📢 Ad Type Touchpoints

Dashboard link: https://app.emax-digital.com/ad-type-touchpoints-beta

> Beta: This dashboard is currently in beta. Metric definitions and visualisations may change as the report matures.

Overview

The Ad Type Touchpoints dashboard uses Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) data to show how each ad type contributes along the path to purchase — not just as the last click before a sale, but at every touchpoint that influenced it. For each ad type (Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, DSP, etc.), the dashboard splits its contribution into three roles:

• First Touch — the ad type was the first exposure a converting shopper had.

• Assist — the ad type appeared somewhere in the middle of the path, between first and last exposure.

• Last Touch — the ad type was the final exposure before the purchase.

By measuring unique users, total purchases, and new-to-brand purchases under each role, the dashboard moves you beyond last-click attribution and reveals which ad types are doing the introducing, the nurturing, and the closing. This is essential for justifying upper-funnel investment (which often gets undervalued by last-click reporting) and for balancing your ad mix across the funnel.

This dashboard requires an active Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) integration.

What You Can See on This Dashboard

The dashboard is organised in three parallel blocks: Unique Users, Purchases, and New-to-Brand Purchases. Each block has the same structure — a bar chart for visual comparison and a table with absolute numbers and role shares.

Section 1 — Unique Users by Ad Type and Role

How many unique shoppers did each ad type help convert, and in which role?

This block answers the audience question: regardless of how many purchases followed, how many people did each ad type touch on the way to a conversion?

Key metrics:

• First Touch Unique Users — distinct converting users for whom this ad type was the first exposure.

• Assist Unique Users — distinct converting users for whom this ad type appeared between the first and last exposure.

• Last Touch Unique Users — distinct converting users for whom this ad type was the final exposure before purchase.

• Unique Users Any Role — distinct converting users who saw this ad type at any point on their path. Note: this is not the sum of the three roles above, because the same user can appear in more than one role (e.g. they saw Sponsored Products both first and last).

• First Touch / Assist / Last Touch / Any Role Share — each ad type's share of the total across all ad types, for that role.

Visualizations:

• Bar chart comparing First Touch, Assist, Last Touch, and Any Role unique users side by side for each ad type.

• Table with all four absolute values and their corresponding share percentages.

Section 2 — Purchases by Ad Type and Role

How many purchases did each ad type help drive, and in which role?

The same role-based breakdown as Section 1, but counting purchase events rather than unique users. A single user buying twice contributes two purchases here.

Key metrics:

• First Touch Total Purchases — purchases where this ad type was the first exposure on the path.

• Assist Total Purchases — purchases where this ad type was a middle exposure.

• Last Touch Total Purchases — purchases where this ad type was the final exposure.

• Purchases Any Role — total purchases where this ad type appeared anywhere on the path.

• First Touch / Assist / Last Touch / Any Role Share — each ad type's share across all ad types, for that role.

Visualizations:

• Bar chart of First Touch, Assist, Last Touch, and Any Role purchases per ad type.

• Table with absolute purchase counts and share percentages per role.

Section 3 — New-to-Brand Purchases by Ad Type and Role

How many new-to-brand purchases did each ad type help drive, and in which role?

The same role-based view, restricted to new-to-brand (NTB) purchases — purchases made by customers who have not bought from your brand on Amazon within the prior 12 months. This is the cleanest measure of acquisition contribution by ad type.

Key metrics:

• First Touch NTB Purchases — new-to-brand purchases where this ad type was the first exposure.

• Assist NTB Purchases — new-to-brand purchases where this ad type was a middle exposure.

• Last Touch NTB Purchases — new-to-brand purchases where this ad type was the final exposure.

• NTB Purchases Any Role — new-to-brand purchases where this ad type appeared anywhere on the path.

• Role Shares — each ad type's share across all ad types, per role.

Visualizations:

• Bar chart of First Touch, Assist, Last Touch, and Any Role NTB purchases per ad type.

• Table with absolute NTB purchase counts and share percentages per role.

Available Filters

Filter interaction notes

• Report Date is required. You must pick a reporting period for the dashboard to load.

• The dashboard shows results for one marketplace and one reporting period at a time. To compare marketplaces or trend over time, run the dashboard once per combination and compare outputs externally.

Use Cases

1 — Justify upper-funnel ad spend

Last-click reports often make Sponsored Display and DSP look weak because they rarely close the sale.

• Open Section 1 and compare each ad type's First Touch Share to its Last Touch Share.

• If DSP or Sponsored Display has a much larger First Touch share than Last Touch share, those ad types are introducing shoppers to your brand — pulling them in for Sponsored Products to close.

• Use this evidence to defend upper-funnel budget in planning discussions instead of letting last-click reallocations defund it.

2 — Identify ad types that primarily close (vs. open)

• In Section 2 (Purchases), rank ad types by Last Touch Share vs. First Touch Share.

• Ad types with a high Last Touch Share but a low First Touch Share are closers — typically branded Sponsored Products. Don't cut them, but don't expect them to grow the funnel either.

• Ad types with high First Touch Share are openers — protect these for new-customer flow.

3 — Measure true new customer acquisition by channel

• Use Section 3 (NTB Purchases) and focus on First Touch NTB Purchases per ad type.

• The ad type with the highest First Touch NTB count is your most effective top-of-funnel acquisition channel.

• Compare this against the same ad type's spend (from another dashboard) to assess cost-per-NTB acquisition efficiency.

4 — Spot under-recognised "assist" ad types

• In any of the three sections, look at the Assist Share column.

• Ad types with high Assist Share but low First/Last Touch Share are doing critical mid-funnel work that single-touch attribution misses entirely.

• Use this to decide whether to keep ad types running even when their direct attributed sales look small.

5 — Compare full path involvement across ad types

• Use the Any Role Share column to see which ad types touch the broadest share of converting paths overall.

• An ad type with a very high Any Role Share is omnipresent on conversion paths — it likely contributes to most sales even if it rarely gets sole credit.

Limitations & Notes

• Beta dashboard. Metric definitions, visualisations, and filter behaviour may change. Please flag any anomalies to your emax digital account manager.

• 14-day data lag. Data is fetched 14 days after the reporting period closes to allow Amazon's 14-day attribution window to complete.

• Roles are not mutually exclusive at the user level. A single user can be counted in multiple roles — for example, if they saw Sponsored Products first and last, they appear in both First Touch and Last Touch unique-user counts for that ad type. This is why Any Role is not the sum of First + Assist + Last.

• Paths with only one exposure are classified as Last Touch (or First Touch — [VERIFY] with your emax digital account manager which convention this dashboard uses). They do not generate Assist counts because there is no middle exposure.

• Single reporting period only. The dashboard shows one Report Date at a time; there is no built-in trend chart. For time-series analysis, export and compare across periods.

• Single marketplace at a time. Cross-marketplace comparison must be done by switching the filter and comparing outputs.

• New-to-brand definition follows Amazon's standard: a customer is "new to brand" if they have not purchased from your brand on Amazon in the previous 12 months.

• AMC privacy thresholds. Ad types or role combinations with very small user counts may be suppressed or shown as zero due to AMC's data anonymisation requirements. This most often affects niche or low-spend ad types.

• AMC integration required. This dashboard requires an active AMC connection. Contact your emax digital account manager if data is missing.

• Ad type coverage. Only ad types with measurable impressions in the selected period and marketplace appear in the report. If a campaign type wasn't running, it will not be listed.

Data Refresh

Data updates daily, with a 14-day lag after each reporting period ends.