Amazon Attribution: Catalyst POV

What is Amazon Attribution?

Amazon Attribution is a new, cross-channel media measurement solution for brands that sell on Amazon. This will provide advertisers with on-demand access to sales impact analysis for non-Amazon media channels. It enables you to see ad-attributed metrics for your search, display, and video campaigns.

Which metrics will you be able to measure?

Amazon Attribution’s unique conversion metrics will give you a look into how each of your marketing tactics perform on Amazon. Page views, purchase rate, and sales are among the conversion metrics that Amazon has said will be available for advertisers to use to measure their ads. In addition to conversion metrics, you will also see Amazon audience segments and how each media tactic indexes against each.

What’s does this mean for advertisers?

For the first time ever, advertisers will be able measure the impact that their non-Amazon advertising investment has on driving shopping activity on Amazon. For example, with Amazon Attribution you could see the Amazon sales performance of Google Ads, Bing Ads, and Facebook Ads in one place.

Ultimately, this promises to provide advertisers with new insights into the effectiveness of many different advertising channels.

What can advertisers use this for?

This will enable you to optimize campaigns in-flight, and quickly shift your next dollar to the most effective tactic. Also, this can inform future marketing plans, to help maximize return on investment and increase sales.

Catalyst POV:

This new cross-channel attribution for Amazon is poised to help brands and advertisers understand and improve the impact of their broader online advertising strategy in driving shopping activity on Amazon. The offering could shed new light on where and how advertisers should invest their dollars for maximum return.  However, it’s important to note that with Amazon Attribution, Amazon will be assessing the effectiveness of their rivals. Given this, it may be risky for advertisers to use Amazon Attribution as their only attribution model.

Advertisers should also carefully consider the implications of sharing investment data with Amazon. In order to use Amazon Attribution, advertisers must add a pixel to the media tactics they’d like to measure. This will give Amazon visibility into your investment levels on other channels and platforms.

Given that Amazon has just combined their three advertising platforms into one, it’s not extremely surprising that Amazon has also introduced this new attribution model.  Amazon appears to be streamlining their advertising offerings, and are taking it a step further by showcasing how they stack up against rival advertising offerings. If Amazon is able to prove to advertisers that they offer the most effective advertising solutions, it’s possible that brands will start to shift budget from other tactics into Amazon.