Understanding AMC Custom Audiences for Amazon Advertising
- Akash Singh
- Apr 11
- 12 min read
Updated: 5 hours ago
Good advertising is the art of convincing people they need something they didn’t know they wanted.
Now, imagine if you could do exactly that—serve your ads to the people who already want what you’re selling, even before they fully realize it. This is where Amazon Custom Audience Advertising comes in.
With Amazon’s advanced audience targeting, you can zero in on shoppers based on their interests, shopping habits, and past behavior. It's like hitting the bullseye with your ads every time.
In this article, we’ll explore how AMC’s custom audience features are transforming Amazon's advertising strategies in 2025, helping you reach the right customers and maximize your ROI.
What Is Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)?
Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) is a comprehensive data analytics tool designed to provide deep insights into your advertising campaigns on Amazon. It centralizes various advertising and customer data, allowing you to track performance, understand customer behavior, and refine your advertising efforts.
AMC enables better decision-making by offering a clearer view of how different factors—like customer engagement, conversions, and product visibility—contribute to campaign success.
Significance of AMC
AMC is a game-changer for advertisers, as it empowers you to make data-driven decisions that improve your Amazon custom audience advertising efforts.
With its powerful analysis capabilities, AMC helps you identify the most valuable customer segments, enabling more accurate targeting for your ads.
This leads to more efficient use of your ad budget, reducing waste and maximizing the effectiveness of each campaign.
What AMC Does?
AMC integrates various data points from Amazon’s advertising ecosystem, including Custom Audiences, search terms, and product performance metrics.
This data is analyzed to provide a clear picture of how your ads perform across different touchpoints.
With this understanding, you can adjust targeting, optimize bids, and create more personalized campaigns, ensuring your ads reach the right people at the right time.
What Are AMC Custom Audiences?
AMC Custom Audiences allow you to create tailored audience segments based on specific customer behaviors, interactions, or demographics. With these audience segments, you can show your ads to shoppers who are most likely to engage with your brand, improving the efficiency of your ad spend and driving higher conversion rates.
For example, if you sell running shoes, you can target custom audiences based on previous interactions with athletic gear or people who have previously browsed running-related products on Amazon.
These custom audiences are created using powerful data signals from Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), which consolidates insights from various Amazon services and your campaigns. This makes it easier than ever to create highly targeted advertising strategies.
How to Create AMC Custom Audiences?
Creating these audiences is straightforward:
1. Using SQL Queries
If you’re familiar with SQL (Structured Query Language), you can use it to write precise queries to define exactly which audience you want to target.
For example, you can create an audience of users who have interacted with your Sponsored Display Ads in the past 30 days and have made purchases in the same category. With SQL, you get full flexibility to create highly specific segments tailored to your brand’s needs.
Example: If you are running a campaign for sports gear, you could define a custom audience of “people who have viewed sports equipment but have not purchased in the last 30 days” to re-engage them with a targeted ad.
2. Using Pre-Built Templates
For those who are less familiar with SQL, AMC also provides a set of pre-built templates that help you easily create audiences based on behaviors such as viewing specific product categories, interacting with your brand’s display ads, or showing interest in similar products.
These templates are designed to make audience segmentation simple and accessible for advertisers of all skill levels.
Example: You could use a template to target people who have shown interest in running shoes but haven't purchased yet, allowing you to engage this audience with compelling, retargeted ads.
Leveraging Data Signals from Amazon Services
The true power of AMC Custom Audiences lies in its ability to use data signals from various Amazon services to create hyper-targeted segments. Here’s how:
Sponsored Ads: You can target users who have engaged with your Sponsored Products or Sponsored Display Ads. For instance, if someone has previously clicked on an ad for your women’s yoga mat, you can re-target them with an offer or an upsell for a related product like yoga blocks.
Amazon DSP Ads: Leverage the data from Amazon’s Demand-Side Platform (DSP) to target users who have engaged with your ads on the Amazon platform or partner sites. DSP allows you to use broad targeting strategies across devices and channels.
Shopping Insights: By analyzing customer behavior, Amazon provides valuable insights into how shoppers are interacting with your products and your competitors’ products. You can target shoppers who have shown interest in similar products or brands. This information allows you to build a better understanding of your audience and tailor your messaging accordingly.
First-Party Data: You can also import your own customer data (such as previous buyers or email list subscribers) into AMC to further refine your targeting strategy.Example: If you sell eco-friendly home goods, you can target customers who have previously bought sustainable kitchen products or who have shown interest in sustainability-related ads, increasing the relevance of your ads and your chances of conversion.
