This week, Keen attended one of Amazon’s biggest conferences of the year, unBoxed, where brands, advertisers, and adtech converged to learn about the latest Amazon Ads product releases, ad tech updates, and strategies for driving sales. Keen’s event was packed with speaking sessions and insightful conversations, providing a front-row seat to the future of Amazon advertising.
Here are three hot takes and key takeaways we brought back from the conference.
Hot Take #1: Full Funnel Customer Journeys
Amazon continues to expand its role as both a retailer and publisher, with the recent addition of the NBA to its lineup, following partnerships like Thursday Night Football and the Fire TV streaming ecosystem. The central theme was clear: full-funnel advertising is essential for driving not just sales but also sustainable growth—and we couldn’t agree more.
Here’s why: While bottom-funnel tactics such as on-site search ads are great for driving immediate conversions, they perform even better when supported by upper-funnel efforts. Think off-Amazon display ads, video ads bought through the Amazon DSP, and streaming ads on platforms like Fire TV, Thursday Night Football, and now NBA games. The reality is that many brands are too heavily invested in bottom-funnel tactics. Although these conversion-focused strategies deliver high ROAS today, they can limit long-term growth without the support of upper-funnel activities.
Amazon’s emphasis on orchestrating customer journeys from awareness to purchase is the right move, helping brands not only boost today’s sales but also build a stronger foundation for future growth.
Hot Take #2: Retail Marketers Struggle to Demonstrate Amazon’s Influence Beyond the Platform
We’ve been hearing some intriguing insights from brand-side marketers handling Amazon budgets. They’re not solely focused on driving sales on Amazon. They also want to demonstrate how Amazon advertising investments impact sales happening across other channels, like direct-to-consumer websites and third-party retailers.
Why is this significant? Marketers managing Amazon budgets often compete for resources with media, trade, and shopper marketing teams. To prove their value and advocate for their budgets, they need to show that Amazon spending drives returns beyond the platform. We know the impact is happening: Amazon’s ad offerings, from off-site display to high-visibility placements like Thursday Night Football, are driving general market impact. Even the simple act of being discoverable on Amazon can initiate customer relationships that bring value to other sales channels.
This need for cross-channel impact measurement presents an ideal use case for marketing mix modeling. By revealing how Amazon investments contribute to revenue and profit across all channels, both in the short and long term, brands can make more informed decisions. We’re definitely buying into this approach.
Hot Take #3: Amazon’s Multi-Touch Attribution Tools – A Step, But Not the Whole Solution
Amazon’s new multi-touch attribution tools aim to measure the influence of various touchpoints within its ecosystem. While this is a significant step forward, we’re selling this one short in terms of its overall potential as a meaningful tool.
Before this rollout, Amazon operated largely as a last-touch attribution platform, where upper-funnel tactics like OTT ads often got overshadowed by bottom-funnel conversion ads, such as sponsored search. With the new tools, advertisers can distribute credit across multiple touchpoints, better acknowledging the full customer journey. However, there’s a catch: these attributions are based on rules set by the advertiser, making the weightings somewhat subjective. It’s a step up from last-touch attribution but still falls short of a truly scientific measurement.
More importantly, Amazon’s multi-touch attribution is limited to touchpoints within its own ecosystem. The fact is that general market media—ads on Meta, TikTok, TV, and audio—also play a significant role in shaping customer journeys and driving sales on Amazon. This limitation leaves advertisers with an incomplete picture of the path to purchase.
For a more comprehensive view of what drives sales, marketing mix modeling offers a better solution. It takes into account every touchpoint across the full funnel, providing brands with a clearer understanding of how their marketing investments impact business outcomes.
In conclusion, Amazon unBoxed 2024 offered plenty of insights and innovations, but these three themes stood out as the most impactful for brands looking to optimize their Amazon advertising strategies. As Amazon continues to grow its influence across the digital and physical retail landscape, understanding the full picture of the customer journey and the cross-channel impact of ad investments will be critical for future success.
Want to learn how Keen can support your Amazon advertising strategy? Schedule a demo today!
