Advertising on Amazon Now: Winning Without Cookies With First-Party Data

The advertising world has changed immensely with the world of advertising entering into the digital sphere for the last 20 years and utilizing third-party tracking cookies. These enabled advertisers to track user activity across the web and develop targeted advertising campaigns. However, advertisers must now navigate a complex world with new digital privacy regulations and loss of third party cookies. Although Amazon must also comply with these regulations, the advertising giant has been able to navigate these challenges more efficiently than others. Amazon has more data to inform its advertising capabilities, data that no other company on the web has.

Unlike others, at Amazon, every advertising and data integration has always been done using first party data. Amazon has always had a plethora of first party data based on purchasing, searching, and browsing across Amazon and its products, which include Alexa, FireTV, Kindle, Whole Foods, and more. With Amazon advertising, advertisers always had data that no other company was able to integrate with advertising forever, and now, more than others, that data is aimed at driving the company’s advertising success.

Brand new opportunities become available as the cookie-less era approaches. The advertising sector possesses first-hand data which allows for a superior focus, clear analysis, and valuable customizations. No other sector gets this data without infringing on someone’s privacy. This situation offers the chance for firms to create distinctly measurable and adaptable campaigns rather than campaigns based on guesswork. 

This piece of writing examines the impact of privacy on the adaptability of advertising available through Amazon and the way it enables a variety of campaigns to be developed and enhanced. It also demonstrates how brands can place themselves to be the victor of the cookie-less era. Marketers need to understand the drastic changes to Amazon’s advertising features and how these changes can be monetarily beneficial. 

The impact of removing third party cookies may be the most significant aspect of this era. For a long time, advertisers were able to follow and understand every move of a user on the internet, thus creating a way to capture the attention of users who would be likely to purchase their product. This provided brands with a way to target users cheaply and mass scale.

Nonetheless, the expanding privacy-focused movements made this system unsustainable. Browsers like Safari and Firefox blocked third-party cookies years ago, and Chrome, the most popular web browser, is currently ending their usage as well. This has removed the backbone of the old digital advertising model. Without third-party cookies, advertisers face the following challenges: audience tracking becomes extremely limited. Brands are unable to follow consumers as they transition between websites and apps, while retargeting is made significantly more complex. There are also attribution and measurement gaps because, with less cross-site tracking, the multi-touch mapping becomes less precise. Behavior targeting becomes less effective as predictive models that once relied on cookies worsen over time. This also increases ad spend. Without precise targeting, brands waste their marketing budgets. CPMs end up increasing as supply for impressions becomes limited. The data is of poor quality, leading to a lack of impression supply but high demand. This problem has left many advertisers facing challenges, but Amazon is now in a unique position where they can succeed, even with the loss of third-party tracking.

The elastic nature of managing Advertising on Amazon is largely driven by the Company’s Privacy First Approach

A historical overview of the Amazon Marketplace business model’s evolution showcases the historical business model of Amazon Marketplace is built on owning the customer relationship. Every single customer touchpoint including search, clicks, purchases, reviews, subscriptions and browsing sessions are all fully controlled within the Amazon ecosystem. A third party is never used, as Amazon never outsources the data collection. Instead, all zero party data and first party data is collected and retained. 

In this respect the Advertising business on Amazon survived the cookie apocalypse. 

Unique Aspects: 

1. Owns Full Funnel

The Amazon ecosystem is able to maintain and manage all stages of the buyer’s journey. From ad impression, to product search, to product detail page, to primary buy button click, to product purchase, and finally, to product delivery. Given this, Amazon has no gaps in the data set. 

2. Amazon Collects Verified Commercial Intent

Amazon customers are far more valuable than customers on Social Platforms. In Social Media Platforms, customers can exhibit transactional interest, but users are more often than not passive consumers. In Amazon, customers are almost always searched with high buy intent, and are far more valuable. 

3. Cross Device Identity Resolution

Amazon accounts sync and consolidate across mobile, desktop, and Kindle devices. In addition, FireTV, Fire tablet devices, Echo, and Amazon partner physical locations. This is the means through which Identity Resolution is maintained and legal privacy restrictions are observed.