Benefits of Using AMC Custom Audiences
By integrating AMC Custom Audiences into your Amazon advertising strategy, you can unlock several key benefits:
1. Enhanced Precision:
Custom audiences enable you to focus your ad spend on the most relevant customers, ensuring you're not wasting money on ads shown to people unlikely to purchase. For example, targeting customers who have already interacted with your brand is much more effective than targeting a broad audience.
2. Improved Relevance:
Ads become more meaningful to users when they are tailored to their interests and behaviors. A shopper who has been browsing yoga equipment is far more likely to engage with an ad for your yoga products than someone who has never shown any interest in that category.
3. Higher ROI:
By targeting the right people with the right message, you can significantly improve your return on ad spend (ROAS). For example, Sponsored Display Ads that target users who have already visited your product page tend to have a higher conversion rate, leading to better results for your campaigns.
4. Better Data-Driven Decisions: AMC provides insights that help you refine your strategies over time. The ability to track and analyze audience performance allows you to adjust your tactics quickly, optimizing your ads for maximum impact.
Types of AMC Custom Audiences
When it comes to Amazon Custom Audience Advertising, AMC (Amazon Marketing Cloud) offers two primary types of custom audiences that can help you refine your targeting and increase campaign effectiveness.
1. Rule-Based Audiences: Segmentation by Behavior and Demographics
Rule-Based Audiences allow you to create custom segments based on specific behaviors and demographic characteristics. With this approach, you can precisely define the audience you want to target by setting up rules based on various factors such as:
Customer behavior: This includes actions like browsing history, past purchases, and engagement with your previous ads. For instance, if a customer has viewed your yoga mat ads but hasn't purchased yet, you can create a rule to target them with a tailored message to encourage conversion.
Demographic information: You can also create audiences based on demographic factors like age, gender, and location. For example, if your product is specifically designed for women or young professionals, rule-based audiences help you reach these precise groups.
2. Lookalike Audiences: Extending Reach with Similar New Prospects
Lookalike Audiences are a powerful tool for expanding your reach by targeting new customers who share similar characteristics with your existing high-value customers.
With this type of audience, Amazon uses the data you provide (such as purchase history or engagement) to find prospects who exhibit similar shopping behaviors and preferences.
For example, if you have a loyal customer base that regularly purchases eco-friendly products, you can use AMC Custom Audiences to find new shoppers who also show interest in sustainable products.
These lookalike audiences help you extend your ad reach without the guesswork, allowing you to tap into fresh prospects who are more likely to convert.
Creating Custom Audiences with Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)
Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) empowers you to create tailored audiences for your advertising campaigns, enhancing targeting precision and ad performance.
Here's how you can effectively build and utilize these custom audiences:
1. Step-by-Step Process to Create Audiences
Access AMC: Log into your AMC account to begin.
Define Your Audience: Decide on the characteristics of the audience you wish to create, such as demographics, behaviors, or purchase history.
Write SQL Queries: Use Structured Query Language (SQL) to extract relevant data from AMC's datasets. For instance, to target customers who viewed your product pages but haven't purchased in the last 30 days, you might write:
Create the Audience: Execute your SQL query to generate the audience within AMC.
Activate the Audience: Utilize this audience in your advertising campaigns through Amazon Demand-Side Platform (DSP) or Sponsored Ads.
2. Incorporating AMC Audience Tools in Ad Campaigns
Once you've created custom audiences in AMC, you can integrate them into your ad campaigns to enhance targeting:
For DSP Campaigns: Import your AMC custom audiences into DSP to reach users across various channels, including display, video, and audio ads.
For Sponsored Ads: Use these audiences to refine targeting in Sponsored Products, Brands, or Display ads, ensuring your promotions reach the most relevant users.
Targeting Strategies with AMC
When it comes to Amazon custom audience advertising, leveraging AMC Custom Audiences allows you to build highly targeted campaigns based on valuable customer insights.
By tapping into Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), you can create powerful audience segments for specific marketing goals. Below are some effective targeting strategies you can implement with AMC:
1. Cross-Selling and Upselling Based on Purchase Behavior
With AMC Custom Audiences, you can create audiences based on customers' past purchases. For example, if a customer purchased a laptop, you could target them with ads for laptop accessories like bags, chargers, or mouse pads.
This targeting approach not only drives additional sales but also helps maximize your ad spend by reaching customers who are already interested in your product category.
By segmenting your audience based on purchase behavior, you can improve customer lifetime value and boost conversions through cross-selling and upselling strategies.
2. Engaging Cart Abandoners and Non-Purchasing Ad Viewers
Another powerful strategy is to target users who have abandoned their carts or viewed your ads without purchasing. With AMC, you can segment cart abandoners who didn’t complete their purchase and serve them with personalized ads.
This can significantly increase the likelihood of conversion by reminding customers of the products they left behind and offering incentives to encourage final purchases.
