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Big data is here to stay and it’s informing eCommerce sellers at all stages of their Amazon selling journey. The recent supply chain hiccups and Amazon’s reduced restock limits have both highlighted the need for Amazon sellers to maintain more control over their business.

From product sourcing all the way to last-mile fulfillment, the ability to closely monitor your Amazon advertising has never been more important. Fortunately, the dramatic growth of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data modeling has come in time to help give Amazon sellers the information they need to take the appropriate next step. 

Now, Amazon has decided to harness the power of these technologies to help sellers thrive. 

Amazon just launched Amazon Marketing Stream (now in Beta), a product that delivers Amazon Ads campaign metrics and information to advertisers’ or integrators’ AWS accounts via a push-based model in near real-time. 

Amazon Marketing Stream First Steps 

You can subscribe to campaign data sets available on Amazon Marketing Stream using your existing Amazon Ads API token and by providing your AWS account details. Once subscribed, Amazon Marketing Stream will deliver hourly performance metrics, with details such as targeting expression performance by placement and budget consumption messages in near real-time. Amazon says that, “other campaign data sets will be available for subscription in the coming months.”

Why Should This Matter to Amazon Sellers?

Previously, access to scaled campaign reporting was limited to pull-based Amazon Ads API calls. That means that in order to access metrics such as daily performance, and other on-demand access to other campaign information, API users needed to manually pull this information by calling Amazon Ads API over and over throughout the day. 

It’s a little like having to close your computer, then go through the re-opening process every time you want to navigate to another web page. It would take forever. More importantly, at some point you’d give up and simply go with the data that you had. 

Obviously, now that we’re in 2022 and with the recent advances to data management, Amazon needed to do something. Now they have. 

3 Ways That Amazon Marketing Stream Will Help eCommerce Sellers

1. Optimize Your Advertising Campaign

Amazon Marketing Stream’s hourly performance metrics will provide intraday insights allowing for advanced campaign optimization. For example, during certain hours of the day when your conversion rate is high, you may want to increase bid amounts or make sure your campaign stays in budget during that time. 

Amazon says that, “sponsored Products performance metrics from Amazon Marketing Stream enables new dimensions such as the combination of targeting expression and ad placement, so you can not only optimize on your keywords but keywords by placement.” 

2. Respond More Quickly to Campaign Changes

I don’t have to tell anyone that with the rapid maturation of Amazon’s marketplace, it’s become more competitive than ever. This near real-time information should help advanced API users make the adjustments necessary to stay one step ahead. In the event that you have run-away success with a campaign, data from Amazon’s Marketing Stream allows you to increase the campaign budget before it runs out.

3. Improve the Overall Efficiency of Your Campaign

Amazon says that, “push-based information delivery eliminates API throttling.” Because Amazon Marketing Stream sends you performance metric and campaign information changes in near real-time, instead of aggregated over a period of time, the data you receive will be specific to that time and event. 

Using Amazon Marketing Stream, sellers can simplify complex technical operations which today, Amazon admits, “may entail comparing new aggregated API metrics with the metrics an integrator or advertiser has previously pulled and stored in its own systems, to understand the delta (or deviation) between the two.” Now, Amazon Marketing Stream can deliver that information to you.

Amazon Marketing Stream Key Features

• Improved data granularity: Traffic and conversion data is summarized hourly, compared with a daily granularity if you’re using the reporting API. The data is streamed automatically to your AWS account, which you’ll provide when you subscribe to the Amazon Marketing Stream data set.
• No throttling: With Amazon Marketing Stream data streaming, you no longer need to make frequent API calls for intra-day updates. This helps to prevent throttling while also increasing data accuracy.
• Near real-time messaging: Get notified about budget consumption, such as when campaigns are running out of budget.
• More reporting dimensions: While API-based reports can show performance at the placement or the ad level, Amazon Marketing Stream can show all dimensions available in a single dataset. While API-based reports can show performance at the target ID, placement or the ad level, Amazon Marketing Stream can show data for these dimensions all together. This allows you to see granular data such as keyword performance for a given placement that isn’t available without Amazon Marketing Stream. This gives you more insights to help you improve campaign efficiency.
• Insights on deltas instead of aggregates: Amazon Marketing Stream allows you to better understand how campaigns are performing by pushing the delta values instead of aggregates. This helps you see how campaign performance is changing over time.
• Simplified workflow: With Amazon Marketing Stream, you can access all of your advertising data from your AWS account natively. Additionally, Amazon Marketing Stream pushes changes to your data instead of snapshots. This simplifies the extract, transform, and load (ETL) process by showing you exactly what has changed when new data arrives. Without Amazon Marketing Stream, you need to pull a snapshot report, and then compare it with your native data store to know what changed—a process that is less efficient.

Where Are the Features Available?

• United States, 
• Canada
• Mexico

Who Can Use It?

• Agencies
• Tool providers
• Direct advertisers including vendors and sellers

How Do I Get Started With Amazon Marketing Stream?

When you’re ready to get started, visit Amazon’s Marketing Stream onboarding guide that will walk you through the process of getting API access, integrating with AWS, and subscribing to campaign datasets using the Amazon Marketing Stream API.

In 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) first began offering IT infrastructure services to businesses in the form of web services — commonly known as cloud computing. 

Now, Amazon has used the power of cloud computing (and their massive data capabilities) to help Amazon advertisers stay one step ahead of their competitors. 

CANOPY Management is Here to Help

Want to understand more about how Amazon Marketing Stream can help you with your own Amazon business? Reach out to the advertising experts at CANOPY Management.

CANOPY Management is a “full service” marketing agency for Amazon sellers, and our team consists of former Amazonians, multi-million dollar sellers, and award-winning experts. When you consider the ways in which CANOPY Management is able to help you grow your Amazon business, you’ll know why.

• Strategic Growth Planning
• Listing Copywriting Optimization
• Listing Photography
• Product Videography
• Advertising Management
• Customer Service
• Demand Side Platform (Amazon DSP)
• Amazon Posts
• Full Service Management
• Amazon Review Aggregation

Are you looking to expand your income stream, or transition away from your primary career? It’s a new year and with the growth of eCommerce, now is a great time to reap some benefits yourself!