The Amazon Search Term Report shows the real customer search terms that triggered your Amazon sponsored ads and led shoppers to click. Sellers use it to find profitable keywords, reduce wasted ad spend, improve PPC campaigns, and use real shopper language in Amazon listings.
This guide focuses mainly on Amazon sponsored ads reporting, especially Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands search term data. Amazonโs reporting interface and report availability can change, so sellers should always verify the latest report options inside Seller Central or Amazon Ads before making final campaign decisions.
Amazon also lists the Search Term Report and Targeting Report as Sponsored Products reports that advertisers can use to measure and optimize campaign performance. The Search Term Report helps identify top-converting search terms, while the Targeting Report helps show how keyword targeting is performing.
It tells you what shoppers actually typed before clicking your ad. That means you can stop guessing which keywords matter and start making decisions based on real search data.
In this guide, youโll learn:
- What the Amazon Search Term Report is
- How to download the Search Term Report on Amazon
- How to read every key column
- How to analyze profitable and wasteful search terms
- How to use the report for keyword harvesting
- How to add negative keywords
- How it differs from the Targeting Report and Brand Analytics
- What tools or templates can help you analyze it faster
What Is the Amazon Search Term Report?
The Amazon Search Term Report is an advertising report that shows the actual search queries shoppers used before clicking your ads. It helps sellers understand which customer searches are driving traffic and sales, and which drive wasted ad spend.
In most cases, the report focuses on customer search terms that received ad clicks during the selected date range. This is why some high-impression searches may not appear if they did not generate clicks in the report period.
This report is mainly used for Amazon PPC optimization. It is especially useful for Sponsored Products campaigns โ one of several Amazon ad types โ because it shows how shopper searches connect to your campaigns, ad groups, targets, clicks, and sales.
The keyword you target is not always the same as the search term a shopper types.
For example, you may bid on the broad match keyword โinsulated water bottle.โ But shoppers may search for:
- โ32 oz stainless steel water bottleโ
- โleakproof gym bottleโ
- โwater bottle for hiking cold 24 hoursโ
- โkids insulated bottle with strawโ
The Search Term Report shows those real phrases.
This helps you understand how shoppers describe your product, which terms convert, and which searches are not worth your budget.
Why the Amazon Search Term Report Matters
The Amazon Search Term Report matters because it helps sellers turn PPC data into clear actions. You can use it to find winning keywords, block irrelevant searches, improve campaign structure, and support organic listing optimization.
Without this report, sellers often rely too heavily on keyword tools, assumptions, or campaign-level metrics.
Those can help, but they do not show the full picture.
The Search Term Report shows what happens after shoppers search on Amazon and click your ad.
For PPC, it helps you:
- Find profitable customer search terms
- Move winning terms into exact match campaigns
- Add poor search terms as negative keywords
- Reduce wasted spend
- Improve bids and budgets
- Separate discovery campaigns from performance campaigns
- Understand which queries are driving sales
For Amazon SEO, it helps you:
- Find real customer language
- Improve product titles and bullet points
- Add useful terms to backend search fields
- Improve A+ Content with search intent
- Find long-tail keyword opportunities
- Better match your listing to shopper needs
The report is not just a spreadsheet. It is a decision-making tool.
Used correctly, it can help you improve both ad efficiency and product discoverability.
How to Download the Amazon Search Term Report
To download the Amazon Search Term Report, go to Seller Central or Amazon Ads Campaign Manager, open Sponsored Ads Reports, create a new report, choose the campaign type, select Search Term as the report type, set your date range, and download the file.
Amazonโs interface can change over time, so always check the latest path inside your own account before adding screenshots to the blog.
In most accounts, the process follows this flow:
- Log in to Seller Central or Amazon Ads.
- Go to Advertising.
- Open Campaign Manager.
- Find Measurement & Reporting.
- Click Sponsored Ads Reports.
- Select Create Report.
- Choose the campaign type, such as Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands.