Amazon possesses real-time buying data on a massive scale, which includes, but is not limited to, consumer behavior patterns on:  

– Items added to a shopper’s cart  

– Purchase histories  

– Brand allegiance  

– Sensitivity to prices  

– Wishlist usage  

– Category of items browsed  

– Subscription behavior  

– Purchase time  

These are behavioral insights that can be easily tracked, and that are far more reliable than the inferred data derived from cookies.  

Additionally, Amazon’s ads never had to depend on third-party cookies.  

Because Amazon’s targeted advertising and its associated metrics and optimizations using authenticated first-party signal data, they are unaffected by the loss of third-party cookies.  

These attributes make Amazon one of the most reliable, and strongest advertising platforms, especially in the current climate.  

Amazon does not simply have first-party data, they also have a wider range of different types of highly valuable data, which includes: transactional, behavioral, contextual, and subscription data.   

Some of the most important types of first-party data are:  

Shopping behavior data:  

– Search data  

– Browsing history  

– Items added to shopping carts  

– Previous purchases  

– Categories of items   

– Brands  

– Repeat purchases  

Data reflecting commercial intent, and that, is only available on Amazon.  

Media consumption data:  

– Prime Video  

– Amazon Music  

– Audible  

– Fire TV  

This helps create audience segments that are based on data that reflects a consumer’s lifestyle.

Smart Home & Device Data

(Used in aggregated and privacy-safe ways)

– Alexa usage

– Echo interactions

– Kindle reading behaviors

This expands the focus of targeting to much more than just shopping.

Subscriptions & Loyalty Data

– Prime Membership

– Subscribe & Save

– Amazon Fresh

– Whole Foods Market shoppers

These show the extent of engagement.

Contextual & Real-Time Signals

– Store visits by location

– Page-level browsing context

– Demand fluctuations by season

– Search data trends

This ensures the ads are more likely to show at the right time in the buyer’s journey.

All of these allow brands to run campaigns with:

✓ High accuracy

✓ Real-time customization

✓ Targeted at a high-intent audience

✓ Greater relevance

✓ Entered less wasted impressions

✓ Improved return on ad spend

To summarize, Amazon’s first-party data is the new “fuel” for precision marketing, and is fully compliant with privacy regulations.How Amazon Manages Privacy Disruptions  

With the addition of new datasets, new machine learning models, and more transparent measurement tools, Amazon is further improving the privacy-focused ad stack. Some major steps influences future direction:  

1. Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) Emergence as a Core Product  

AMC is a privacy-safe clean-room model, pulling in cross-channel data without ever gaining PII. Advertisers are able to cross their first-party data with Amazon’s aggregated data for custom analyses such as:  

– the impact of Sponsored Products on sales of the DSP,  

– the impact of video ads on a search brand (branded search),  

– new-to-brand ad customers after exposure, and  

– the movement of shoppers through the ad funnel.  

AMC has become the key to a post-cookie measurement apocalypse.  

2. Amazon DSP Progress with Intent Driven Fully Addressable Audiences  

Amazon DSP is now processing machine learning models trained exclusively on authenticated first-party data. This means:  

– more accurate lookalikes,  

– better predictive scores,  

– improved match rates,  

– advanced frequency controls,  

– expanded audience, and  

…stronger overall audience control.  

Because targeting remains constant and is unaffected by browsers, DSP campaigns thrive in the cookie-less era.

3. Expansion into Streaming, Audio, & Connected TV

Amazon’s first-party data powers ad targeting within:

– Prime Video Ads

– Freevee

– Twitch

– IMDb

– Amazon Music

– Amazon Audio Ads

– Fire TV

Thus, Amazon is a full-fledged solution beyond eCommerce for advertising.

4. Retail Media + Off-Amazon Reach

Amazon has introduced a solution for the gap between on-site retail ads and off-site display/video ads with DSP.

Example:

A consumer searching “hair dryer” on Amazon may see a video ad on a premium site later, powered by Amazon DSP’s first-party signals — compliant with privacy, and accurate.

How Brands Should Adapt Their Advertising Strategy for the Cookie-Less World

Brands will need to modify their marketing strategies to succeed in Amazon’s privacy-first ecosystem. Below, we outline the most impactful strategies.

1. Move Budget Away From Cookie-Dependent Platforms to Retail Media Networks

With cross-site visibility loss, Google and Meta will overlap less with retail media networks like Amazon, which have more stable identity resolution and will ensure:

– More accurate targeting

– Less CPA

– Higher intent conversions

Consider Amazon a primary paid acquisition channel.

