A Conversation With Amazon Ads and Group M

By NCS Marketing

We had the privilege of hosting a conversation at Advertising Week New York, moderated by Lisa Kerins, SVP of Business Development, featuring Marcus Startzel, Director of Global Sales for Ad Tech at Amazon Ads, and Chris Hopkins, EVP Global Head of AI Strategy at Group M.

We discussed the challenges posed by shifting (and often fickle) consumer behavior, the ways Amazon is addressing those challenges, and how getting holistic real-time data can help CPG leaders make smarter decisions and increase their return on ad spend. 

LISA: We’ve all noticed significant changes in consumer shopping behavior over the past few years. What changes have you both observed, and what challenges do these shifts pose for advertisers? 

CHRIS: CPG brands are finding creative, data-driven ways to build more direct relationships with customers, even though they typically don’t have a lot of customer data. Retail is evolving quickly, with retailers developing data-driven advertising solutions at a breakneck pace. Sometimes consumers see CPG ads on the open web, sometimes in walled gardens, and increasingly, in retail environments—both in-store and online. Retail media is the fastest-growing media channel, with Group M predicting 18% growth in 2024.

The challenge is understanding the impact of ads in these different places and determining where consumers are actually purchasing. For many CPG brands, most purchases still happen in-store, but the pandemic accelerated alternatives such as pick-up in-store and delivery. Retail media supports these new behaviors. How can we understand the impact of ads in all these different places? Where are consumers actually purchasing? Given all this complexity, how do we develop effective audiences, target them with the right creative, measure the impact, and ultimately drive results for our CPG clients?

MARCUS: At Amazon Ads, we’ve seen similar challenges. Given all this, how do we best market to customers? You need to turn to all the different sources you have available. If I’m a brand marketer, I want to know everything I can about the folks purchasing my products today. How do I learn more about their affinity for my brand? How can I reach them in a way that I can bring them back and continue to give them the experience that they enjoy with my brand? How do I grow lifetime value? Technology has aided our ability to reach consumers, but with the challenges of cookie deprecation and divergent technologies, it’s important to have good partners and a strong understanding of our audiences.

LISA: These changes are forcing us to rethink how we measure advertising effectiveness. At NCS, a recent consumer sentiment survey shows that consumers are fickle—41% of shoppers will consider switching brands if their preferred brand becomes too expensive. When we updated our research on the Five Keys to Advertising Effectiveness, we saw that brand, as a contributor to incremental sales, has become even more critical since 2017—jumping from 15% to 21%. We’ve also found that brand loyalty accounts for 11% of total incremental sales. So, brands must retain loyal buyers. How is Amazon tackling challenges like bolstering brand loyalty?

MARCUS: Amazon Ads is a new and interesting proposition in the media landscape, particularly with our new Paid Features in the Amazon Marketing Cloud. It enables advertisers to take the best signals from all the partners available in Amazon Marketing Cloud. For those unfamiliar with the Amazon marketing stack, we have our Amazon DSP, which provides the ability to reach folks on both Amazon’s owned and operated media and all addressable third-party media. We also have the Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), a privacy safe data clean room where advertisers can combine their Amazon DSP, Sponsored Ads, and other first party signals with signals from partners like NCS to measure the success of their campaign. 

LISA: This sounds like an innovative approach that can simplify things for your clients. Can you share more about how AMC Paid Features helps advertisers make better business decisions?

MARCUS: Sure! For instance, a brand like Coca-Cola can combine their advertising datasets from Amazon's DSP with purchase datasets from NCS’s CPG Insights Stream. They can run campaigns and analyze the effect of mid- and low–funnel ads on generating sales outside of Amazon. One of the first places people tend to look for an item they need is on Amazon. As we said earlier, 50% search in one location and then purchase elsewhere. You can execute campaigns and then analyze the campaign using NCS purchase data to see the full effect.

LISA: Chris, you’ve been using the CPG Insights Stream with AMC Paid Features for several months. How has your experience been with your clients?

CHRIS: I’ve been working with AMC since the alpha days, and it’s come a long way. More recently, I’ve been able to use it with Coca-Cola, as Marcus mentioned. Coca-Cola has a massive portfolio of brands, requiring more comprehensive measurement solutions. With Amazon, we can measure online sales, but with the NCS feed, we can also measure offline sales, allowing us to measure omni-sales. The data available provides interesting opportunities, particularly when our teams work together. In addition to analysts and data scientists, using this integration works best when you are tightly connected with the teams that plan, build, and run the campaigns, so you can put the findings into context. While there’s a learning curve, the potential is immense, particularly when paired with AMC’s capabilities for creating and optimizing audiences based on signals from Amazon and NCS. 

LISA: Marcus, are there any other use cases that you’ve realized?

MARCUS: There’s so much you can do to understand the value of the media across Amazon and external environments and adjust the budget accordingly. With Amazon and NCS, advertisers can see who has converted, build  audiences and adjust strategies to drive conversions. The insights allow us to zoom out and look at the totality of what’s working and what’s not. 

LISA: Chris, as we continue to build our integration with Amazon, what’s next for connecting purchase insights to advertising outcomes?

CHRIS: As we get accustomed to the new data feed, our goal is to enable an automated, closed-loop system for measuring, optimizing, and automating each campaign. This would be valuable to managing a complex portfolio like Coca-Cola’s. We are considering how to use this data beyond the near-term sale. We don’t just want to sell some Cokes this week—we want to drive more loyal customers over time. Are we driving sustained behavior? Are we driving consumers to purchase more today and into the future? Conversely, are we seeing churn? Are customers purchasing less? How do we reverse that? By looking at months of data, we can see trends, use AI to optimize campaigns, and strategize accordingly. 

LISA: I’m hearing that connecting real-world outcomes to media engagement is not as hard as you think it might be with the right partners, tools, and data. Using responsive, near-real-time advertising outcomes empowers agility and greater return on ad spend. And finally, staying rooted in client outcomes drives success. Is there any advice you’d like to share?

CHRIS: You don’t need to break the bank by trying some of these new capabilities.You can start with a small-scale, low-risk test. Also, choose your partners wisely. You want to choose partners well versed in the increasing complexity in media and retail and understand these things by doing vs. by theory. If you choose the right partners and move ahead in the right way, there’s a lot you can accomplish.

Want to boost your advertising strategy and see how sales perform beyond Amazon? Read on for more insights.