AMC Audiences in Sponsored Products and Display: Retargeting Shoppers Who Did Not Buy

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) audiences are shopper groups you define yourself and then use in your ads. Announced on 15 October 2024, they can drive Sponsored Display targeting, as rule-based or lookalike audiences, and act as bid boosts in Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands. India is on Amazon's list of marketplaces. You need AMC access first. This page explains how audiences work and how to plan a retargeting one.

What are AMC audiences?

AMC is Amazon's clean room for advertising analytics. An AMC audience is a segment you build from signals inside it, then send out to campaigns. Amazon says the audiences use eligible signals from sponsored ads, Amazon DSP, Amazon Insights (beta) and advertiser signals you bring into AMC.

Amazon first launched AMC Audiences as a beta on 1 May 2023, for use in Amazon DSP. India was on the marketplace list then too. The October 2024 update added the sponsored ads route, which is what makes it useful for most Indian sellers.

If you have not opened AMC yet, read our Amazon Marketing Cloud guide for India first.

How can I use them in sponsored ads?

A bid boost raises your bid when the shopper belongs to your audience. It does not create a new targeting route. The page links to separate announcements for audience creation and bid boosting, and it does not give step-by-step instructions or limits for the boosts. Check the bid-boost settings in your campaign for the exact range available to you.

If you need a refresher on the difference between the ad types, see our notes on Sponsored Display versus DSP.

How do I build an audience?

Amazon says audiences are built in the AMC web interface or through the AMC Audiences API. You write your own SQL query or start from a query template. Amazon groups example audiences by goal: awareness, consideration, conversion and loyalty, and you can set how often an audience refreshes.

A practical sequence:

1. Pick one goal, for example "shoppers who engaged with my product but did not buy".
2. In AMC, open the use case library and look for a remarketing template. Amazon names "building remarketing audiences" as a use case.
3. Run the query as an analysis first and check the audience size.
4. Save it as an audience and choose a refresh frequency.
5. Open your campaign and apply it: as targeting in Sponsored Display, or as a bid boost in Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands.

Can I retarget cart abandoners?

Probably, but we cannot confirm it from Amazon's public pages. The pages we opened describe audience building from sponsored ads, DSP and advertiser signals. They do not list "added to cart but did not buy" as a named signal or a ready-made template.

So the honest approach is:

• Open the query editor and check which shopper events your instance exposes before you promise anyone a cart-abandoner audience.
• Use the closest signal you can confirm, such as shoppers who saw or clicked your ads, or viewed a product detail page, and did not purchase.
• Do not upload personal data to fill the gap. AMC accepts only pseudonymised inputs, and Amazon does not allow other data.

If this works in your account, the plan is simple: build the non-purchaser audience, apply it to Sponsored Display, and put a bid boost on your top-converting Sponsored Products campaign.

What size does the audience need to be?

Amazon says AMC audiences follow "the same policy and size restrictions as other Amazon audiences". It gives no number in that announcement. Some blogs quote specific minimums. We could not confirm any from Amazon, so we will not repeat them.

In practice, a very narrow audience, for example a single ASIN with low traffic, may not activate. If it does not, widen it: add more products from the same brand, lengthen the lookback, or combine related categories.

Rule-based or lookalike?

A rule-based audience is a group you define by conditions. It is precise, but only as big as your own traffic. A lookalike audience extends from a seed group to shoppers who resemble it. It reaches more people, but is less targeted. Amazon offers both for Sponsored Display targeting.

Start rule-based to prove the segment converts, then add a lookalike to scale it. That order is our advice, not an Amazon rule.

How do I judge the result?

Do not judge on ACOS alone. Retargeting often shows a good ACOS because it targets people close to buying, which can include shoppers who would have bought anyway. Check total sales and, where you can, new-to-brand share. Our note on lowering ACOS on Amazon covers ACOS in more depth.

Run a simple test:

1. Keep one campaign without the audience and one with it.
2. Run both for the same period.
3. Compare conversion rate, total sales on the ASIN and spend.

Change only one thing at a time, so you know what moved the result.

What is a sensible four-week plan?

This is our suggested plan, not an Amazon recommendation.

Keep the budget small. A test that costs you a few days of normal spend teaches you almost as much as a large one.

What should I check before launch?

• The ASINs in the audience are in stock, priced competitively and have a strong detail page.
• You can tell the campaign apart in reports, so name it clearly, for example "SD-AMC-nonbuyers-brandname".
• Your budget is set so that one campaign cannot use up your whole ad spend.
• You have written down the question the test answers, such as "does a non-purchaser audience convert better than my current Sponsored Display targeting?"

What can go wrong?

• You do not see AMC. Access depends on your account type and country. Amazon's pages say sponsored ads advertisers can open AMC from the console.
• The audience is empty or tiny. Widen the definition.
• The audience is stale. Check the refresh setting.
• Privacy thresholds hide results. AMC returns aggregated outputs with built-in thresholds.
• The audience helps an ASIN that is out of stock. Pause or exclude it. Targeting shoppers with an ad for something they cannot buy wastes money.

FAQ

Are AMC audiences available in India? Yes, according to Amazon's October 2024 announcement, which lists India (IN) in Asia Pacific among the marketplaces for using AMC audiences in sponsored ads. You still need AMC access.

Which sponsored ad types can use AMC audiences? Sponsored Display can use rule-based or lookalike audiences for targeting. Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands can use audiences as bid boosts. Amazon's announcement lists these three.

How do I create an AMC audience? Use the AMC web interface or the AMC Audiences API. You write an SQL query or start from a query template. You can also choose how often the audience refreshes.

Is there a minimum audience size? Amazon says the same policy and size restrictions as other Amazon audiences apply, but its announcement gives no figure. Treat any number you see on a blog as unconfirmed.

Can I upload my customer list to AMC? AMC accepts only pseudonymised inputs. Amazon says it does not accept other data. Do not upload names, phone numbers or email addresses in plain form.

Does an audience guarantee better results? No. It changes who your bids favour. Test it against a campaign without the audience and compare total sales.

Next step

Open AMC and check which signals your account exposes before you design any audience. If you want help, our marketplace ads management team at Blooprint can build and test audiences with you. A starter list of analyses is in 10 AMC queries every Amazon seller should run.