Amazon DSP, Amazon Marketing Cloud and Amazon Attribution.
We run the part of Amazon advertising that sits past Sponsored Products: Amazon DSP for programmatic reach on and off Amazon, Amazon Marketing Cloud for SQL analysis of what your ads actually did, and Amazon Attribution for measuring the Google, Meta, email and affiliate traffic you send to your listings.
Theory Road sells on Amazon through its own Professional Seller accounts with Brand Registry and also publishes as an Amazon Associate and Creator Connections partner, so we see the marketplace from the brand side and the traffic side. This page is for brands already profitable on sponsored ads that want to know which tool comes next, whether they are ready for it, and how to measure it without trusting a dashboard blindly.
Questions this page answers
- What is Amazon Marketing Cloud and who can use it
- How do I set up Amazon Attribution tags for Google and Meta ads
- How does the Amazon Brand Referral Bonus work
- Do I need a managed service Amazon DSP agency or self-service
- When is a brand ready for Amazon DSP
- What AMC queries show new-to-brand and path to purchase
Step 1 of 2
How can we help you get found?
Next: name, email and budget. That’s it.
Where Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud pays off, and where it stalls.
Most brands meet Amazon advertising through Sponsored Products, and for a while that is enough. Then growth flattens, branded search is already covered, and the question becomes where the next buyer comes from. Amazon DSP buys display, video and streaming inventory on Amazon and across the open web using Amazon shopping audiences. Amazon Marketing Cloud is a clean room where you write SQL against event-level ad and conversion data and get back aggregated results. Amazon Attribution tags your off-Amazon traffic so Google, Meta, email and affiliate clicks finally show up as detail page views, add to carts and purchases.
Where brands get stuck is ownership and sequencing. DSP gets switched on before sponsored ads are clean, so retargeting audiences are thin and the spend buys impressions nobody can tie to orders. AMC gets provisioned and never queried because nobody on the team writes SQL, or the queries return nothing because results fall under aggregation thresholds. Attribution tags get created once, pasted into a single campaign and forgotten, so the Brand Referral Bonus credit never accrues and the Meta team keeps reporting clicks instead of sales. Each tool works. The failure is that no one owns all three together.
We run them in order of readiness. First we make Attribution work, because it costs nothing, it measures traffic you already buy, and for brand registered sellers it qualifies eligible sales for the Brand Referral Bonus. Then we write a small set of AMC queries that answer real questions: overlap between ad types, path to purchase, new-to-brand share and time to conversion. Only when those numbers show a gap that reach can fill do we build DSP audiences and campaigns, with a holdout or before and after read planned in advance so we can tell whether it paid.
Feeds it
- Sponsored ads data
- Amazon DSP impressions
- Google and Meta clicks
- Email and affiliate traffic
- Amazon order events
It feeds
- AMC query results
- DSP retargeting audiences
- Brand Referral Bonus credits
- Weekly incrementality report
Every connection is built on your accounts and documented, so the data survives any change of vendor.
Amazon DSP, AMC and Attribution management, scoped to the result.
Amazon Attribution setup
Tags built per channel, campaign and ad set for Google, Meta, email, affiliates and influencers, with a naming convention your team keeps using, plus a weekly read of detail page views, add to carts and sales.
Brand Referral Bonus enrollment
We confirm eligibility under Brand Registry, enroll the brand, route external traffic through Attribution tags and reconcile the bonus credits against the traffic that earned them, so the credit is not left on the table.
Amazon Marketing Cloud queries
A starter library of SQL queries for path to purchase, ad type overlap, new-to-brand, frequency and time to conversion, written against your instance, explained in plain language and rerun on a schedule.
Amazon DSP campaign management
Audience strategy, creative specs, frequency caps, supply choices and bidding for retargeting, lookalike and category conquest campaigns, run through self-service where it fits or coordinated with managed service where required.
Custom audiences from AMC
Where your account has access, we build AMC based audiences, such as shoppers who viewed but did not buy or lapsed repeat buyers, and push them to DSP or sponsored ads for activation.
Incrementality and reporting
A single weekly view that puts DSP, sponsored ads and off-Amazon traffic next to total brand sales, with holdouts or geo splits where volume allows, so budget decisions rest on lift rather than platform credit.