Additionally, targeting non-purchasing ad viewers helps you re-engage those who have shown interest in your product but haven’t taken the next step to purchase.
3. Use of Cart Abandonment and Detailed Page View Data
AMC Custom Audiences can also leverage cart abandonment and detailed product page view data to create precise audience segments.
For instance, by analyzing who has visited a specific product page or added an item to their cart, you can craft custom audiences tailored to users who have interacted with your listings but haven’t converted yet.
This allows you to run effective retargeting campaigns and reduce abandoned sales, ultimately improving your ROI.
How AMC Works with Sponsored Display?
Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) integrates seamlessly with Sponsored Display ads, allowing you to create highly targeted campaigns based on in-depth customer insights. Here’s how AMC works with Sponsored Display to drive better ad performance:
1. Data Integration: Merging Insights for Targeting
AMC allows you to merge data from various sources to create more robust targeting for Sponsored Display ads. By combining first-party customer data (like previous purchases and interactions) with Amazon shopping insights, you can target the most relevant audience with the right message.
This approach enhances your ad targeting and increases your chances of engaging high-potential customers.
For example, if you’ve identified a segment of customers who frequently browse electronics but haven’t purchased, you can specifically target them with Sponsored Display ads for new tech products.
2. Tracking Customer Journeys On and Off Amazon
A key advantage of AMC Custom Audiences is its ability to track the customer journey across multiple touchpoints—both on and off Amazon. You can follow how a customer interacts with your brand, from browsing a product to purchasing or engaging with your ads on external platforms.
This deeper understanding of the customer journey helps you target users at the right moment, whether they’re on Amazon or browsing elsewhere on the web, with more personalized and timely ads.
This allows you to run cross-channel campaigns that are aligned with the customer's actions, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
3. Setting Up Sponsored Display Using AMC
Setting up Sponsored Display ads with AMC Custom Audiences is straightforward. Once you've created your custom audience segments in AMC, you can import these into your Sponsored Display campaigns.
You can target specific users based on their previous shopping behavior, interest in similar products, or interaction with your brand’s content. This ensures your ads reach the right customers at the right time, maximizing visibility and engagement.
Using AMC with Sponsored Display also allows you to refine targeting over time based on the performance of each audience segment, optimizing your campaigns for the best results.
Challenges and Future Opportunities in AMC Custom Audience Advertising
While Amazon Custom Audience Advertising offers powerful targeting capabilities, there are still a few challenges and future opportunities to consider. Let’s explore these areas, and how they might evolve to offer even more value to advertisers.
1. Current Limitations in Negative Audience Targeting
One challenge in AMC Custom Audiences is the inability to easily exclude certain audiences. While you can target users based on behaviors like past purchases or browsing history, there’s no direct method to prevent showing ads to users who are unlikely to convert, like those who have already purchased your product.
This can lead to wasted ad spend. Advertisers currently have to manually refine their audience exclusions, which can be time-consuming.
2. Expectations for AMC’s Expanded Targeting Features
Looking ahead, AMC Custom Audiences could benefit from expanded targeting features. Improved negative audience targeting and deeper insights into off-Amazon behaviors would help create more refined audience segments.
Future updates may allow advertisers to integrate third-party data for even more detailed targeting, making audience segmentation more accurate and actionable.
3. Bid Adjustment Strategies in Sponsored Display
Bid adjustments in Sponsored Display ads can be tricky when targeting custom audiences. With AMC, you can adjust bids based on the performance of specific segments, such as increasing bids for high-performing lookalike audiences.
Future enhancements may allow for automated bid adjustments based on audience engagement, improving campaign efficiency and ensuring your ads reach the most relevant customers at the optimal cost.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What is the difference between AMC Custom Audiences and traditional Amazon audience targeting?
AMC Custom Audiences offer more granular control over targeting by allowing advertisers to create highly specific segments based on customer behaviors, demographics, and shopping patterns. Traditional targeting focuses on broad categories like age, gender, and interests, which are less customizable.
2. How can I measure the success of my AMC Custom Audiences campaigns?
Success can be measured through key metrics like conversion rate, return on ad spend (ROAS), engagement rate, and click-through rate (CTR). By tracking these metrics, you can evaluate how well your custom audience segments are performing and make data-driven adjustments.
3. Can AMC Custom Audiences help with targeting customers outside of Amazon?
Yes! AMC allows you to leverage data from Amazon’s vast ecosystem, including off-Amazon behaviors and third-party platforms, through Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform). This feature enables you to target relevant audiences even outside Amazon’s environment.
4. What types of businesses benefit the most from using AMC Custom Audiences?
Brands with a variety of product categories or those aiming to scale their advertising efforts can benefit greatly. Businesses focused on eCommerce and those with high-value products, repeat customers, or specific niche audiences often see the best results with AMC.
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