New: Attribution Updates for Amazon Store Ads

Amazon’s VCPM attribution model is changing, and this is a positive move.

VCPM campaigns can offer real value. When CTRs are strong, they often deliver impressions and clicks more efficiently than CPC, which is exactly why they have a role to play within a full funnel setup. However, a common challenge we have seen across brands is over reporting.

VCPM campaigns rely on view through attribution, unlike CPC campaigns which are driven by click through conversions. In practice, this has meant that shoppers who were already highly likely to purchase could be served an impression late in their journey, with that conversion then being credited back to the VCPM campaign. This has often inflated performance and made comparisons across campaign types difficult.

Amazon have now recognised this needed improvement. From 1 January, the attribution model has been updated, and advertisers are likely to see fewer reported conversions from VCPM campaigns as a result. This is a welcome change.

Rather than counting all eligible views, Amazon now uses additional shopping signals during a user’s browsing journey to assess whether an impression was genuinely impactful. If the impression is not deemed to have influenced the purchase, it will no longer be attributed as a conversion to that VCPM campaign.

It is still early days and our teams are closely monitoring performance across clients to understand the full impact. However, this is a step in the right direction. It should lead to more realistic reporting and make performance comparisons between Sponsored Products and Sponsored Display using VCPM far fairer when it comes to conversions and return.