Where Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud setups break.
The problems we are most often hired to fix, in the order they tend to cost money.
DSP before the basics
Launching DSP while sponsored ads, listings and reviews are still weak means retargeting pools are small, conversion rates are low and the brand pays for reach it cannot convert. Fix the detail pages and search first.
Attribution tags built once
A single tag reused across every Meta ad set or email makes the report useless and breaks Brand Referral Bonus reconciliation. Tags need to be granular enough to answer which campaign actually sold units.
AMC queries that return nothing
AMC only returns aggregated rows above privacy thresholds, so narrow date ranges or tiny audiences come back empty. Queries have to be written for your volume, with wider windows and grouped dimensions when data is thin.
Reading view-through as proof
DSP reporting credits purchases after an impression, and many of those buyers were already coming. Without a holdout, new-to-brand read or before and after comparison, view-through ROAS overstates what the spend added.
Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud, wired into the rest of the business.
Amazon Ads console
Sponsored ads, DSP and Attribution live here; we keep naming and budgets consistent across them.
Amazon Marketing Cloud
SQL workspace where we run and schedule the query library against your instance.
Google Ads
Attribution tags appended to campaigns sending shoppers to Amazon listings or storefronts.
Meta Ads Manager
Per ad set Attribution tags so social traffic to Amazon is measured in orders, not clicks.
Klaviyo
Email and SMS links to Amazon tagged by flow and campaign for sales attribution.
Impact.com
Affiliate and creator links to Amazon carried through Attribution tags and reconciled with partner payouts.
Looker Studio
Blended reporting of DSP, sponsored ads, Attribution and total brand sales in one view.
Amazon S3
Destination for scheduled AMC exports when results need to feed an outside warehouse.
From audit to running it.
Audit.
We review sponsored ads structure, Brand Registry status, existing Attribution tags, DSP history and AMC access, then tell you which of the three tools you are ready for and which would waste budget today.
Build.
We create the Attribution tag system, enroll in the Brand Referral Bonus where eligible, stand up the AMC query library and, if warranted, design the first DSP audiences, creative and measurement plan.
Connect.
Tags go into Google, Meta, email and affiliate links, AMC results and DSP data flow into one report, and budgets are tied to the same weekly numbers your finance team uses.
Run or hand over.
We manage DSP and rerun AMC queries monthly with a written read, or we train your team on the tag convention and query library and step back to quarterly reviews.
A good fit
- Brand registered sellers already profitable on Sponsored Products who want to know what to add next and in what order.
- Brands spending on Google, Meta, email or affiliates to drive Amazon traffic that cannot yet see which channel sells.
- Teams with AMC access and good questions but nobody who writes and maintains the SQL.
- Brands weighing managed service DSP against self-service and wanting an operator's read on the tradeoff.
Probably not a fit
- Brands still fixing listings, reviews or basic sponsored ads should start there; DSP will magnify those gaps rather than cover them.
- If you need an Amazon Ads verified partner for a contractual reason, hire one; we are an independent operator.
Pricing, plainly.
Amazon Attribution itself is free for eligible sellers and vendors, and the Brand Referral Bonus is a credit Amazon applies against referral fees on qualifying sales, at a rate Amazon publishes in Seller Central. Amazon Marketing Cloud access does not carry a separate license fee for eligible advertisers, though AMC based audiences and some features depend on your ad programs. Amazon DSP charges for media, and managed service generally requires a minimum commitment that self-service does not. Our work starts with a fixed-scope audit and setup, then monthly management of DSP and AMC, or a hand-over with training. We quote after a short call, and engagements run month to month after an initial term.
Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud by business type.
- Product brandsMarketing agency and e-commerce builder for product brands: headless Shopify storefronts, Amazon Brand Registry and listings, Klaviyo, ads tracked to orders.
- Supplement brandsA supplement marketing agency running Amazon and Shopify as one system: compliant claims, TIC testing, subscriptions, creators and paid media that hold margin.
- Beauty and skincare brandsA skincare marketing agency for beauty brands selling on Amazon, TikTok Shop and Shopify: creator content, MoCRA-aware claims, sampling and replenishment.
