Behind the Numbers: An EMARKETER Podcast

Episode: A Blueprint for Better Measurement (Part 2) with Amazon Ads

Date: December 16, 2025

Host: Guy Canava, Principal Retail Analyst, EMARKETER
Guest: Colby Capilouto, Head of Sales for Durables, Amazon Ads

Episode Overview

This episode, the second in a two-part miniseries, explores the future of Amazon Ads Omnichannel Metrics and the evolving landscape of omnichannel measurement for marketers and retailers. Guy Canava (EMARKETER) and Colby Capilouto (Amazon Ads) discuss post-beta innovations, advertiser feedback, integration with direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, omnichannel attribution, and the democratization of creative production through new AI tools. The discussion provides a clear blueprint for how brands can more effectively quantify media investments, optimize campaigns, and address challenges in 2026 and beyond.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Omnichannel Metrics: Moving Out of Beta (01:06 – 03:34)

• Automation and Scale:
  • Amazon’s Omnichannel Metrics has transitioned from a manual, eligibility-checking beta to automated, always-on enrollment for all eligible DSP campaigns.
  • “When eligible, all Amazon Ads campaigns through the DSP are automatically enrolled... So advertisers don’t have to do a thing.” — Colby Capilouto (01:54)
  • This provides advertisers with monthly refreshes, enabling continuous analysis and optimization of product groupings, audience segments, and inventory sources.
• New Innovations for 2026:
  1. Product-Level Reporting: Ability to break out reporting to specific ASINs/products being advertised, moving beyond brand halo metrics.
  2. Retailer-Level Breakout: Planned for H1 2026, brands will soon see sales attribution at individual retailer levels—e.g., specifically tracking the performance at Home Depot or Nordstrom.
     • “How did my ad campaign drive sales specifically in Home Depot?... Those are two real big innovations.” — Colby Capilouto (02:51)

Integrating Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) and Non-Amazon Channels (03:34 – 04:42)

• Ads Data Manager:
  • Brands have had the ability to track on-site conversions and audience insights by tagging their own DTC sites.
  • Advanced advertisers are using conversion APIs to connect online and offline data, tying their own first-party signals to media run through Amazon DSP.
  • Omnichannel Metrics expands measurability to non-Amazon retail signals as well.
  • “That's how we tackle the DTC channel. Omnichannel Metrics is really broadening that scope...” — Colby Capilouto (04:19)

Advertiser Response to Omnichannel Metrics (04:42 – 06:04)

• Positive Feedback:
  • A top customer request since 2022, the expanded view unlocks understanding of media’s impact across the sales landscape, not just Amazon.
  • Integration with Amazon Marketing Cloud allows for both strategic planning and actionable insights.
  • “Now they can essentially turn on the light in the dark room and understand things they've always known to be true, but really actually start to quantify it...” — Colby Capilouto (05:25)
• Real-Time Optimization:
  • Brands can now rapidly adjust strategy based on promos, seasonality, or inventory needs, setting up specific campaigns in the DSP to drive sales through chosen retailers.

Inventory Planning Across Channels (06:04 – 07:03)

• New Paradigm:
  • Amazon Shopping signals can now drive sales at partner retailers (e.g., Home Depot), a concept unimaginable a few years ago.
  • Colby emphasizes the flexibility Amazon now provides brands to drive outcomes “wherever is most beneficial for their business.”

2026 Challenges & Opportunities (07:03 – 09:00)

• Brand Priorities: Efficiency and business growth dominate leadership conversations.
• Measurement and Audience Insights:
  • Brands leverage Amazon Marketing Cloud for high-fidelity measurement, product development, and strategic decisions.
• Future Focus:
  • Omnichannel Metrics will integrate more tightly with Amazon Marketing Cloud, enabling real-time audience creation and actionability—not just reporting.
  • “With every new product feature, there's new use cases and there's new ways to drive efficient business outcomes.” — Colby Capilouto (08:09)
• Customer-Centric Innovation:
  • Amazon consistently “works backwards” from customer needs and iteratively builds new solutions.

Category-Wide Uniformity of Challenges (09:00 – 11:24)

• Unified Hurdles:
  • Across categories, brands face the challenge of “doing more with less”—rethinking media efficiency as budgets shrink.
  • Brands—whether they sell on Amazon or not—are drawn by Amazon’s rich audience segments, DSP capabilities, and data clean room offerings.
  • “Selection and pricing is going to win the day and customers will choose that any day.” — Colby Capilouto (10:04)
• Diverse Advertiser Profiles:
  • Amazon’s ad clients range from CPGs and grocers who sell on Amazon, to financial services, restaurants, travel, and auto brands who don’t—yet all seek similar data-driven insight and efficiency.

Looking Ahead: 2026, Creative Democratization & AI (11:24 – 14:24)

• Three-Pronged Digital Marketing: Inventory, audience, and creative—with creative traditionally being the hardest and most expensive.
• Creative Agent (AI-Powered):
  • Announcement from Unboxed: Amazon has launched Creative Agent, democratizing access to high-quality, AI-generated video, audio, and display ads for all advertisers.
  • Enables brands (even with massive catalogs) to create TV-ready, tailored creative supporting a greater breadth of their products, more efficiently than ever.
  • “We’ve launched Creative Agent where brands can go in, they can create really robust TV-ready video creative…using AI…It allows them to have the breadth to start supporting a lot more of their products.” — Colby Capilouto (12:25)
• Hyper-Personalization:
  • Creative Agent, coupled with deep insights from Amazon Marketing Cloud, empowers brands to create campaigns and assets custom-built for specific audiences and products—bringing real personalization within reach.
  • “They can create very specific audiences to go after and have hyper tailored creative to speak to those customers.” — Colby Capilouto (13:57)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On always-on measurement and optimization:
  • “As soon as there’s eligibility, there’s auto enrollment. And this is awesome because it allows for advertisers to get this on an always on basis.” — Colby Capilouto (01:54)
• On illuminating campaign value:
  • “They can essentially turn on the light in the dark room and understand things they've always known to be true, but really actually start to quantify it.” — Colby Capilouto (05:25)
• On integrating creative, data, and audience:
  • “Making [creative production] easier to transact—actually free for our advertising customers—is going to be a huge unlock.” — Colby Capilouto (13:00)
• On the fundamental brand challenge:
  • “The challenges are pretty uniform across the board...The pie is shrinking. And how do they drive more efficient business outcomes with that?” — Colby Capilouto (09:37)

Timestamps of Key Segments

• 01:06 – How Omnichannel Metrics evolved and what’s new post-beta
• 03:34 – Integrating DTC measurement with Ads Data Manager & Omnichannel Metrics
• 04:42 – Advertiser response to new measurement tools
• 06:04 – How Omnichannel Metrics helps inventory and sales planning
• 07:03 – Challenges for 2026: efficiency, growth, and data-driven optimization
• 09:00 – Uniformity of challenges across categories and types of advertisers
• 11:54 – What’s next: Creative democratization and the launch of Creative Agent
• 13:44 – Hyper-personalization through new AI creative capabilities

Conclusion

The discussion sheds light on how Amazon Ads continues to break ground in omnichannel measurement, moving rapidly from manual tools to automated, actionable analytics, and now into AI-powered creative democratization. The synergy between always-on metrics, customer-centric innovation, and hyper-personalization in creative execution sets a clear path for marketers seeking both efficiency and growth in 2026.