targeting through inferred audience types, not direct segments.

3. Experian Vehicle Purchase Insights

Experian's offline auto purchase data and Amazon campaign analytics are combined in this exclusive data collection, which is accessible through AMC's paid features. Note that all data in AMC is aggregated and pseudonymized, not user-level or personally identifiable.

Automobile brands are now able to determine patterns of behavior linked to decisions to purchase a car. This data is primarily US-based. India availability may be limited and must be verified per account.

4. Foursquare Store Visit Insights

This is available for select advertisers and regions. It requires opt-in and data availability through Foursquare integration.

You can check:

• Increased foot traffic to the store following Amazon Ads.

• Variations in ad response based on regional level attribution access online advertisements and offline purchases.

For example, A clothes retailer using DSP can identify whether more customers visiting their stores in Ahmedabad and Kolkata convert into more ad impressions, which will help them improve their geo-targeting tactics.

Note:  Regional availability of Foursquare data must be confirmed before assuming attribution coverage.

5. First-Party Data Integration

The ability to combine your own first-party data, such as CRM lists, purchase histories, or loyalty program records, with Amazon's event data is one of the most powerful AMC premium features. First-party data must be hashed and privacy-compliant before uploading. Amazon uses strict match protocols. Remember, you cannot upload raw customer emails or phone numbers; data must be encrypted or anonymized per AMC guidelines.

The benefits of first-party data integration are:

• Cohort analysis of customers who have previously purchased.

• Retention strategies using past behavioral signals.

• Lifetime value (LTV) modeling based on ad exposure.

This creates a consolidated single view of the customer, which is essential for brands looking to increase customer retention and build long-term, credible relationships.

6. Automated Queries and Reporting

Brands may plan and automate data (aggregated and pseudonymized data which is not personally identifiable), such as Amazon S3 or other secure environments configured through your data infrastructure.

This ensures that decision-makers have access to all the insights, reducing manual efforts.

Utilize this for daily LTV dashboards, weekly campaign performance summaries, and an alert system for performance dips.

Remember, automation helps organizations scale their analytics capabilities without increasing manual work.

How to Access AMC Paid Features?

1. Eligibility: Your brand must already have access to Amazon Marketing Cloud (usually through Amazon DSP campaigns).

2. Request Activation: To enable some of the specific premium features, get in touch with your platform partner or Amazon account manager.

3. Technical Setup: For features like first-party data integration, take support from a data engineer or the tech team to configure SQL schemas and privacy-safe methods.

4. Start with Use Cases: Before diving into query development, define your use case (whether it's LTV modeling, in-store attribution, or audience segmentation).

5. Monitor and Optimize: As you start using paid features, frequently monitor query performance, check data quality, and accordingly modify and optimize.
   
   

Cost of AMC Paid Features

The cost of AMC paid features is not standardized; rather, it differs for each brand, considering the unique attributes of every AMC instance.

If you want to check the cost of paid features for your account, sign in to your AMC account. Most paid features are not self-service. You must request access through your Amazon Ads representative or AMC platform partner. You can now see how much the paid services will cost. Pricing varies by account and feature set. A 30-day trial may be available only on request and approval.

Note: Activation often requires business justification and may take a few weeks depending on the feature.

Conclusion

The next level of ad analytics is represented by the paid features offered by Amazon Marketing Cloud. These features enable brands to adopt comprehensive, customer-focused measurement strategies and go beyond the basic, conventional metrics. Brands can use audience insights and journey mapping to improve campaign personalization and business performance.

If you want more precise and granular-level data insights, explore how Hector Ai can help activate AMC features and turn insights into impactful advertising decisions. This AdTech platform seamlessly integrates the AMC data to provide you with granular insights into the buyer's journey. These insights give you the depth, clarity, and control you need to succeed in today's Amazon-first environment.