Last month, our Amerge Germany Managing Director Max Rottenaicher interviewed Jeff Cohen, Amazon Tech evangelists at Amazon Ads in his podcast Wie Commerce.
This blog post distills the key takeaways from the hour-long discussion, focusing on topics such as: Amazon Marketing Cloud, Prime video, upper funnel advertising, Brand Lift studies, Live sports advertising opportunities, new product rollouts, interactive creatives, proper testing of new features, Rufus and much more!
Listen to the full podcast episode on Spotify.
Click on a topic to save time and scroll straight to the takeaway:
- What does an Amazon Tech evangelist do?
- What was your Amazon ads highlight of 2024?
- About why should brands leverage Live Sports broadcasting through Prime
- On the why of adding interactive elements to Live sports broadcasting
- On why different products roll out in different regions first and not globally
- On why Brand Store insights and the evaluation of new insights is important
- On the importance on testing and re-testing of new available signals
- On how to perceive the data signals from AMC
- On how Amazon thinks about privacy
- On how Jeff explains what is AMC to brands
- On the importance of AMC within upper-funnel advertising
- How to start if you are new with AMC
- On the importance of running Brand Lift Studies to measure upper funnel advertising
- Example of Why Brand awareness campaigns are important
- On why to go back to AI solutions, if they did not work the first time
- On what (also) feeds Rufus and the no.1 mistake of advertisers
1.What does an Amazon Tech evangelist do?
Jeff: “So I’ll say every day is a little bit different in the life of a tech evangelist at Amazon ads, but I work with all of our partners like Amerge, our 2,500 partners worldwide to help them understand Amazon ads technology. And I help advertisers understand how to use and implement and strategize the different technology that Amazon ads has.
I like to say that sometimes I take the really complex and try to make it simple. My background is that at one point in time, I ran a few brands on Amazon. And before joining Amazon, I ran a tech company and an ad agency. So I’ve been in the shoes of the brand. I’ve been in the shoes of the technology provider, as well as the agency. And I try to take all of that knowledge to help the team inside Amazon understand how to better develop tools for our customers and then help our customers understand how to use the tools that we got.”
2. What was your Amazon ads highlight of 2024?
Jeff: “The biggest, most impactful, comes down to 3 big updates.
One, it was a full year ago, but Amazon ads started advertising on Prime video, right?
So it counts as something new in this year, even though it seems like it’s been around for a while. And throughout the year that has expanded from just being in the US to being in other locales as well. And I think that’s a really kind of a monumental moment for Amazon to have all this Prime video inventory and to build systems for brands to be able to engage with shoppers who are watching Prime video.
The second is around the updates to Amazon Marketing Cloud or AMC.
Amazon Marketing Cloud is now available for everyone, even if you’re only on Sponsored ads and we’ve released a lot of technology that is being used immediately right now during the holiday time period, including the ability to create audiences and boost bids against those audiences. And that’s a really big update that is providing an immediate impact for advertisers.
The third one is our advancements in AI and Creative. We now have a full suite of creative products that range from photos to live images to video to audio, so the small seller can go from nothing to a full set and the large seller can go from a full set down to the small cuts they need.“
3. About why should brands leverage Live Sports broadcasting through Prime
Jeff: “Overall, live sports is a huge opportunity for advertisers because it’s a captive audience. We’ve moved into a world where TV is on demand and we can come in and we can watch it whenever we want. But if we miss a live sport, our phone is going off, updates are coming in. And so, if we want to be in the moment and watch live sports, you have to watch it live. And that’s why we’re seeing these amazing numbers coming out of Thursday night football, where we’re constantly exceeding our audiences from previous episodes.
And what’s great for advertisers is that advertisers can use the signals that consumers give to help develop their advertising campaigns. One of the best ways to think about Prime Video in general is that Prime Video is an opportunity for you to reach more shoppers or potential shoppers or even shoppers for your brands that don’t sell on Amazon based on the signals that they’re demonstrating. And then you can create interactive ads with Prime Video where you can have shoppable ads where they can click and shop via their remote. Or you can then use Amazon’s DSP to remarket to those potential shoppers
based on other places that they’re interacting with. That creates this full funnel effect to be able to create a lot more reach, to reach more audiences and then to bring them back to the outcome that you desire.”

4. On the why of adding interactive elements to Live sports broadcasting
Jeff: “In terms of advertisers, I think you’re going to continue to see more advancement around interactive shopping. The ability to see ads and to be able to take action on those ads, whether that be a product that’s sold on Amazon and you want to add it to your cart or a product that’s not sold on Amazon and you want to get more information or a way to just do more discovery. Because you see something that’s of interest to you.