- Pet product brandsA pet product marketing agency for brands selling on Amazon, Chewy and Shopify: autoship, compliant pet food and supplement claims, and ads pet parents trust.
- Home and kitchen brandsHome goods marketing and Amazon agency work for home and kitchen brands: listings, bundles, Vine launches, Wayfair and Target Plus, Shopify and Q4 planning.
- CPG brandsA CPG marketing agency for consumer packaged goods brands: Amazon 1P and 3P, Walmart, Target Plus, Instacart and retail media tied to velocity at shelf.
Reading on Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud.
- E-commerce · Takeaway
Amazon Marketing Cloud is a clean room where an advertiser writes SQL against event-level Amazon ad and conversion data and gets back only aggregated results that pass privacy thresholds.
E-commerce · 11 min read
Amazon Marketing Cloud: What It Is and the Queries Worth Running.
Amazon Marketing Cloud lets a brand ask its own questions of event-level Amazon ad and purchase data. It is powerful and easy to misuse. Here is how it works, the queries that pay, and how to tell if you are ready.
Read - E-commerce · Takeaway
Amazon Attribution is a free measurement tool that gives brand owners tagged links for Google, Meta, email, creators and publishers, then reports the detail page views, add to carts and purchases those links drive on Amazon.
E-commerce · 11 min read
Amazon Attribution and Brand Referral Bonus: A Working Setup.
Amazon Attribution shows what your off-Amazon marketing actually sells on Amazon, and the Brand Referral Bonus pays you back for that traffic. Here is how the tags work, what they measure, and how to build an external traffic program around them.
Read - E-commerce · Takeaway
Amazon Brand Analytics is a free set of dashboards in Seller Central for Brand Registry owners that shows search, conversion and purchase behavior for their own brand and the category around it.
E-commerce · 10 min read
Amazon Brand Analytics: How to Use Every Dashboard That Matters.
Brand Analytics is the free data Amazon gives Brand Registry owners about how shoppers search and buy. Most brands open it once. Here is what each dashboard shows and how we turn it into listing, ad and product decisions.
Read
Hiring help with Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud.
- Are you an Amazon partner?
- We run our own Amazon Professional Seller accounts with Brand Registry and publish as an Amazon Associate and Creator Connections partner, so we operate on both the brand and traffic sides of Amazon with our own money. We are not an Amazon Ads verified partner and we are not paid by Amazon to recommend DSP, managed service or any other program. We recommend the tool your volume and margins can support.
- What is Amazon Marketing Cloud in plain terms?
- AMC is a secure clean room where Amazon loads pseudonymized ad exposure and conversion events for your brand. You write SQL queries, and AMC returns only aggregated results that pass privacy thresholds, never individual shopper records. It answers questions standard reports cannot, such as how shoppers moved between ad types before buying and how many buyers were new to your brand.
- How does the Brand Referral Bonus work?
- Brand registered sellers who enroll earn a bonus when shoppers they send from outside Amazon, measured through Amazon Attribution tags, buy their products. The bonus is applied as a credit against the referral fees on those sales. It only accrues on tagged traffic, which is why a disciplined tag system matters more than the enrollment itself. It applies to third-party sellers, not vendors.
- Should we use managed service or self-service DSP?
- Managed service puts Amazon's team on your campaigns and usually requires a minimum spend commitment. Self-service gives you or your agency direct control with no managed service minimum, but someone has to run audiences, creative, frequency and bidding well. Brands at the start of DSP usually learn more with self-service and a tight test budget before committing to managed terms.
- When is a brand ready for Amazon DSP?
- When listings convert well, sponsored ads are profitable and structured, branded search is covered, and there is enough traffic to build retargeting pools that are not tiny. A brand that also has AMC or Attribution data showing where buyers come from will get far more out of DSP than one launching it to find growth it cannot yet measure.
- Can Amazon Attribution measure our Google and Meta ads?
- Yes. You create Attribution tags in the Amazon Ads console and append them to the destination URLs of your Google, Meta, email, affiliate or influencer links that point to Amazon. Attribution then reports clicks, detail page views, add to carts and purchases by tag, so off-Amazon spend can be judged on Amazon sales rather than on clicks.
Let’s get Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud working for you.
A short note on where the business is and where it needs to go. A senior partner replies within one business day.