Amazon cross-channel, or full-funnel, marketingโoften searched as Amazon XCMโcoordinates Sponsored Ads, Amazon DSP, Prime Video, streaming TV, audio, and off-Amazon channels into one customer journey. Amazon full-channel management connects these touchpoints with retail operations, creative, budgets, and measurement through tools such as Amazon Marketing Cloud.
In this guide, weโll explain the Amazon channel mix, how to build a full-funnel strategy, how to measure its impact, and when a brand may need a partner to manage it.
What Is Amazon Cross-Channel and Full-Funnel Marketing?
Amazon cross-channel marketing is the coordinated use of Amazon Ads and external marketing channels to reach shoppers across several stages of the buying journey.
A shopper might see a streaming TV ad, watch an influencer video, search for the brand, visit an Amazon Store, and finally buy through Sponsored Products. A connected strategy assigns each touchpoint a clear audience, purpose, message, destination, and way to measure results.
The goal isnโt to use every channel, but to ensure each chosen channel guides the shopper to the next step.
What Does Amazon XCM Mean?
Amazon XCM generally refers to Amazonโs internal Cross-Channel, Cross-Category Marketing organization.
For sellers and brands, the relevant strategy is Amazon cross-channel or full-funnel advertising. This connects Amazon Ads and off-Amazon media across awareness, consideration, conversion, and retention.
What Is the Amazon Ads Cross-Channel Planner?
The Amazon Ads cross-channel planner is a tool that helps advertisers create full-funnel plans using different ad types.
It supports planning across sponsored ads, display, online video, streaming TV, audio, and media outside Amazon. Now part of Ads Planner, it helps eligible advertisers compare formats, estimate deduplicated reach, review audience insights, and allocate budgets around full-funnel goals.
The tool helps with media planning, but brands still need to manage listings, stock, pricing, creative work, promotions, and profits.
What Does Amazon Full Channel Management Include?
Amazon full channel management means planning and managing every channel that influences a brandโs growth on Amazon.
Itโs more than just PPC. Sponsored Products can capture existing demand, but they canโt build awareness, coordinate creative, manage retail readiness, or track the full customer journey on their own.
| Management area | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Channel strategy | Selecting Sponsored Ads, DSP, video, audio, external media, and owned channels |
| Campaign management | Building campaigns around audiences, products, goals, budgets, and funnel stages |
| Creative coordination | Keeping the core message consistent across search, display, video, influencer content, and Stores |
| Retail readiness | Preparing listings, inventory, pricing, reviews, promotions, and fulfillment |
| Measurement | Connecting Amazon Ads, Attribution, AMC, Omnichannel Metrics, and business-level data |
For full-channel growth on Amazon, advertising and account operations need to work together. Even with qualified traffic, growth will stall if the product is out of stock, loses the Buy Box, or has a weak detail page.
Amazon reinforced this full-funnel direction through its unBoxed 2025 announcements and 2026 Upfronts messaging. The focus is moving from isolated ad formats toward connected plans that combine search, display, video, streaming TV, audio, audience data, and cross-channel measurement.
At unBoxed 2025, Amazon Ads introduced Ads Agent and a unified Campaign Manager that brings sponsored ads and Amazon DSP into one media-buying environment. At the 2026 Amazon Upfront, Amazon emphasized connected entertainment, authenticated audience signals, and measurable full-funnel advertising.
These updates can simplify campaign planning, creation, and reporting. However, brands still need to review automated recommendations against product margins, inventory, creative quality, retail readiness, and wider business goals.
The Amazon Marketing Channel Mix
Amazon offers several advertising formats that reach shoppers during search, browsing, and entertainment.
The right mix depends on your campaign goal, audience, budget, product maturity, category, and the measurement tools you have.
| Amazon channel | Main funnel role | Best use |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsored Products | Conversion | Capture active shopping demand |
| Sponsored Brands | Consideration and conversion | Build visibility and direct traffic to products or Stores |
| Sponsored Display | Consideration and retargeting | Re-engage product viewers and reach relevant audiences |
| Amazon DSP | Full funnel | Reach and retarget audiences on and beyond Amazon |
| Online video | Awareness and consideration | Demonstrate products and explain benefits |
| Streaming TV and Prime Video | Awareness | Build broad reach and brand recognition |
| Audio ads | Awareness | Reach audiences during screen-free moments |
| Amazon Live | Awareness and consideration | Demonstrate products through live content |
| Off-Amazon media | Awareness through conversion | Bring search, social, influencer, affiliate, and email traffic to Amazon |
Sponsored Ads
Sponsored Products capture active product demand, while Sponsored Brands support discovery and can direct shoppers to products or Amazon Stores. Sponsored Display helps brands reach relevant audiences and re-engage shoppers who viewed a product but did not buy.
