Digital media has relied upon the use of cookies, 1×1 pixels on users browsers, as a proxy of measuring advertising effectiveness but marketers will have to work with publishers and environments with opted-in first party data moving forward. A recent study showed that 93% of UK consumers purchase on Amazon, with this scale of reach and access to the end consumer it is no surprise that advertising spend is following consumer behaviour.

What is Amazon Attribution?
Amazon state, ‘Amazon Attribution is a self-service advertising measurement solution. It provides advertisers visibility into sales impact analysis across non-Amazon media channels. These channels include search, social, display, video and email.’ In essence, Amazon will provide consideration and conversion metrics to measure when a consumer clicks on an advert off-Amazon that links the consumer to an Amazon page.

This is a smart move by Amazon, if brands can be convinced to drive yet more traffic and sales via their Amazon channel and potentially away from their own website. Currently, the vast majority of advertising-accredited sales on Amazon are driven by Amazon search (PPC). This represents a potential glass ceiling for Amazon, so helping advertisers improve off-Amazon performance while driving traffic and conversions on Amazon is a much bigger opportunity for Amazon itself.

The Key Attribution Metrics?
Click-throughs – a click on an advertisement that directs the user to a destination outside of the web page the ad was on.
Add to Cart – the number of times a promoted product is added to a customer’s cart after a click of an associated ad.
Total Add to Cart – the number of times a promoted or brand halo ASIN is added to a customer’s cart after a click of an associated ad. (Total ATC = ATC + ATC BH).
Sales – total sales (in local currency) of promoted products purchased by customers on Amazon after a click of an ad.
Total Sales – the total sales (in local currency) of promoted ASINs and ASINs from the same brands as promoted ASINs purchased by customers on Amazon after a click of an associated ad.
Detail Page Views – the number of views of the advertised product’s detail pages on Amazon.
Total Detail Page Views – the number of ad-attributed page views on Amazon. This includes views for promoted products as well as products from the same brands as the products tracked in the order. (Total DPV = DPV + DPV BH).
The above metrics allow an advertiser to attribute both the conversions of the advertised product and that of the product range e.g. consumer clicked on ad for product A but eventually went on to purchase product B. Also, advertisers can measure consideration, via e.g. Detail Page Views, as well as sales conversions. Optimisations can then be made to campaign and creative but also identify mechanisms to improve consideration to purchase rates.

Amazon’s Singular View of Consumers
With Amazon Attribution, Amazon can provide a singular view of audiences at scale and across devices that is hard to find elsewhere:

First-party data – Amazon has millions of registered customers each with rich lifestyle, demographic and in-market segments data.
Cross-device – the ability to target, reach, frequency cap and measure consumers cross-device via login and confirmed user detail.
Attribution – Amazon Attribution now enabling brands to measure effectiveness of omni-channel strategies on Amazon sales.
Plus, report on shopper consideration cycle metrics to support new-to-brand and loyalty, not only in-market:

Awareness – via reporting on impressions, clicks/CTR, and unique reach.
Consideration – Amazon state that 53% of Amazon customers feel more comfortable buying an unfamiliar brand on Amazon than elsewhere. Measure consideration via Detail Page Views and Add to Cart rates.
Purchase – 14-day attribution of click-to-conversion for sales and purchase rates by channel and campaign.
Approved Publishers for Amazon Attribution?
To use Amazon Attribution your creative asset will need to include the relevant click tracker, which will enable Amazon to measure the effectiveness of the campaign and the publisher. Below is a current guide as to approved publishers for Amazon Attribution:

Google Ads
Facebook Ads
Microsoft Ads
Pinterest Ads
Snapchat Ads
Twitter Ads
LinkedIn Ads
Youtube
Display – Other
Video – Other
Blogpost – Other
Email – Other
TikTok
Reddit
Hulu
Verizon Media
BuzzFeed
Pandora
Spotify
ESPN
Slick Deals
Fox
ABC
NBC
CBS
BET
Conde Naste
Hearst Digital
Meredith Corporation

Acorn-i are an approved Amazon MWS (Marketplace Web Services) developer and have integrated our eCommerce platform, Ignite, to the Amazon Attribution API. If you are interested to know how we can help you leverage Amazon Attribution and provide near real-time reporting and insights on cross-channel marketing get in touch via info@acorn-i.com