Best of 2025 | Replay: The Maturation of AMC for Sponsored Ads - Episode 426
Ecommerce Braintrust
· with Ross Walker and Carlos Sastre
· January 13, 2026
· 25 min
Summary
This episode dives into the evolving landscape of Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) audiences for Sponsored Ads, highlighting a critical shift from broad keyword targeting to precise audience-based bidding. Ecommerce operators will learn how to leverage AMC audiences as bid modifiers to target high-value customers, optimize ad spend, and achieve significant ROAS improvements, ultimately preparing for the future of Amazon advertising where audience refinement is key to gaining a competitive edge.
Key takeaways
Understand that AMC audiences in Sponsored Products/Brand Ads function as bid modifiers, not strict targeting mechanisms, allowing you to boost bids for specific high-value customer segments.
Implement a "crawl, walk, run" testing strategy: begin with "out of the box" audiences like purchasers and subscribers, duplicate existing campaigns, and only scale complexity if results justify it.
Adopt a dual campaign strategy to simultaneously gain efficiency through AMC audiences without sacrificing overall ad volume and reach.
Leverage lookalike audiences (purchaser and subscriber) which have shown strong results in doubling ROAS and improving conversion rates in test campaigns.
Prioritize focusing ad spend on subsets of eyeballs most likely to convert, have high lifetime value, or purchase multiple products, rather than simply aiming for every single keyword impression.
Themes
ad optimizationaudience targetingretail media advertising
Thank you for an incredible 2025! 🎉 We are grateful for such an engaged community of listeners. To celebrate, we're re-releasing 3 of our most popular episodes of the year. This week, we're bringing back "The Maturation of AMC for Sponsored Ads" with Ross Walker and Carlos Sastre. We hope you enjoy it!
Frequently asked about this episode
What does this episode say about ad optimization?
Understand that AMC audiences in Sponsored Products/Brand Ads function as bid modifiers, not strict targeting mechanisms, allowing you to boost bids for specific high-value customer segments.
What does this episode say about audience targeting?
Implement a "crawl, walk, run" testing strategy: begin with "out of the box" audiences like purchasers and subscribers, duplicate existing campaigns, and only scale complexity if results justify it.
What does this episode say about retail media advertising?
Adopt a dual campaign strategy to simultaneously gain efficiency through AMC audiences without sacrificing overall ad volume and reach.
What does this episode say about ad optimization?
Leverage lookalike audiences (purchaser and subscriber) which have shown strong results in doubling ROAS and improving conversion rates in test campaigns.
What does this episode say about ad optimization?
Prioritize focusing ad spend on subsets of eyeballs most likely to convert, have high lifetime value, or purchase multiple products, rather than simply aiming for every single keyword impression.