Each ad format should have its own audience, goal, bidding approach, and place in the funnel.
Amazon DSP
Amazon DSP helps advertisers buy display, video, streaming TV, and audio ads using Amazon audience and shopping signals.
Amazon DSP can support:
- New audience reach and awareness
- Product-view and customer retargeting
- Category and competitor audience strategies
- New-to-brand acquisition
- Cross-device campaigns
DSP lets you reach shoppers before they start searching for a product on Amazon. It also links upper-funnel awareness to lower-funnel conversion campaigns.
Prime Video, Streaming TV, Online Video, and Audio
These formats help brands reach shoppers before they show active purchase intent.
Prime Video and streaming TV can build broad awareness. Online video can demonstrate product features or explain a clear difference. Audio ads reach audiences during screen-free moments.
These formats often create demand that later turns into sales through Sponsored Ads, retargeting, branded search, or organic Amazon traffic. Donโt judge them only by direct sales.
Off-Amazon Channels
Google, Meta, TikTok, influencers, affiliates, email, organic search, and brand-owned websites can introduce the product, educate shoppers, or send qualified traffic to Amazon.
A brand doesnโt need to use every channel. Influencers can build awareness, Google can capture active research, and Sponsored Products can close the sale. Each channel should have a clear Amazon-focused purpose.
Selling Across Channels On and Off Amazon
Selling across channels can mean advertising outside Amazon and directing shoppers to Amazon, or selling through Amazon, other marketplaces, and a direct-to-consumer website.
Both approaches can help your brand grow. But external traffic needs an advertising and attribution plan, and multichannel selling also requires coordinated inventory, pricing, fulfillment, content, and promotions.
Driving External Traffic to Amazon
Off-Amazon traffic helps brands reach shoppers before they begin searching inside Amazon.
External traffic can lead to a product detail page, Amazon Store, Store subpage, product collection, or a promotional page. Match the destination to the shopperโs intent. High-intent search traffic may go straight to a product page, while broader social or influencer traffic might be better sent to an Amazon Store.
Amazon Attribution can help eligible brands measure how non-Amazon search, social, display, video, email, affiliate, and influencer campaigns affect Amazon engagement and sales.
Coordinate Amazon With Other Sales Channels
Brands selling through Amazon, other marketplaces, and their own websites must align inventory, pricing, promotions, product information, creative, and fulfillment.
Your core product promise should remain consistent across all channels. Shoppers shouldnโt see one benefit, price, or offer in an external campaign and find something different on Amazon.
Full-channel management connects media planning with these retail and operational decisions.
How to Build a Full-Funnel Amazon Strategy
A full-funnel Amazon strategy helps guide shoppers from awareness to consideration, conversion, and retention.
The process begins with retail readiness, then connects audiences, channels, creative, budgets, and measurement around one business goal.
1. Start With Retail Readiness
Donโt increase traffic until your product is ready to convert.
Check:
- Inventory, fulfillment, and Buy Box eligibility
- Pricing and promotional readiness
- Titles, bullets, images, video, and A+ Content
- Reviews, ratings, and variation structure
- Brand Store and product-page readiness
- Current conversion rate
In our full-funnel programs, retail readiness is always the first step: expanding reach before fixing stock, Buy Box, content, pricing, and conversion issues usually increases spend without driving profitable growth.
2. Define the Audience and Goal
Choose one main business goal before selecting channels.
Possible goals include:
- Launching a new product
- Reaching new-to-brand shoppers
- Increasing branded searches
- Building category awareness
- Retargeting product viewers
- Improving conversion
- Driving repeat purchases
- Supporting a seasonal event
โGrow salesโ is too broad. Your goal should be specific enough to guide choices about audience, channel, budget, and measurement.
