This episode explores Amazon's new Conversion Paths feature within its advertising console, providing a primer on conversion pathing or attribution modeling. Against this backdrop, the host interviews Mansour from Incrementum Digital, who explains that Conversion Paths reveals customer touchpoints with ads, showing how customers interact with various ad types (e.g., sponsored products, sponsored display, video ads) before making a purchase. More significantly, the discussion highlights that Amazon's attribution model prioritizes the last click or view, potentially overlooking the influence of earlier ad interactions. For instance, a customer might see a sponsored product ad, then a sponsored display ad, and finally purchase via a sponsored video ad; the sales are attributed to the last ad, even though the earlier ads may have played a role. The conversation then pivots to the limitations of the Conversion Paths report, such as the lack of spend data per step and the aggregation of multiple ad interactions into single ad types. In contrast, the Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) offers more granular data, allowing for a deeper understanding of multi-touch attribution. This means that while Conversion Paths provides a simplified overview, it leaves users wanting more detailed insights, ultimately serving as an introduction to the more comprehensive data available in AMC. The episode concludes by emphasizing the importance of considering both direct and assisted conversions for a holistic understanding of advertising effectiveness and the need to optimize campaigns based on a broader view of customer journeys.
