Amazon Attribution: Measure External Traffic to Amazon for Free

More budget for Instagram or for the influencer? KAVELTO sells yoga mats and fitness accessories on amazon.de. The brand pays for Google search ads and Instagram ads, sends a newsletter and works with a fitness influencer who has an Amazon link in her bio. Sales are going up. Which channel brings the buyers is unclear. The next budget decision comes down to gut feeling.

Amazon Attribution shows which clicks from outside Amazon led to product page views, add-to-carts and purchases on Amazon. The tool is free, in Germany too. You reach it through Amazon Ads Agent or through a tool connected to the Amazon Ads API.

This article covers who can use Attribution, how to set up tags for external traffic, what the numbers mean and where their limits are.

What is Amazon Attribution?

Amazon Attribution records clicks from search ads, social media, display and video ads, emails, affiliate and influencer links, and organic posts as well. It doesn’t run any ads itself. It counts what happens on Amazon after those clicks.

A tag makes the connection: a link with tracking parameters that points to a product detail page or a page of your Brand Store. KAVELTO, for example, puts such a link into its newsletter. When a reader clicks it, Amazon assigns the visit and the purchases that follow to that tag.

Three things are left out. Ads on Amazon itself, such as Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands, have their own reports. Links without a tag don’t count. Neither do views: someone who only sees the Instagram ad and later searches Amazon directly for the yoga mat doesn’t show up in Attribution.

In Amazon’s API documentation, Attribution is still officially listed as a beta.

Who can use Amazon Attribution in Germany?

Amazon names these groups:

• Sellers on the Professional selling plan who are enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry
• Vendors
• KDP authors
• Agencies working for these clients

Germany is included, as are the large EU marketplaces such as France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, plus the UK. The country lists on Amazon’s pages vary in length, but Germany is on all of them. Sellers without Brand Registry can’t use Attribution; an Amazon moderator in the German Seller Forums confirms this too. The English product page also adds “who use sponsored ads”. Amazon doesn’t say clearly whether that is a requirement.

You can reach Attribution in two ways: in Amazon Ads Agent, which has been the name of Amazon’s advertising platform for Sponsored Ads and Amazon DSP since September 29, 2026, or through a tool connected to the Amazon Ads API.

KAVELTO meets the requirements: the brand is a seller with a Professional plan and Brand Registry.

How to set up Amazon Attribution, step by step

We did not walk through the steps for creating an Attribution campaign in the console. The steps follow Amazon’s product page and Amazon’s guide to the Attribution API. Where we know the English labels, we give them.

1. Sign up: Start on Amazon’s Amazon Attribution page. Once you’re signed up, you’ll find Attribution in the ad console under “Measurement and reporting”. The entry is marked “Beta” there.
2. Create a campaign in Attribution: Group the tags of one promotion into a campaign, for example “Spring yoga mats”.
3. Create one tag per channel: For each channel, enter its own tag as the destination in the external ad, the newsletter or the bio.
4. Remove old parameters: If the link already contains a ref_ or tag parameter, for example from an affiliate link, delete it. Otherwise the Attribution tag won’t work.
5. Check the landing page: The link must lead to a product detail page or a Brand Store page. For a detail page, Amazon attributes the product and its variations; for a Store page, the products shown on it.
6. Watch out for dynamic Store modules: Modules such as “Best selling” or “Recommended for you” choose their products themselves. Attribution doesn’t attribute these products automatically. Place the ASINs you want to measure directly on the Store page.
7. Invite colleagues: You grant access for the whole ad account under “Administration” → “Account access and settings”.

Tags for Google, Meta and other channels

Some ad networks have macro tags. They fill in campaign, ad group and ad IDs automatically. That way, the report shows which campaign or which keyword brought the purchases. Without a macro, you only see the source of the click, such as the newsletter.

KAVELTO creates four tags: Google, Instagram, newsletter and a separate one for the influencer. This keeps purchases from the bio link apart from those from the newsletter in the report.

A keyword and creative report is only available for Google search campaigns created through a bulk operation.

What data does Amazon Attribution show?

Metrics

Attribution shows these metrics:

• Clicks
• Detail page views (DPV) and DPV rate
• Add to cart (ATC) and ATC rate
• Purchases and purchase rate
• Units sold
• Product sales (revenue)
• New-to-brand customers: buyers who bought nothing from your brand in the previous twelve months

Not every purchase is for the promoted product. Amazon distinguishes “Promoted”, meaning purchases of that product, from “Brand Halo”, meaning purchases of other products from the same brand. If someone clicks on the yoga mat and also buys a KAVELTO yoga block, the block counts as Brand Halo.

KAVELTO compares the purchases with the costs from each channel’s billing and works out the cost per purchase itself. A month might look like this:

Made-up example figures.

Instagram wins on clicks. But only 1 in 100 visitors buys, while with the influencer it’s 1 in 10. That puts Instagram last on purchases per click. For the budget, what counts is the cost of a purchase.

Reports

In the console, you see the numbers in the “Campaigns” and “Ad groups” tables and can export them. The other tabs are “Channels/Publishers” and “Attribution tags”. We did not find separate reports in the interface (as of October 2026).

Through the API, there are three reports:

• Performance report: clicks, purchases and revenue per campaign, ad group or ad
• Keyword and creative report: for Google search campaigns created through a bulk operation
• Product report: the promoted products and the Brand Halo products

In the API, the performance report goes back 13 months and the product report 90 days. Amazon Marketing Stream only delivers data on Sponsored Ads and Amazon DSP, no Attribution data.

14 days, last click: how Amazon attributes purchases

Attribution has a 14-day attribution window and counts only clicks. If there are several clicks on tags within those 14 days, the last one gets the whole purchase.

An example at KAVELTO:

• Monday: A customer clicks an Instagram ad and looks at the yoga mat.
• Thursday: She clicks the same product in the newsletter.
• Saturday: She buys.

The newsletter gets 100% of the purchase. Instagram gets nothing, even though the ad brought the customer to the yoga mat first. This is how the last-click model underrates the first touch. So don’t cut a channel based on Attribution numbers alone.

If the customer clicks an Amazon ad or an untagged link in between, Attribution doesn’t count that click. It doesn’t compete for the purchase there either. After a click on an Amazon ad, the same purchase can therefore show up in Attribution and in the Sponsored Products report. If you add both numbers together, you count it twice.

The 14 days apply to external clicks. Sponsored Products have their own windows: 7 days for sellers, 14 days for vendors and authors.

On January 1, 2026, Amazon changed view attribution for DSP ads in the Amazon store and for Sponsored Brands and display ads with vCPM. Since Attribution only counts clicks, this change doesn’t affect Attribution.

Limits and common mistakes

• Delay: Clicked today doesn’t mean in the report today: clicks appear after up to 24 hours, purchases after up to 48 hours. After 1, 7 and 28 days, Amazon corrects the numbers again, for example for returns and refunds. Judge a promotion after a week at the earliest.
• Small numbers are hidden: Amazon shows rows with fewer than 10 clicks over their whole lifetime as 0. A separate tag for every influencer post can fill the report with empty rows. Better to pool the clicks on a few tags.
• Clicks only: A TV spot or a billboard without a link isn’t measured.
• The destination must be on Amazon: A tag that leads to your own online store counts nothing.
• Old parameters: A ref_ or tag parameter in the link overrides the tag.
• Unique campaigns: Use campaign IDs for one account and one marketplace only. If you advertise on amazon.de and amazon.fr, create separate campaigns in Google or Meta.

What to do with the data

After three months, KAVELTO moves budget from broad Instagram ads to the influencer. The newsletter stays: no other channel brings the brand purchases this cheaply.

For the next promotion:

• Test landing pages: Two tags for the same ad, one pointing to the product detail page, one to the Brand Store. That shows you which page sells better.
• Re-engage clickers: Amazon recommends reaching people who clicked a tag again later with display ads.
• Watch new customers: Does the Instagram ad bring new buyers, or does it mainly reach existing customers? The new-to-brand metric shows you.
• Compare social media: If you try out new platforms, such as TikTok for Amazon Ads, measure them with a separate tag against your existing channels.

Conclusion: how to get started with Amazon Attribution

• Brand Registry first: Without Brand Registry, sellers can’t use Attribution.
• One tag per channel, not per post: otherwise the clicks disappear below the threshold of 10.
• Compare cost per purchase: after a week at the earliest, and not the clicks.
• Remember the last click: channels that bring the first touch look worse than they are.
• Save your reports: Download scheduled Attribution reports on the old reporting page before December 17, 2026.
• Brand Referral Bonus: only relevant if you sell in the US store.

Frequently asked questions about Amazon Attribution

What is Amazon Attribution?

A free Amazon measurement tool for marketing outside Amazon. It shows which clicks on tagged links led to product page views, add-to-carts and purchases on Amazon.

Is Amazon Attribution free?

Yes. Amazon calls Attribution a free measurement solution. You only pay for your external ads.

Is Amazon Attribution available in Germany?

Yes. Germany is on all of Amazon’s country lists, together with the large EU marketplaces.

Do I need Brand Registry?

As a seller, yes: you need the Professional plan and enrollment in Brand Registry. Vendors and KDP authors can use Attribution without Brand Registry.

How long is the attribution window?

14 days after the click. If there are several clicks on tags, the last one gets the whole purchase.

Does Amazon Attribution also measure Sponsored Products?

No. Attribution doesn’t count clicks on Amazon ads. Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and display ads have their own reports.

Which channels can I measure with Amazon Attribution?

Anything with a link: search ads, social media, display and video ads, emails, affiliate and influencer links, and organic posts. There are macro tags for Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta and Pinterest.

Is the Brand Referral Bonus available in Germany?

No. As of October 2026, it’s only available in the US store. We found no date for amazon.de.