A new product might need video and influencer campaigns before search ads can capture demand. A mature product with strong traffic but low conversion might need better content instead of more media.
3. Match Channels to Funnel Stages
| Funnel stage | Main goal | Suitable channels |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness | Introduce the brand or product | Streaming TV, Prime Video, online video, audio, DSP, influencers, paid social |
| Consideration | Educate and build preference | Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, DSP, Brand Stores, Amazon Live, Google, creator content |
| Conversion | Capture purchase intent | Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, retargeting, coupons, promotions |
| Retention | Encourage repeat purchases | DSP re-engagement, email where allowed, Subscribe & Save, tailored promotions |
Awareness channels introduce the product before the shopper starts actively searching. Consideration channels explain the product and build preference for it. Conversion campaigns capture stronger purchase intent, while retention campaigns encourage repeat or complementary purchases.
Your channel mix should follow the customer journey. For example, streaming TV can introduce your brand, Sponsored Brands can support research, Sponsored Products can capture demand, and DSP can re-engage shoppers later.
Use Amazon Live to support demonstrations during the consideration stage, and review Amazon customer retention when planning the post-purchase stage.
4. Keep the Message Connected
Each channel should communicate the same central value proposition.
A streaming TV ad may introduce the problem. An influencer video may demonstrate the product. A Sponsored Brands ad may reinforce the key benefit. The product page should then provide the details and proof needed to convert.
The format may change, but your message should stay connected throughout the customer journey.
5. Allocate Budget by Goal
Donโt split your budget equally across channels. Allocate it based on your campaign goal, margin, category competition, audience size, brand awareness, product maturity, creative resources, retail readiness, and measurement tools.
New brands may need to focus more on awareness, while established brands might invest more in consideration, retargeting, and conversion. Set aside a testing budget for new audiences, creatives, formats, and destinations before scaling up.
6. Optimize the Full System
Lower-funnel campaigns usually deliver the highest direct ROAS because they target shoppers who are almost ready to buy.
But that doesnโt mean upper-funnel campaigns arenโt effective.
Video or DSP campaigns may increase branded searches, build retargeting audiences, or introduce customers who later convert through Sponsored Products.
Amazon Ads reports that combining DSP display with video produced a 2.2 times greater brand-awareness lift than video alone in one cited analysis. Amazon also reported that adding streaming TV to Prime Video campaigns was associated with a 102% increase in branded search in a 2024 internal study.
Measure how your channels support each other, not just which campaign got the final click.
Common Full-Funnel Mistakes to Avoid
A connected strategy can still fail when media expands faster than the brandโs ability to operate and measure it. Avoid these common mistakes:
- Scaling upper-funnel media before inventory, Buy Box, pricing, and listing readiness are stable.
- Using the same creative message and performance target at every funnel stage.
- Optimizing each channel separately around last-click ROAS.
- Sending every external audience to the same Amazon destination, regardless of intent.
- Adding more formats before the team can measure incrementality, contribution margin, and total business impact.
This addresses the competitor gap without adding generic marketing theory.
How to Measure Amazon Cross-Channel Performance
No single report shows the complete customer journey.
Brands should combine campaign data, cross-channel measurement tools, and business results to see which channels are driving growth.
Amazon Ads Reporting
Amazon Ads reporting provides impressions, clicks, spend, orders, sales, conversion rate, ACoS, ROAS, and available new-to-brand metrics.
Itโs useful for optimizing campaigns, but it doesnโt show every external or earlier touchpoint that influenced the sale.
Amazon Attribution
Amazon Attribution measures how eligible off-Amazon search, social, display, video, email, affiliate, and influencer activity affects Amazon engagement and sales.
Attribution tags can compare campaigns, publishers, creative, and landing destinations.
Amazon Marketing Cloud
Amazon Marketing Cloud provides privacy-safe, aggregated advertising insights that help eligible advertisers analyze audiences, media exposure, and customer journeys.
Eligible advertisers can use AMC to study conversion paths, audience overlap, frequency, exposure patterns, new-to-brand journeys, and interactions between Sponsored Ads and DSP.
