Amazon Search Term Report Analysis: A Practical Guide

What it contains

The report lists the search terms that triggered your ads, along with impressions, clicks, spend and orders. It differs from your keyword list, because it includes what shoppers searched, not what you targeted. That makes it the best view of real demand.

Download and prepare

Download the report for a sensible date range, such as the last thirty to sixty days, and filter by campaign or product. Sort by spend and orders and add columns for your own notes, such as relevance.

Find winners

Look for terms with orders and healthy efficiency. Consider moving proven terms to manual exact campaigns where you can control bids. Check relevance and whether the term adds new coverage.

• Terms with orders and acceptable ACoS
• High conversion with low impressions
• New relevant long-tail phrases
• Terms useful for listing content

Find waste

Identify terms with significant spend and no orders, and judge relevance. Add irrelevant terms as negatives, and consider lowering bids for relevant but unprofitable ones.

Look for patterns

Group terms by theme to understand what shoppers care about: sizes, uses, materials or competitor brands. These patterns can inform listing content and new products.

Check for cannibalization

See whether the same term appears in several campaigns. If so, decide which campaign should own it and use negatives to prevent overlap.

Record decisions

Keep a log of terms moved, negatives added and bids changed, with dates. This lets you evaluate your decisions later and avoid repeating work.

A worked example

A seller finds that a long-tail phrase describing a specific use case converts well in an automatic campaign. They create a manual exact keyword with a controlled bid and add the phrase to their listing bullets. Sales from that term grow and become more efficient.

Weekly routine

Weekly: download report, sort by spend, review winners and waste, move or negate terms, update the log and note insights for listing content.

Questions to ask of each term

Is the term relevant to my product? Has it had enough data? Where should it live? What bid does it deserve? Does it reveal something about shoppers I should use elsewhere?

Using the report to inform listings and products

Patterns in search terms often reveal unmet needs. If many shoppers search for a feature you do not offer, that may point to a product opportunity. If shoppers use a term you never mention in your listing, consider adding it naturally. If many searches name a competitor, consider whether a defensive strategy is needed.

Share these insights with the product and listing teams. The report is not only an advertising tool but a window into customer language.

Your next three steps

Make the report a weekly habit with a fixed routine.

• Download the last thirty days and sort by spend and orders.
• Move two or three proven terms into controlled exact campaigns.
• Add the clear wasters as negatives and record every change.