2. Develop Targeted Campaigns Using Specific Intent Data

Make use of Amazon’s categorization of audiences into:

– Current market shoppers

– Lifestyle demographic

– Brand loyal customers

– Browsers of specific product categories

– Users of rival brands

– Audience over conquest

Tackling specific audiences is more effective than broad targeting. 

3. Extend Your Amazon Sponsored Ads Integration with DSP For Total Funnel Strategy 

The best return on marketing investment is through the collocation of 

Top of the Funnel:

 DSP Video, Over-the-top, Audio, Streaming Television

Middle Funnel:

 DSP Display, Retargeting, Competitor Conquesting

Bottom of the Funnel:

 Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display

 Campaigns for retargeting and purchase completion

Opting for this strategy to capture momentum will allow measurement of all stages. 

4. Employ Amazon Marketing Cloud to Map the Consumer Journey  

Brands can resolve the following vital inquiries.

– What marketing touchpoints lead to sales by customers of the brand?  

– How many times does a consumer need to see an ad to eventually convert?  

– What is the optimal frequency of impressions for ads?  

– Do video advertisements lead to more brand specific searches?  

– What creative approaches bring the best results?      

AMC replaces the old models of referencing cookies with more accurate and privacy preserving insights on consumer activities.

5. Augment Your First-Party Data Collection

While the data Amazon provides is invaluable, the true potential comes from combining it with your own. Businesses need to enhance the following:

– Customer relationship management lists

– Customer loyalty initiatives

– Email lists

– SMS marketing lists

– Direct data from company websites

This leads to higher accuracy for matching customers to segments for ads on Amazon DSP.

6. Implement Tailored Communication and A/B Testing

Segments created from first-party data allow for tailored communication based on: shopping history, geography, quality consumer behavior, interest areas, and loyalty.

To maximize CTR and minimize CPC, additional A/B testing should be conducted.

7. Leverage Amazon Attribution for Non-Amazon Campaigns

To measure traffic from: Google Search, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, Pinterest, email campaigns, and Influencer marketing.

Amazon Attribution provides transparency on outside-Amazon marketing—previously enabled by cookies.

8. Get Ready for More Automation and Predictive Targeting

Amazon is introducing additional machine learning to assist with: managed bidding, dynamic segmentation, audience prediction, engagement prediction, and process active updating.

Organizations that integrate these features will be vastly ahead of competitors still using manual procedures.

The Future of Amazon Advertising in a Privacy-First World

What will Amazon advertising look like in the future? Being one of the most sophisticated online retailers, future advertising will undoubtedly have high levels of data integration, sophisticated predictive advertising, and extensive capabilities in retail media. Here’s what the next 5 years will look like, even though a lot will change.  

1. The Future of Advertising and Predictive Modeling

AI will analyze the following in relation to consumers:  

– Micro behaviors  

– Multi-device signals  

– Cross-channel consumption  

– Purchase forecasting.  

These variables will predict what consumers may buy even before an action is taken.  

2. True Omnichannel Retail Media Experiences  

Amazon will seamlessly integrate  

– In-store data  

– Online browsing  

– Alexa  

– Prime Video  

– Delivery patterns.  

The integration of these data sets will develop seamless advertising experiences across various channels.  

3. More Commerce-Integrated Video Ads  

There will be video ads that are shoppable:  

– Fire TV  

– Prime Video  

– Twitch  

– Streaming inventory.  

Consumers will be able to make purchases without navigating to a different webpage.  

4. Hyper-Granular, Real-Time Personal Ads  

Creative and product recommendations will change in real-time based on the following.  

– Time of day  

– Weather  

– Inventory  

– Purchase cycle  

– Trends  

What was once a manual process will be automated.  

5. Clean Rooms Become the Standard  

The AMC style clean rooms will become the future of measurement; privacy safe, aggregated, and anonymized.

The Winning Brands Understand First-Party Data First

In a world without third-party cookies, there’s a major competitive advantage for those who possess validated, high-quality consumer data. Amazon has a considerable head start. However, brands integrating Amazon’s first-party data with their proprietary data sets will be untouchable when it comes to:

– Enhanced retention

– Improved conversion

– Reduced media waste

– Targeting across channels with greater accuracy

– Improved loyal customer insights

– Enhanced attribution

– Increased customer lifetime value

The brands that will be successful are not those who can shout the loudest, but those that can demonstrate the most profound understanding of their customers.