I just think back to a presentation that I attended last summer where the AWS team had been working with Formula One to help them really improve the race that the Formula One drivers are doing by using the data that AWS has access to, the aerodynamics of the car, the interactivity of what’s happening during the viewership process, and all of that creates a more engaged viewer as they’re watching.
And I think one of the things that’s really critical to always remember and understand is that our customer is the viewer and we need to improve that viewer relationship because that’s what gets the viewer to tune in. That gets the viewer to stay engaged and then to eventually potentially see your ads.“
5. On why different products roll out in different regions first and not globally
Jeff: “Our products when they come out in Beta are going to be limited in a regional sense. Now that region could be just Germany, that region could be Europe, that region could be just North America. Our goal is to roll those products out globally as quickly as possible and for us to take products from beta to fully available within a short period of time.
I totally understand from the advertiser’s perspective that at times it can be frustrating to see an ad product that’s available within one region and not available within another region. But understand that a lot of the time why that’s happening, it’s because we´re still trying to figure out that product market fit before they try to scale it globally. When Amazon scales something globally, it’s going to be available for an extended period of time, right? And therefore we need the ability to be able to pull something from the market if it doesn’t necessarily work. And so I know it can be frustrating at times when you see an ad unit or a product that’s available and that you want it within your region. And I’d love to say just hang tight. It will get there.
6. On why Brand Store insights and the evaluation of new insights is important
Jeff: “In my mind, the brand store is one of the hidden gems of Amazon ads. I use it as a shopper when I discover a new product that I like and I want to see other things that the brand has. And the data indicates that when shoppers go to brand stores, they’re more likely to buy more products from that brand.”

7. On the importance on testing and re-testing of new available signals
Jeff: “I think that’s the big key is to be thinking about – how do you test? How do you have a system and a process? This is what makes Amerge successful with their brands is that you guys have a system and a process for testing when these new signals become available.
And then the second part is that when a new signal or a new ad unit becomes available, it may not be perfect for your brand or your product at that particular time. So how do you go back and test something that maybe didn’t work for you 6, 12, 18 months ago?
So maybe you haven’t invested in your Brand store, but now you have these insights and signals and you can see the impact that they’re having. So now you want to go back and start testing ad units that are driving more traffic to your store to see what that impact looks like.”
8. On how to perceive the data signals from AMC
Max: “That brings me directly to my favorite quote that says all models are wrong, but some are useful.”
Jeff: “I think it sums it up perfectly. I guess the quote I’ve always used is like, “data is directional”, right? And you know, you need to set baselines and you need to have benchmarks and then you need to understand how you’re doing against those baselines and those benchmarks. That’s why I think really good brands are working backwards from what those benchmarks look like and whether they’re meeting or exceeding those benchmarks versus running ads and then looking at the data and trying to determine whether it was successful or not.”
9. On how Amazon thinks about privacy
Jeff: “The one thing that I’m confident of is that Amazon is not just at the forefront of customer privacy and ensuring that we’re meeting these high standards that are being set. But I actually think we’re setting the bar for it. And I think we take it, I know we take it very seriously and I know that it’s something we’re constantly thinking about and driving to ensure that we’re building advertiser trust and we’re building shopper trust in a way that is privacy safe and is helping shoppers get what they need and advertisers to understand how their ads are performing.“
10. On how Jeff explains what is AMC to brands
Jeff: “I think the easiest way is to say that Amazon Marketing Cloud is a measurement tool. It’s a measurement tool to measure how your ads are performing. If we look at it as a two-sided equation…”
“…the one side is it’s a measurement tool that’s allowing you to bring aggregated data together to understand how things are doing. The second side is that it is the ability to take insights and drive actions off of them. So the measurement side is really the insights, what audiences are working, what workflows are working, what path the purchase is working. Really, any question you can ask using SQL, you can attempt to get an answer if you have enough data to get you an aggregated answer.
Where the real power of AMC comes in is how you use those signals to turn into actions. And how do you create new audiences? How do you find new potential shoppers? How do you boost bids on campaigns that can amplify your advertising?
That’s the power, right?”

11. On the importance of AMC within upper-funnel advertising
Jeff: “I heard this quote, I don’t even know if it’s a quote, but I heard this statement the other day and I thought it was great, which is, if your advertising is just search-based, then you’re limited to the audience of people that are shopping for your brand, your product, or your category. If you really want to expand your brand, you have to start looking at where those shoppers are and how do you attract them to your brand?
