For years, Amazon advertising has been a double-edged sword for sellers. On one hand, the platform delivers unmatched buyer intent and scale. On the other, reporting has remained frustratingly limited, showing only surface-level metrics like clicks, spend, and sales while hiding the real story of how shoppers move from discovery to purchase. This lack of visibility forced brands to rely on guesswork, third-party tools, and disconnected spreadsheets to understand what was actually driving performance.
That situation is finally changing. With Amazon’s latest reporting upgrade across Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display, advertisers now have access to deeper funnel data, clearer attribution, and more flexible performance analysis. This update marks a major shift in how Amazon PPC can be optimized in 2026, transforming advertising from simple last-click optimization into full-funnel growth strategy.
Why Amazon Ads Reporting Was Holding Sellers Back
Until recently, Amazon’s reporting focused almost entirely on last-click attribution. If a shopper saw multiple ads before purchasing, only the final ad interaction received credit. This meant that awareness and consideration campaigns, especially Sponsored Display and Sponsored Brands Video, often looked unprofitable despite playing a crucial role in influencing the buyer journey. Sellers frequently paused or underfunded these campaigns because the data failed to show their true value.
At the same time, search term reports lacked depth. While they revealed which keywords generated sales, they did not explain how those keywords contributed to brand discovery, repeat visits, or assisted conversions. Placement reports were also fragmented, making it difficult to understand how Top of Search, Product Pages, and off-Amazon placements worked together to drive conversions.
What’s New in the Amazon Ads Reporting Upgrade
Deeper Full-Funnel Visibility
The new reporting system introduces metrics that go beyond simple clicks and orders. Advertisers can now analyze detail page views, add-to-cart actions, view-through conversions, assisted conversions, and new-to-brand performance at a much more granular level. This makes it possible to evaluate campaigns based on their role in the shopper journey, whether they are driving initial awareness, product consideration, or final purchase.
Improved Search Term Attribution
Search term data is now more insightful, showing clearer relationships between customer queries, purchased ASINs, and brand versus non-brand behavior. Sellers can finally see which generic keywords introduce shoppers to the brand and which branded terms close the sale later in the journey. This allows for smarter bidding strategies that reflect intent depth instead of treating all keywords as equal.
Placement and Creative Performance in One View
Amazon has also improved how placements and creatives are reported. Sponsored Brands headlines, images, and videos can now be evaluated alongside placement data, making it easier to understand how messaging performs across Top of Search, Product Pages, and off-Amazon inventory. This unified view helps advertisers identify which creatives drive engagement, which influence consideration, and which actually convert.
How This Update Helps Reduce Amazon PPC Wasted Spend
With richer data, wasted ad spend becomes much easier to diagnose. Keywords with high impressions but low detail page view rates can be identified as relevance issues. Search terms with strong click-through rates but poor add-to-cart performance can be recognized as low-intent traffic. Campaigns that show weak last-click ROAS but strong assisted conversions can be protected and optimized instead of being shut down prematurely.
This enables sellers to separate discovery, consideration, and conversion campaigns and allocate budgets according to each stage’s true business value. Instead of cutting spend blindly to lower ACOS, advertisers can now optimize for profitable growth and long-term customer acquisition.
Impact on Product Launch and Brand Growth Strategy
For new product launches, the new reporting provides early-stage signals that were previously invisible. Sellers can track which keywords and placements are driving product page visits and add-to-cart actions even before consistent sales occur. This helps refine listings, pricing, and creatives faster, shortening the launch learning phase and improving ranking velocity.
From a brand perspective, enhanced new-to-brand reporting reveals which campaigns are actually expanding the customer base rather than only retargeting existing buyers. This is critical for scaling, as true growth comes from acquiring new customers, not just recycling the same audience.
What This Means for Amazon Advertising in 2026
Amazon is clearly moving toward a full retail-media model, where performance is measured across the entire shopper journey and optimized by AI-driven automation. Advanced reporting is the foundation of this shift. Sellers who continue to focus only on ACOS and last-click ROAS will fall behind, while those who embrace funnel-based optimization will gain a competitive edge.
Successful advertisers will use the new data to structure campaigns by intent, align creatives with shopper psychology, and balance short-term profitability with long-term brand growth. Amazon Ads is no longer just a traffic tool; it is becoming a complete growth engine, and its reporting is finally sophisticated enough to support that role.
Final Thoughts
After years of limited visibility, Amazon Ads reporting has finally caught up with the complexity of its advertising ecosystem. Sellers can now see not only what sold, but how customers discovered their products, how they engaged with ads, and which touchpoints influenced their decisions along the way.
This update is more than a technical improvement. It represents a strategic turning point. Amazon Ads reporting has officially leveled up, and the sellers who adapt their optimization strategies to this new level of insight will be the ones who dominate search results, control costs, and scale profitably in 2026 and beyond.