Conversion-path reporting can also show how Sponsored Ads and Amazon DSP exposures combine across common paths to conversion.
Omnichannel Metrics
Omnichannel Metrics helps eligible advertisers assess how Amazon Ads influence sales both on Amazon and beyond it.
It is particularly relevant to streaming TV, online video, audio, and display campaigns.
Access and methods vary by advertiser, category, account, and marketplace. Check your eligibility before adding OCM to your measurement plan.
Use Metrics That Match the Funnel
| Funnel stage | Useful metrics |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Reach, frequency, video completion, branded-search growth |
| Consideration | Detail-page views, Store visits, engagement, audience growth |
| Conversion | Sales, conversion rate, ACoS, ROAS |
| Growth quality | New-to-brand sales, repeat purchases, TACoS |
| Business impact | Incremental sales, contribution margin, total revenue impact |
Donโt judge every channel by the same short-term ROAS target. Measure each one based on the role itโs meant to play.
Amazon Channel Strategy: Manage It Internally or Use a Partner?
Managing channels internally works best when the mix, marketplace coverage, creative needs, and reporting are simple.
A partner is more helpful when your brand needs to coordinate Sponsored Ads, DSP, external media, retail operations, and advanced measurement.
Internal Management May Work When
An internal approach may be suitable when:
- The brand uses only a few ad formats
- Advertising spend is limited
- The team has Amazon Ads experience
- Creative needs are manageable
- Reporting is simple
- The brand operates in one marketplace
- Retail and advertising teams work closely together
The main advantage is having direct control. The challenge is maintaining current expertise across PPC, DSP, creative, analytics, retail operations, and off-Amazon marketing.
A Partner May Be Useful When
External support may be more practical when:
- Sponsored Ads, DSP, and off-Amazon media must work together
- The brand operates across several marketplaces
- AMC or advanced measurement is needed
- Different teams or agencies control parts of the funnel
- Creative production slows campaign launches
- Retail and advertising data are disconnected
- Budgets need to be coordinated across formats
- Leadership needs one clear performance view
What to Look for in an Amazon Full-Channel Partner
Evaluate whether the partner can support:
- Seller Central and Vendor Central
- Sponsored Ads
- Amazon DSP
- Amazon Marketing Cloud
- Marketplace strategy
- Listing and Store optimization
- Creative production
- Inventory and retail operations
- US and international marketplaces
- Profit-focused reporting
The right partner will connect media decisions to retail performance and your overall business goals.
SalesDuo provides Amazon full-channel management across advertising, retail operations, listing content, creative, analytics, and marketplace strategy.
Build a Connected Amazon Growth Strategy
Amazon full-funnel marketing works best when every channel has a clear role. Begin with retail readiness, set a measurable goal, match channels to the right funnel stage, and consider their combined effect rather than just the final click.
Connecting Sponsored Ads, DSP, video, off-Amazon traffic, retail operations, and analytics helps brands make better budget decisions and build more sustainable Amazon growth.
Book a 1:1 growth call with SalesDuo.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Amazon XCM?
Amazon XCM usually refers to Amazonโs Cross-Channel, Cross-Category Marketing organization. For sellers and advertisers, Amazon cross-channel marketing means coordinating Amazon Ads and external channels across the customer journey.
What Is Amazon Full-Funnel Advertising?
Amazon full-funnel advertising uses different ad formats to reach shoppers during awareness, consideration, conversion, and retention. It may combine Sponsored Ads, Amazon DSP, display, video, streaming TV, audio, and off-Amazon marketing.
What Amazon Channels Can I Advertise On?
Amazon advertising channels include Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, Amazon DSP, online video, streaming TV, Prime Video, audio, Amazon Live, Brand Stores, and eligible off-Amazon media.
How Is Amazon Cross-Channel Performance Measured?
Brands can combine Amazon Ads reporting, Amazon Attribution, Amazon Marketing Cloud, Omnichannel Metrics, conversion-path reporting, and business-level profitability data.
About the Author
Badal Tharayil is a master of customer success, turning first impressions into lasting partnerships. Known for proactive communication and flawless onboarding, heโs the bridge between client satisfaction and operational excellence. Outside work, Badal loves exploring cinema, expressing himself on the dance floor, and staying energized through fitness pursuits.