That’s upper funnel advertising at its core. And AMC allows you to really get an understanding of who your shoppers currently are. And then to use that to then go find more shoppers like that.
Most brands today that’ve been using AMC now have the visual representation of your funnel. I think that’s probably the biggest immediate aha moment that an advertiser has the first time they see AMC, right? They finally have this visualization to understand how many advertising touch points a shopper has before they make a purchase and what that ideal funnel looks like. And so then you can ask questions like, where’s my optimal frequency? You can start to understand that when you show 3 DSP ads your sales kind of peak, but if you show more than 5, they kind of flatten out.
So you can make little tweaks to your campaign by changing your frequency based on the number that it gives you.You’ve got different products, you’ve got different life cycles of those products and you’ve got different goals of those products. So I don’t think it’s one question, but I do think that there’s a lot of questions you can be asking that can help you get to these answers to just really start to dial your campaigns in.”
12. How to start if you are new with AMC
Jeff: “I don’t think you meant to toss this softball to me, but I would just call Amerge.
I think one of the best ways to get started is to work with a tech provider, an agency that has expertise within AMC.
Get your AMC instance set up and just start looking at the initial charts and templates within it before you have to ask all these questions. Most of our tech providers have built a series of templates and views that you can see and you can probably get a lot of rich information out of that specifically. And that’s probably the best way to just kind of get started and kind of see like, what is this and how does it work and how does it impact me and how can I be thinking about it and how should I be thinking about it?”
13. On the importance of running Brand Lift Studies to measure upper funnel advertising
Jeff: “You have a set of tools that are kind of telling you how your ads performed, what type of lift that you’re getting, what type of new brand awareness that you’re getting. And then you have other signals that are kind of demonstrating how your ads are performing.
So you really need this kind of mix of what’s happening in the moment and what tweaks need to happen with your campaigns. And then you also need to go back after campaigns are run and you need to be able to say, did I get the desired outcome?
When you’re truly going for full funnel advertising, you’re trying to do things like increase brand awareness, right? And you need an ability to not just see what conversions are occurring, but you need the ability to see how your brand equity is building over time. And that’s really where brand lift studies and shopper panels come in to start to help you triangulate that.”
14. Example of Why Brand awareness campaigns are important
Jeff: “When I was at Unbox Dusseldorf, there was an automotive brand who was featured on stage and they sell these basically individual electric cars, right? They’re kind of a car made for like one, maybe two people.
And they had expanded to have a sedan and they asked over 500 people in the audience who’s aware of our product. It’s a brand from Germany. They were all people from Germany. Who knows that we have this electric car and everybody in there raised their hand.
Then they said, how many of you know we have a sedan and maybe a quarter to a third of the audience raised their hand to know that they had a sedan. And so as they’re trying to expand their brand, as they’re trying to expand into new product categories, they’re trying to use these upper funnel advertising tactics as a way to build that brand awareness and demonstrate that their product has an offering that’s different than what the market had originally seen. And when you’re able to triangulate that down to your target audience, you can then see whether you’re getting that lift within the audience.”
15. On why to go back to AI solutions, if they did not work the first time
Jeff: “… when you see something and you test something from an AI perspective, you need to understand that’s the worst it will ever be. AI by its nature gets smarter as it’s used over time.
And so as you test something, as you try something, if it doesn’t work for you, you should come back and do it again, because as it gets smarter, it will become more useful to you. And I’m a believer that not every AI needs to be used by everybody every day for everything, but as you can build these into your systems and processes, they’re just gonna help you be more in touch with the efficiency and effectiveness of really everything across your brand.”
16. On what (also) feeds Rufus and the no.1 mistake of advertisers
Jeff: “…a lot of the information that’s feeding Rufus is coming from products and titles, product descriptions, as well as reviews, right? Those things just continue to be important that your catalog is fully updated and that Amazon knows the different attributions. You and I have been in this space for a long time. I’m still shocked at how many brands that I work with when I go in and I run their catalog report are still missing attributes in fields.
Honestly, we’ve been talking about this since 2014 or 2015.
You can add all those attributions in. You can download the file if you want to do it in bulk via the file. But I’m still surprised at how many brands are missing those attribution fields. But those attribution fields are a big part of what’s feeding the backend to tell the system what your product is, how it works, does it need batteries? Is it right-handed or left-handed? And there’s so many different attributions that are built into that based on the product, the category and such. If there’s one action item that you take out of this… go check out that report. and fill it out if it’s not filled out.”