- Select Search Term as the report type.
- Choose Summary or Daily as the time unit.
- Set your reporting period.
- Click Run Report.
- Download the file when it is ready.
For most sellers, a 14-day or 30-day report gives better data than a very short date range.
A 7-day report can help with quick checks, but it may not be enough for major decisions if the product has low sales volume or a longer buying cycle.
Should You Choose Summary or Daily?
Use the summary for a quick view of total performance for each search term within your selected date range.
Use Daily when you want to see how search term performance changes day by day.
Daily reports are useful during:
- Product launches
- Prime Day
- Black Friday
- Cyber Monday
- Seasonal campaigns
- New keyword testing
- Budget increases
- Promotional periods
For normal weekly optimization, the summary is usually enough. For deeper trend analysis, Daily gives more context.
How Often Should You Download the Search Term Report?
Download the Search Term Report weekly for active campaigns. For stable campaigns, every two weeks may be enough.
For new launches, high-spend campaigns, or seasonal events, review it more often.
A regular download schedule helps you avoid three common problems:
- Missing profitable keyword opportunities
- Letting the wasteful spending continue for too long
- Losing older search term data
It is also smart to save each report in a master spreadsheet or dashboard. That way, your team can compare performance over time rather than just looking at recent data.
How to Read the Amazon Search Term Report
The easiest way to read the Amazon Search Term Report is to start with the customer search term, then review clicks, spend, orders, sales, ACoS, ROAS, and conversion rate. These metrics indicate whether a search term is useful, wasteful, or worth further testing.
Here is what the most important columns mean:
Do not judge a search term from one metric alone.
A term with high clicks and no sales may be wasteful. But a term with high spend and some sales may still be useful if it has strong margins, repeat purchase value, or strategic ranking potential.
A low-volume term can also be valuable if it converts well.
That is why the report should be read as a full decision tool, not just a list of search terms.
How to Analyze Amazon Search Term Report
To analyze the Amazon Search Term Report, sort by spend first, then review orders, sales, ACoS, ROAS, conversion rate, and relevance. After that, place each search term into one of four groups: winners, potential terms, underperformers, or wasted spend.
This makes the report easier to act on.
Step 1: Sort by Spend
Start by sorting the report from highest spend to lowest spend.
This shows where your money is going first. High-spend terms need attention because they have the biggest impact on profit.
Ask:
- Did this search term generate orders?
- Is the ACoS within target?
- Is the search term relevant?
- Is the CPC too high relative to the product's margin?
- Should this term be harvested, reduced, or negated?
If a search term is spending heavily with no orders, review it first.
Step 2: Check Orders and Sales
Next, look at which search terms are generating orders and sales.
These are your best opportunities for keyword harvesting.
A search term does not need to be perfect to be useful. If it converts and closely matches the product, consider moving to a manual exact match campaign.
Before doing that, check:
- Relevance
- ACoS
- ROAS
- Product margin
- Search intent
- Sales volume
Do not automatically move every converting search term. Make sure the term supports your campaign goal.
Step 3: Review ACoS and ROAS
ACoS and ROAS help you understand whether a search term is efficient.
If ACoS is below your target and the term is relevant, it may be a strong search term.
If ACoS is high but the term has sales, do not remove it too quickly. It may need a lower bid, better listing content, stronger images, or price changes.
A search term can have a high ACoS because:
- CPC is too high
- Product price is too low
- Conversion rate is weak
- Competitors have better reviews
- Product images are not strong enough
- The search term does not fully match the product
- The offer is not competitive
Before pausing or negating a term, understand why it is underperforming.
Step 4: Check Conversion Rate
Conversion rate shows how many clicks turned into orders.
If a search term gets clicks but no sales, the problem may be the quality of the traffic. But it may also be the product listing.
For example, the term may be relevant, but shoppers may not buy because of:
- Weak main image
- Poor reviews
- High price
- Missing coupon
- Slow delivery
- Unclear bullet points
- Product mismatch
- Weak A+ Content
Do not assume every non-converting term is bad. First, check whether the listing is doing its job.
Step 5: Check Relevance
Relevance matters more than volume.
A search term can have many impressions and clicks, but if it does not match your product, it will likely waste money.
For example, if you sell a premium stainless steel bottle, searches like โcheap plastic water bottleโ or โkids cartoon bottleโ may not match your product.
Even if those terms get clicks, they may attract the wrong buyer.
Step 6: Avoid Acting Too Early
Do not add negatives or pause terms after only a few clicks.
A small amount of data can be misleading.
As a practical rule, review a term after it has enough clicks to show a pattern. For many products, 10 to 20 clicks can give an early signal. For high-ticket products, you may need more data because shoppers take longer to make a purchase.
Always consider product price, margin, campaign goal, and sales cycle before making a final decision.
Free Amazon Search Term Report Analysis Template
A downloadable Amazon Search Term Report analysis template helps sellers analyze PPC data faster, without having to build a spreadsheet from scratch. It should show which terms to harvest, which terms to keep testing, which bids to reduce, and which search terms to add as negatives.
For small accounts, a Google Sheet or Excel template is usually enough. For larger brands, the same logic can be extended to a PPC dashboard or a BI report.
At a minimum, your Amazon Search Term Report analysis template should include:
- Search term
- Campaign
- Ad group
- Match type
- Spend
- Clicks
- Orders
- Sales
- ACoS
- ROAS
- Conversion rate
- Action column
- Notes column
The action column should let you tag each term as:
- Harvest to exact match
- Keep testing
- Reduce bid
- Add as a negative exact
- Add as a negative phrase
- Review listing relevance
- Add to the listing or backend search terms
This type of template turns raw data into decisions.
What the Template Should Help You Find
A useful template should help you quickly identify:
- High-spend terms with no orders
- Search terms with strong sales and low ACoS
- Long-tail terms with high conversion rates
- Terms that need bid reductions
- Terms that should be added as negatives
- Terms that should move into exact match campaigns
- Terms that may belong in listing copy
- Campaigns that generate irrelevant traffic
The goal is not just to organize the report. The goal is to take action faster.
For best results, add filters, pivot tables, and simple formulas for ACoS, ROAS, and conversion rate.
Does the Amazon Search Term Report Include Todayโs Data?
The Amazon Search Term Report may not show fully complete same-day data because clicks, orders, sales, and attribution can take time to process. Depending on the campaign type, marketplace, and reporting settings, performance can continue to update after the click, so a report pulled today may still be incomplete.
This is important because sellers often make changes too quickly.
For example, a search term may show spend today but no sales yet. That does not always mean the term failed. Some sales may appear later depending on the campaign type and attribution window.
For better decisions, avoid judging performance only on todayโs data.
Use a longer period, such as:
- 7 days for fast checks
- 14 days for active optimization
- 30 days for deeper analysis
- Longer saved history for trend reviews
Use shorter windows for fast-moving campaigns. Use longer windows for low-volume or higher-priced products.
How Far Back Does the Amazon Search Term Report Go?
Amazon reporting look-back windows can vary by report type, account, marketplace, and the current Amazon Ads interface. As a working rule, many advertisers treat Search Term Report data as a limited-window report and save exports regularly so older performance data is not lost.
If your account shows a specific look-back range, such as around 60 days for Search Term Report data or around 90 days for Targeting Report data, use that window for planning. Before publishing, verify the latest limits inside Amazon Ads because Amazon can update reporting availability over time.
Instead of relying only on what is available inside Amazon at the moment, keep your own archive.
Save weekly or bi-weekly reports in a master file or dashboard. This helps you compare:
- Pre-launch and post-launch search terms
- Seasonal trends
- Prime Day results
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday performance
- New keyword opportunities
- Repeated wasted spending patterns
- Changes in ACoS, ROAS, and conversion rate
Historical search term data becomes more valuable as your account grows.
Amazon Search Term Report vs Targeting Report vs Brand Analytics
The Search Term Report, Targeting Report, and Brand Analytics search term data are different reports. The Search Term Report shows actual shopper queries from ads. The Targeting Report shows how your selected targets perform. Brand Analytics shows broader search behavior across the marketplace for brand-registered sellers.
Here is the simple difference:
The Search Term Impression Share Report is different from the standard Search Term Report. It is useful when you want to understand visibility and competition for important search terms, not just clicks, spend, and conversions.
Use the Search Term Report to see what shoppers typed before clicking your ads.
Use the Targeting Report to see how your chosen keywords, ASINs, or categories performed.
Use Brand Analytics or Search Query Performance for broader marketplace insights.
The strongest Amazon teams use these reports together.
The Search Term Report helps with PPC actions. Targeting Report helps with campaign structure. Brand Analytics helps with market research.
How to Use the Search Term Report for Keyword Harvesting
Keyword harvesting means finding high-performing customer search terms and moving them into campaigns where you have more control. The goal is to take proven search terms from discovery campaigns and add them to manual exact match campaigns.
This is one of the most valuable uses of the Search Term Report.
Amazonโs sponsored ads guide lists the Search Term Report as a Sponsored Products report for identifying top-converting search terms. It also lists the Targeting Report as a way to understand how keyword targeting performs.
A basic keyword harvesting workflow looks like this:
- Run automatic, broad, or phrase match campaigns.
- Download the Search Term Report.
- Find search terms with orders and acceptable ACoS.
- Add those terms to manual exact match campaigns.
- Set controlled bids.
- Monitor performance.
- Add negatives where needed to reduce overlap.
For example, a broad match campaign targeting โdog treatsโ may surface a more specific customer search term, such as โsoft chicken dog treats for small dogs.โ If that term drives repeat orders at an acceptable ACoS, it may be worth moving to a manual exact match campaign with a controlled bid.
This gives you more control over budget, bids, and performance tracking without relying only on broad discovery traffic.
It also helps you separate proven search terms from discovery campaigns.
Where to Find Harvesting Opportunities
Good keyword harvesting opportunities often come from:
- Automatic campaigns
- Broad match campaigns
- Phrase match campaigns
- Sponsored Brands campaigns
- Product targeting campaigns
- Competitor ASIN targeting
- Seasonal campaigns
- New product launch campaigns
Automatic and broad match campaigns are especially useful for discovery because they can reveal search terms you may not find in keyword tools.
What to Do After Harvesting
After moving a profitable search term into an exact match, keep monitoring it.
Review:
- CPC
- Spend
- Orders
- ACoS
- ROAS
- Impression volume
- Conversion rate
- Campaign overlap
If the exact match version performs well, you can gradually increase the budget or bids.
If performance drops, check whether the term has had enough data before harvesting. Also, check whether it performed better in the original campaign because of lower bids or different targeting conditions.
How to Use the Report for Negative Keywords
The Search Term Report helps you find negative keywords by showing which customer searches are irrelevant, expensive, or not converting. Adding the right negatives can quickly reduce wasted PPC spend.
Negative keywords help block your ads from showing on search terms that are irrelevant to your product.
There are two main types:
For example, if you sell a premium stainless steel water bottle, the term โcheap plastic water bottleโ may not be a good fit.
If it spends without converting, you may add โcheap plasticโ as a negative phrase.
But if only one specific query is poor, use negative exact. This helps you avoid blocking useful related searches.
Common terms to review for negatives include:
- Wrong size
- Wrong material
- Wrong product type
- โFreeโ
- โUsedโ
- โCheapโ for premium products
- Competitor names, if conquesting is not part of your strategy
- Informational searches that do not convert
- Queries for variants you do not sell
Negative keywords should protect your budget without blocking useful discovery.
Always review campaign context before applying negatives across multiple campaigns.
Negative Keyword Example
Suppose you sell a 32 oz stainless steel water bottle for adults.
This kind of review helps you remove waste without hurting useful traffic.
How Search Term Data Supports Listing and Backend SEO
The Amazon Search Term Report can support listing optimization by showing the language shoppers use before making a purchase. If a search term converts well through ads, it may also be useful in your product listing.
This does not mean you should add every search term to your listing.
Use only relevant, natural, and high-intent terms.
You can use search term insights in:
- Product titles
- Bullet points
- Product descriptions
- A+ Content
- Image text
- Backend search terms
For example, if โleakproof gym water bottleโ converts better than โsports bottle,โ your listing may need to include that more specific use case.
The goal is clarity, not keyword stuffing.
Amazon listings should still help shoppers understand the product, compare options, and make a buying decision.
Where to Use Search Term Insights
Do not repeat the same keyword in every field.
If a term already appears in the title or bullets, use backend search terms for relevant variations or synonyms.
Amazon Search Term Report Tools
An Amazon Search Term Report tool helps sellers analyze large volumes of PPC data more quickly. It can help identify wasted spend, profitable search terms, negative keyword opportunities, and ideas for exact-match harvesting.
For small sellers, a spreadsheet may be enough.
For growing brands, manual analysis can become slow and risky. Important patterns are easy to miss when you manage many ASINs, campaigns, and marketplaces.
A good tool or dashboard should help you:
- Combine reports across campaigns and ASINs
- Store historical data
- Highlight wasted spend
- Identify keyword harvesting opportunities
- Suggest negative keywords
- Group similar search terms
- Track performance over time
- Compare search term data with campaign and listing performance
Spreadsheet vs PPC Tool vs Agency Analysis
A tool can speed up analysis, but strategy still matters.
The best results come from combining clean reporting with clear campaign actions.
Common Mistakes Sellers Make With Search Term Reports
The biggest mistake sellers make is downloading the Search Term Report but not taking action. The report only improves performance when you use it to harvest keywords, add negatives, adjust bids, and improve listings.
Here are the mistakes to avoid.
1. Looking Only at Spend
High spend matters, but spend alone does not tell the full story.
Always compare spend with orders, sales, ACoS, ROAS, conversion rate, and margin.
2. Negating Terms Too Quickly
A few clicks are not always enough data.
Give important terms enough time before blocking them.
3. Ignoring Long-Tail Terms
Long-tail terms may have lower volume, but they often show stronger buying intent.
These terms can be useful for exact match campaigns and listing copy.
4. Treating Keywords and Search Terms as the Same Thing
Keywords are what you target.
Search terms are what shoppers actually type.
The difference matters when you analyze broad match, phrase match, and automatic campaigns.
5. Not Separating Branded and Non-Branded Terms
Branded terms usually convert differently from non-branded terms.
Analyze them separately so you do not confuse existing brand demand with new customer acquisition.
6. Not Saving Historical Reports
If you do not store reports, you lose long-term visibility into search trends and campaign learning.
Save exports regularly.
7. Applying Negatives Too Broadly
A negative phrase in the wrong campaign can block useful traffic.
Review campaign context first.
8. Ignoring Listing Problems
If a relevant term gets clicks but no orders, the issue may be the product detail page.
Check images, price, reviews, offer quality, delivery speed, and content before making campaign changes.
Weekly Amazon Search Term Report Optimization Workflow
Use a weekly workflow to turn the Amazon Search Term Report into PPC actions. Download the report, sort by spend, find winners and wasted spend, add negatives, harvest profitable terms, and update listings where relevant.
Here is a simple workflow:
- Download the last 7 to 30 days of data.
- Sort by spend.
- Identify high-spend, zero-order terms.
- Check whether those terms are relevant.
- Add irrelevant terms as negative exact or negative phrase.
- Find search terms with profitable orders.
- Move winners into manual exact match campaigns.
- Reduce bids on terms with sales but poor ACoS.
- Review relevant terms with clicks but no conversions for listing issues.
- Add high-converting terms naturally to listings when relevant.
- Save the report in a master file or dashboard.
- Repeat the process every week or two.
This workflow helps you use the report as a profit-control tool, not just a spreadsheet.
Conclusion: Turn Search Term Data Into Smarter PPC Decisions
The Amazon Search Term Report is one of the most useful reports for improving PPC performance because it shows what shoppers actually searched before clicking your ads.
When reviewed consistently, it helps you:
- Find profitable keywords
- Reduce wasted ad spend
- Improve campaign structure
- Add better negative keywords
- Discover long-tail opportunities
- Strengthen listing copy with real customer language
- Make better bid and budget decisions
The sellers who get the most value from this report are not the ones who simply download it. They are the ones who act on it every week.
If your campaigns are spending more but not scaling profitably, SalesDuoโs Amazon PPC management team can help you turn search term data into a clearer PPC and listing optimization strategy.
Book a 1:1 growth call with SalesDuo.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Amazon Search Term Report
How do I download the Amazon Search Term Report?
To download the Amazon Search Term Report, go to Seller Central or Amazon Ads Campaign Manager, open Sponsored Ads Reports, create a new report, choose Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands, select Search Term as the report type, set your date range, run the report, and download the file.
How do I read the Amazon Search Term Report?
Start with the customer search term, then review impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC, spend, orders, sales, ACoS, ROAS, and conversion rate. These columns show what shoppers searched for, how much traffic the term generated, what it cost, and whether it converted profitably.
How do I analyze the Amazon Search Term Report?
Sort the report by spend first. Then group search terms into winners, potential terms, underperformers, and wasted spend. Move profitable terms into exact match campaigns, reduce bids on inefficient terms, and add irrelevant or non-converting terms as negative keywords.
Does the Amazon Search Term Report include todayโs data?
The report may not show fully complete same-day data because clicks, sales, and attribution can take time to process. For better decisions, avoid judging performance only on todayโs data. Use a longer period, such as 7, 14, or 30 days, depending on campaign volume.
How far back does the Amazon Search Term Report go?
The available lookback window can be limited, so sellers should download and save reports regularly. Many teams pull the report weekly or bi-weekly to preserve historical data and avoid losing older performance insights.
What is the difference between the Search Term Report and the Targeting Report?
The Search Term Report shows the actual customer search terms that triggered ad clicks. The Targeting Report shows the performance of the keywords, ASINs, categories, or auto targets you selected in your campaigns. Use both reports together for better PPC decisions.
Is the PPC Search Term Report the same as Brand Analytics search term data?
No. The PPC Search Term Report is an advertising report focused on paid traffic and campaign performance. Brand Analytics search query data provides broader, marketplace-level visibility into popular search queries, clicked ASINs, and purchased ASIN performance for brand-registered sellers.
Do I need Brand Registry to access the Search Term Report?
You do not need Brand Registry to use standard Amazon Ads campaign reports. However, Brand Registry is usually required for Brand Analytics and Search Query Performance data.
What tool can I use to analyze the Amazon Search Term Report faster?
You can use Excel, Google Sheets, pivot tables, PPC software, or an Amazon BI dashboard. A good search term report tool should help you identify wasted spend, profitable search terms, negative keyword opportunities, and keyword harvesting actions more quickly.
How often should I pull the Amazon Search Term Report?
For active campaigns, pull the report weekly. For stable campaigns, every two weeks may be enough. During launches, seasonal events, Prime Day, or Black Friday, review reports more frequently and compare performance before and after the event.
About the Author
Badal Tharayil is an Amazon advertising professional, expertly turning first impressions into lasting partnerships. Known for proactive communication and flawless onboarding, heโs the bridge between client satisfaction and operational excellence. Outside work, Badal loves exploring cinema, expressing himself on the dance floor, and staying energized through fitness pursuits.