Conclusion: Amazon Advertising Is Poised to Become the Gold Standard in Privacy-Safe, First-Party Marketing.

The advertising landscape has changed dramatically. The cookie-less world forces brands to rethink how they engage with their customers, how they measure impact, and how they optimize from there. While many platforms are struggling to adapt, Amazon Advertising is not just surviving. It’s thriving.

Amazon advertising has access to first-party data, a sophisticated DSP, a quickly expanding advertising inventory, and offers privacy-respecting measurement services, leading to a unique position in the marketplace. Companies that integrate privacy-respecting and first-party Amazon data will experience accelerated growth.

Amazon Advertising has created something different than a typical advertising service. They have created a data-driven retail media ecosystem. Other companies in the advertising and retail industry will increasingly rely on Amazon’s first-party data as the privacy-driven digital economy matures.

Brands will have to adapt to the changes if they wish to not only compete, but outperform. That change will be to a system that will build a trust circle with ad-receiving audience members, advertisers, and data holders. Amazon will be the most important player in this emerging ecosystem.

FAQ

1. What is the main impact of the cookie-less era on digital advertising?

Advertising is now becoming more complex than before, as marketers can no longer track their users, retarget them, do multi touch tracking, or measure multi-touch journeys. Marketers have moved to privacy-safe ecosystems that rely on first-party data, as these marketers have no means for effective attribution or audience accuracy.

2. Why is Amazon less affected by the loss of third-party cookies?

Advertising with third-party data is affected by the loss of cookies, however, Amazon never relied on them to advertise their marketplace. Amazon has all consumer insights from their ecosystem, including, search behavior, purchases, browsing, and subscriptions. Therefore, Amazon has access to more data than their competitors when measuring and targeting.

3. What makes Amazon’s first-party data so powerful?

 Amazon knows millions of their customer’s verifiable commercial intent as they are more reliable than inferred interest. Amazon can track what potential buyers search, what they compare the items to, what they click on, and ultimately what they buy. The audience is often more than generic targeting, and is more focused than cookie tracking would provide.

4.How does Amazon protect user data concerning first-party data?  

For advertising purposes, Amazon pools and anonymizes user data before distribution. Services such as Amazon Marketing Cloud function in ‘clean rooms’ where no PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is disclosed. This method is compatible with GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy legislation.  

5.What are the advantages of first-party data in Amazon DSP campaigns?  

Amazon DSP uses a machine learning model based on data from authenticated shoppers and viewers. This methodology guarantees superior match rates, greater accuracy in targeting, better frequency control, and higher efficiency in generating lookalike audiences, all of which function effectively in a cookie-less environment.  

6.Can brands retarget customers in the absence of third-party cookies?  

Certainly. Based on real user in-platform activities such as product views, actions in the cart, and purchase history Amazon allows first-party retargeting, which is more accurate than cookie tracking and also browser-agnostic.

7. In a privacy-first world, how should brands deal with Amazon media strategy?

Brands need to reallocate budgets to focus on retail media networks, utilize high intent audience segments on Amazon, combine Sponsored Ads with DSP, utilize AMC for analytics, and enhance their first-party data collection to bolster customer match rates.

8. Is there a benefit to Amazon advertising off-Amazon?

With Amazon Attribution, advertisers have visibility into the impact that external media channels, such as Google, Meta, TikTok, email, and influencers, have on Amazon conversions. This visibility offers some of the same benefits that cookie-based attribution did.

9. In the privacy-first world, what does the future of Amazon advertising look like?

Amazon is investing in AI-forward modeling, more shoppable video ads, expanded CTV and OTT inventory, more robust omnichannel insights, and clean room measurement solutions. While privacy legislation will change the landscape, Amazon’s first-party data ecosystem will continue to provide the most robust and scalable advertising solutions.

10.What does Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) refer to and why does it matter?  

AMC is a privacy-compliant analytics ecosystem that allows advertisers to analyze performance across different channels, track customer journeys, and gain insights on bespoke audiences. AMC is critical in a cookie-less world for sophisticated measurement and complete attribution across the funnel.