unBoxed is Amazon Ads’ annual conference that brings together large advertisers, tech providers, agencies, and a variety of folks from Amazon itself. The focus was clear: scaling capabilities around streaming and enhancing management and measurement through AMC. This empowers advertisers to drive results across the entire funnel, with the tools to measure and optimize effectively. Read on for key takeaways, notable product launches with context, an overview of Flywheel’s presence at the event, and what all of this means for brands.
Amazon's continued investment in AMC demonstrates their commitment to helping advertisers understand the impact of their media investments across the full funnel. As one of the earliest and largest AMC users, Flywheel continues to partner with Amazon on testing these features, and highlighted on stage how Amazon is now providing more actionability for AMC audiences beyond ADSP, allowing advertisers to use custom audiences for Sponsored Products and Brands as well. In one test, using AMC custom audiences increased conversion rate by 13%.
Flywheel Takeaway: Digging into AMC is not an option, it’s a necessity. To keep up with competition and elevate your advertising effectiveness and measurement game in a landscape where the funnel is collapsing, AMC should be deeply woven into your Amazon strategy and beyond. Custom audiences for use across the funnel provide control over “who” your ads are served to like never before, and deterministic measurement is possible within the Amazon ecosystem.
Amazon unveiled major expansions in upper-funnel advertising with Streaming TV, Prime Video, and enhanced ADSP capabilities in their dedicated entertainment keynote. Prime Video ads now span five new regions—Brazil, India, Japan, the Netherlands, and New Zealand—along with exclusive NBA (2025) and WNBA (2026) rights, offering brands broader reach. Shoppable ads let viewers add products during streaming, connecting advertising with shopping.
The redesigned ADSP interface in the Ads Console now features Performance+, which uses AI to automate audience creation and optimization. This improves advertisers' ability to connect with customers from awareness to conversion, even if actions are taken outside of Amazon.
Flywheel Takeaway: The combined power of Prime Video, shoppable ads, AI-driven ADSP, and AMC/APC measurement creates a powerful mix of scale and deterministic outcomes. This marks Amazon's ongoing strategy to scale both inventory and actionable measurement tools. With more levers available than ever, brands should lean in early to enjoy early mover advantages before these capabilities become standard in the market.
Broadening the narrative to CTV: Publishers want to provide the addressable audiences & insights from those audiences that the advertisers are looking for, and advertisers want to advertise to these audiences in a measurable way. The layering of AMC insights with APC data will help inform more addressable and relevant CTV buys (ie. beyond the Prime Video space). High-quality CTV buys should be about more than just impressions, and AMC data and audiences provide a way to measurably connect the dots that advertisers and publishers have struggled to connect throughout the history of TV advertising.
Amazon unveiled new AI-powered creative tools to help advertisers quickly generate and optimize ad content across video, audio, and display formats. The AI Creative Studio allows for real-time creative adjustments, providing a flexible canvas for brands to adapt campaigns efficiently.
Flywheel Takeaway: It’s promising to see Amazon leaning into AI to enhance creative strategies, much like what we are already doing at Flywheel. While AI can boost efficiency, brands should work to maintain content integrity—especially in regulated industries. As these tools mature, leaning in early can help brands capitalize on new capabilities, but balancing efficiency with brand safety is key. Sellers are bound to get savvy with these tools, so it’s important to get ahead of the curve by experimenting and closely monitoring outputs while leaning into the elements of trust that shoppers have already established with the brand in these creatives.
Enhanced AMC measurement solutions such as high value audiences, conversion path reporting, long term sales insights, and multi-touch attribution tie back to Amazon’s heavy emphasis this year on full funnel advertising, and encouraging full funnel advertising means that performance has to be measurable and accessible.
Specific launches:
For the first time, advertisers have the power to use AMC all the way up and all the way down the funnel with the launch of Bid Boosting via AMC Audiences for Sponsored Products & Sponsored Brands.
Specific launches:
Premium STV is where to be: In the Entertainment Keynote, Amazon emphasized the ability for all advertisers to find their audiences within the STV ecosystem, with live sports acting as the great connector between advertisers and relevant audiences. Not only does Amazon provide a source of premium STV inventory, but the layering of AMC Audiences to inform STV campaigns and then measure them opens the door to effective upper funnel advertising like never before within the Amazon ecosystem.
Additionally, APC & AMC are informing higher quality CTV buys: The Amazon Publisher Cloud, announced last year at unBoxed, has been a game-changer for brands looking for more effective programmatic buys because of the ability for publishers to overlay their signals with Amazon to create more addressable inventory for advertisers. With the prominence of CTV and now the ability for AMC audiences to be layered in to further inform APC deals purchased through the Amazon DSP, brands have an opportunity like never before to buy higher quality inventory and therefor market to more relevant audiences and publishers further open up the audiences they can reach – a win/win for both.
Specific launches:
Beyond being a Diamond Sponsor for this year’s event, Flywheel’s industry-leading work was featured within keynotes and breakout sessions – showcasing our innovative partnerships with both Amazon and brands.
Flywheel & OMG’s worked with Clorox and Amazon to pilot a test focused on campaign overlap measurement between NBCU and Amazon/Omni audiences using the Amazon Publisher Cloud. This test resulted in 3X higher reach, 58% cost savings for the brand, and 264% uplift of on impressions.
As an early beta tester of bid multipliers for Sposored Products, Gabe Fishbein, VP Product discussed the excitement of AMC audiences being used across the funnel, and highlighted that we recommend brands have clear goals before boosting bids and seeing how it goes. From our testing, we found that remarketing to viewers of ADSP campaigns was the most effective use of this new tool – but the testing never ends.
With a good portion of product launches relating to AMC and measurement, Donte McCrary-McClain, VP Amazon Media talked to a full crowd to break down what we expect to see with each launch – further emphasizing the excitement of AMC’s continuously expanding use cases, Amazon’s big bet on AMC, and the power of AMC down the funnel.
This session explored key industry trends driving the need for more sophisticated audience marketing and measurement powered by first-party data collaboration between advertisers and publishers. It additionally outlined how Amazon Ads is enabling closer collaboration through secure and innovative products and services like Amazon Marketing Cloud and Amazon Publisher Cloud, with Flywheel’s COO Christine Gambino sitting on the panel discussion.
A common question that brands ask is “How much do I allocate to brand building versus performance?” Amazon’s Analytics & Insights team collaborated with Flywheel to develop an “Impression Tipping Point” methodology. The goal was to help advertisers maximize return on ad spend by identifying the optimal spend level around a point where KPIs spike but below the plateau of diminishing returns.
Of the 150 brands we studied in 2023 using this methodology, over 80% of the advertisers who adopted our recommendations saw improved return on ad spend.
The approach has since evolved to focus on holistic brand metrics and customized recommendations based on an advertiser's objectives and business characteristics. Amazon’s goal is to expand the use of this “Impression Tipping Point” analysis to more Amazon Ads customers, allowing brands and partners to maximize the impact of their ad investment while minimizing waste.
Last but certainly not least, Flywheel took home two partner awards related to measurement and creative:
Creative Effectiveness: Flywheel helped ZOA Energy raise awareness and attract new customers with a compelling brand story by scaling upper funnel tactics while maintaining efficiency. Key results:
Challenger: Flywheel’s full funnel strategy helped reach new audiences and attract new-to-brand customers for Megababe Beauty. Key results:
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