Overview

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) is a cloud clean room for analyzing ad signals and building audiences. It suits advertisers working across Amazon Ads who need to connect campaign activity with their own data. Its strongest case is privacy-conscious measurement and activation at no cost for eligible advertisers; its scope is less compelling if you need a general-purpose advertising platform.

Key features

AMC brings together pseudonymized Amazon Ads signals, advertiser inputs, and signals from onboarded third-party providers in a service built on AWS Clean Rooms. Advertisers can query hundreds of campaign fields, including ad-attributed impressions, clicks, and conversions, with access to 25 months of ad traffic signals. That depth supports longer customer-journey analysis, though the output remains aggregated and anonymous rather than exposing individual-level results.

Journey measurement spans Amazon Ads media and channels, including advertising impact at Amazon's online and offline stores and on advertiser-owned sites. Advertisers can also build audiences from engagement records, conversion events, and segment information, then activate them for sponsored, video, and display ads. This makes AMC useful for connecting analysis to Amazon campaign activation, rather than just reporting.

SQL supports flexible querying; curated templates and Ads Agent assistance offer insight generation and visualization without SQL. That gives teams different routes into analysis, but the no-SQL tools do not remove the underlying need to work with connected advertising signals and audience use cases.

Ads Data Manager and integrated signal management tools connect Amazon Ads, third-party provider, and advertiser signals. APIs support reporting, audience management, and onboarding first-party signals by stream or upload. Xmars, Pacvue, Treasure Data, and LiveRamp are named software vendor partners with native AMC integrations. Advertiser-uploaded signals remain in a dedicated instance and cannot be exported or accessed by Amazon, while AMC returns only aggregated, anonymous outputs.

Pricing

Amazon Marketing Cloud — 0.00 USD per free. The free plan is available at no cost to eligible advertisers and includes access through a web-based UI and API. Amazon DSP advertisers can request access from an Ad Tech Account Executive; sponsored ads advertisers can use self-service access. This is a meaningful entry point for eligible advertisers, but eligibility is the key restriction: it is not a universally available free analytics tool. Prospective users can contact an Amazon Ads account executive, and an Ads Agent course describes product support within AMC.

Platforms

AMC is available via web and API, with cloud deployment. Its APIs are suited to teams that want to automate reporting, audience management, or first-party signal onboarding; web access provides another path to the service. Privacy-safe matching is supported, with aggregated output controls.

Who it's for

AMC is best for eligible advertisers already working with Amazon Ads who want to study customer journeys, bring first-party or partner signals into analysis, and build audiences for Amazon-sponsored, video, or display campaigns. Teams comfortable with SQL can query flexibly, while curated templates and Ads Agent assistance provide a no-SQL route to insights. It is a poor fit for organizations that need person-level outputs, since results are aggregated and anonymous, or for buyers seeking a broadly applicable ad-buying platform rather than a measurement and audience clean room.

Pros and cons

Pro: No-cost access for eligible advertisers. The free plan makes AMC an accessible option for qualifying Amazon Ads users.
Pro: Measurement and activation are connected. Advertisers can analyze journeys and turn engagement, conversion, and segment signals into audiences for sponsored, video, and display ads.
Pro: Multiple analysis and integration paths. SQL, no-SQL templates, Ads Agent assistance, APIs, and native partner integrations serve different data workflows.
Con: Access is eligibility-based. DSP advertisers request access through an account executive, while sponsored ads advertisers have self-service access; not every prospective user has the same route.
Con: Privacy protections constrain results. Aggregated anonymous outputs support privacy-safe analysis but do not provide person-level reporting.
Con: Its focus is Amazon advertising signals. Its value centers on Amazon Ads measurement and audience activation, not general ad operations.

Alternatives

For buyers comparing categories, the Demand Side Platform and Data Clean Room Software directories provide broader category options. The Live Shopping Platforms and Email Marketing Analytics Software directories cover other use cases.

Adobe Advertising Creative is a paid alternative with API and web access, usage-based fees or annual-up-front subscription fees, and self-service and managed account options. Consider it when those buying and account-management models suit your needs better than AMC's eligibility-based no-cost access.

Adform DSP is a paid web platform. illumin is a paid web platform. Moloco Ads is a paid web platform. Nexxen DSP is a paid alternative. rtb.com is a paid web platform. Infillion DSP is a paid web platform with no free plan. Simpli.fi offers a paid web platform with custom pricing for its campaign-management plan; contact sales for pricing.

Verdict

Choose AMC if you are an eligible Amazon Ads advertiser who needs privacy-protected journey measurement and audience building tied to Amazon campaigns. Its no-cost access, connected signals, and activation workflow make it a strong fit for that specific job. Look elsewhere if you need individual-level outputs, universal access, or a broader advertising platform.

	Amazon Marketing Cloud	Orca
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	Free	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, Web	Web
Free plan	Yes	No
Live streaming	—	Yes
In-stream checkout	—	Yes
Shoppable video	—	Yes

Amazon Marketing Cloud vs Orca

Amazon Marketing Cloud

Orca