Amazon Attribution: How to measure your external traffic on Amazon

Amazon Attribution helps measure results on Amazon from marketing outside Amazon. This article explains how the tool works and how to interpret campaign results.

What is Amazon Attribution?

Amazon Attribution measures on-Amazon results attributed to marketing outside Amazon. The free tool is available to eligible advertisers; Amazon lists a Professional selling plan and Brand Registry enrollment among the requirements for sellers. Check the current eligibility requirements for your marketplace.

Reports include attributed product detail page views, add-to-carts, purchases and sales. These metrics relate to measured campaigns and do not document every customer interaction.

This way you can measure and optimize the success of your campaigns better.

How does Amazon Attribution work?

Amazon Attribution works by creating a unique tracking URL for each of your campaigns. You then use this URL in your ads that you run on various advertising platforms.

Open Amazon Attribution in the measurement and reporting area of the Ads console. Amazon’s setup guide explains the current steps for creating and placing attribution tags.

Amazon uses a 14-day last-touch model: a conversion must occur within 14 days of a measured click, and the last qualifying click receives credit. This does not provide a complete individual customer journey.

What can you use Amazon Attribution for?

Amazon Attribution is designed to measure the external traffic that you bring to your listings from sources outside the platform. Whether it's campaigns on Google Ads or social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook.

Of course, your options are not limited to paid traffic. You can also apply attribution links to organic campaigns. For example, if you have set up a website with a blog for your brand, you can link your product here and drive organic traffic to Amazon. Amazon Attribution then allows you to track whether this traffic converts.

Further practical examples for the use of Amazon Attribution are:

• Influencer campaigns

• Linking to comparison portals

• Google Ads

• Meta Ads (Facebook, Instagram, ...)

• Pinterest Ads

• Email Campaigns

• Website / Blog

• Youtube

Separate attribution tags let you compare measured results across sources. Check that the links are implemented correctly before the campaign starts.

What are the disadvantages of Amazon Attribution?

Attribution is an allocation model. An attributed purchase does not prove that the purchase would not have happened without the campaign.

Figures from different advertising platforms may differ because the platforms use different windows or attribution models. Compare advertising costs, revenue and margin too.

Amazon also makes Attribution reports available through the Amazon Ads API. Whether a campaign tool uses those reports depends on the integration. An attribution link alone does not automatically optimize campaigns on another advertising platform.

Assess external traffic using actual campaign results. A tracking pixel alone does not determine whether a campaign is worthwhile.

Amazon Attribution: Case Study 1 (Meta Ads)

Imagine you have launched an advertising campaign on Facebook to promote your new product. You are using multiple creatives to encourage potential customers to click and ultimately make a purchase. Now, you want to know which of these creatives was the most successful.

Use a separate attribution tag for each creative. Compare attributed purchases and revenue with the respective advertising costs to decide which ads to test further or adjust.

Consider the attribution window and sample size when interpreting results. A few purchases cannot establish the long-term effectiveness of a creative.

Amazon Attribution: Case Study 2 (Influencer Campaign)

You use influencer marketing to drive external traffic to your listing. To do this, you hire 10 influencers to promote your product on Instagram and TikTok.

Now you can create a separate Amazon Attribution link for each influencer and platform. So that would be 20 links (10 influencers x 2 platforms).

After the campaign, compare attributed results for each influencer and platform with the associated costs to inform your next test.

Amazon Attribution: Case Study 3 (Comparison Portals)

Suppose a comparison website offers a paid placement for your product category. The following numbers are a hypothetical calculation, not a performance forecast.

Now you have the opportunity to "buy in" there, and the provider charges, for example, 100€ per month for this.

With Amazon Attribution, you have the opportunity to measure whether it is really worth the money and if the €100 advertising budget pays off for you.

Let's say you generate 50 clicks per month, which corresponds to a Cost-per-Click (CPC) of 2€.

If this example generates 30 attributed purchases, advertising costs are €3.33 per purchase. At €30 revenue per purchase, attributed revenue totals €900 and ACOS is approximately 11.1%. Profitability also depends on cost of goods, Amazon fees and returns.

Conclusion

Amazon Attribution is an extremely useful tool for those who want to drive external traffic to Amazon. It provides detailed insights into your customers' purchasing process and helps you better measure and optimize the success of your campaigns. So if you want to promote your products additionally, you should definitely use Amazon Attribution.

Separate tags are especially useful when comparing several external campaigns. Interpret results alongside costs, margin and the attribution model.

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