How to Read Amazon Search Term Reports Like a Strategist
Search term reports are where profitable campaigns are built — if you know what to negate, what to promote, and what to ignore.
The search term report is the most underused file in many Seller Central accounts. It shows exactly what shoppers typed before clicking your ad — and whether they bought.
Sort by spend first to find expensive terms that are not converting. These are your immediate negation candidates. Then sort by orders to find terms that deserve exact match campaigns of their own.
Watch for semantic drift. