How to access Amazon Ads historical data?

Understanding Amazon ads Historical data & why does it matter?

How many times have you come across this situation? Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that Amazon deletes historical data from its Advertising Console after just two months. So if you want to look at day-by-day data from three months ago, you won’t be able to access it.

This limitation makes it hard for brands to make the right decisions. 

Access to Amazon ads Historical Data is crucial for understanding past performance and planning future strategies. Amazon advertising is all about experimenting and learning from previous campaigns. And “data harvesting” or availability of data for longer durations is a crucial (and less talked about) component of Ad operations. Managing profitable Amazon PPC campaigns requires continuous, data-driven optimization and decision-making. 

Limited data availability is a real challenge when it comes to time series and long-term data analysis, such as year-over-year comparisons for Amazon ad campaigns. To help you maximize the potential of your advertising campaigns, we’ll discuss the challenges in accessing Amazon Historical Data and explore different methods to access Amazon historical data. 

What's the Amazon lookback window for different advertising reports?

Understanding the look-back window for different advertising reports is crucial when accessing Amazon Historical Data. The look-back window refers to the maximum time frame for which Amazon retains and provides access to specific advertising data through various platforms like the Amazon Ads Console, APIs, and third-party software solutions.

Let us break down the look-back periods for different advertising reports across these platforms 

1. Amazon Ads Console

The Amazon Ads Console is the primary platform where advertisers access their campaign data. It also provides multiple reports. Each report has a different lookback period. The difference in look back period in different reports happens because each report is owned by a different advertising team within Amazon. Hence there is non-uniformity in length of data storage

Here’s a breakdown of the look-back windows for different advertising reports:

1. Targeting Report (90 days)

2. Search Term Report (65 days)

3. Advertised Products Report (90 days)

4. Purchased Products Report (60 days)

   
   

   

2. APIs

If you connect to a data warehouse to download your data, Amazon’s APIs can be utilized. Amazon APIs have recently increased their data aggregation period to 95 days (up from 60 days earlier) for Sponsored Products data reports. However, for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display reports, data is still only available for 60 days.

3. Third-party Softwares

Using third-party software for data analytics or ad automation can extend your access to historical data. Most software solutions provide at least 6 months of data lookback.

With Award Winning Amazon Automation Software like Atom11, you can save data up to 1.5 years.

Common Approaches to harvesting Amazon PPC data: 

Now that we know the sources of historical data, it is time to learn how data can be harvested from each of the platforms. 

1. Harvesting Data from Amazon Advertising Console

Process:

Manually download monthly reports from the Amazon Advertising Console. Aggregate reports in a folder for future access.

Pros:

Completely Free: There are no costs associated with downloading reports manually.

Cons:

The process is time-consuming and cumbersome, demanding consistent manual effort to download and store reports before they expire. There’s a significant risk of data loss if not managed diligently, and data fragmentation makes it challenging to consolidate information from multiple reports.

2. Harvesting Data Using APIs

Process:

Automated Data Retrieval via APIs or Data Warehouses which allows you to automatically download reports at specified intervals and store the data in your own data warehouse for unlimited retention.

Pros:

Utilizing APIs allows for automated data harvesting, eliminating the need for manual downloads. This method enables you to store and access extensive historical data, offering greater flexibility and customization in data retrieval.

Cons:

Setting up and maintaining API integrations requires technical expertise and resources. The initial investment can be high, and ongoing maintenance is necessary due to frequent API updates, making it a costly and resource-intensive solution for many brands.

3. Harvesting Data Using Software Solutions

Method: Utilizing Third-Party Software for Automation and Analytics

Process:

Using third party softwares like Atom11 for automation and analysis, helps you automatically harvests, stores, and consolidates data

Pros:

Software solutions offer an easy-to-use, automated approach to data harvesting. They provide extended data retention beyond Amazon’s standard look-back periods, often up to one year or more. These tools consolidate data from various reports seamlessly and include user-friendly interfaces with advanced analytics, saving time and resources compared to manual methods.

Cons:

This method may involve subscription fees or licensing costs, which can add up over time. Dependence on third-party providers means you need to ensure they comply with data protection regulations and that your data remains secure and accessible.

With Amazon ad automation software, atom11, you can save data up to 1 year. 

Comparison between harvesting data using Amazon Ad Console Vs API Vs Third party Software

How atom11 helps you look back into Amazon data and make better decisions: 

Atom11 helps you harvest data up to 1 year back. Hence, serving as a perfect co-pilot in helping you drive decisions for advertising. 

This helps you in following ways: 

1. Automated data harvesting: Atom11 automatically retrieves data from APIs, saves it in its database, combines it with multiple reports and allows you to visualize the same on its dashboard. No efforts required. 

2. Unified data: Bringing multiple reports together means that you do not have to do the grunt work of combining reports using vlookups. Saves time and resources

3. Better data comparison: Having up to 1 year of data means you can make comparisons, observe trends, benchmark performance and make better decisions. 

Simplifying next steps after data harvesting: 

With atom11, you can expect insights along with data. We provide recommendations basis long term and short term data. You can use search term performance data to identify harvesting and negating opportunities. You can use data to figure out experiments done over time and their results. 

If you are interested in getting more control over your data, using that data to get insights and driving actions, book a call with us here. 

About atom11: 

Atom11 is an Amazon PPC automation software. We bring retail data from seller central and advertising data from Ad console together to provide better insights and actionability.

Get in touch with us or Book a demo today to set up table stakes automations like bid and budget automations, but also combine inventory data with ads and set up automations around the same.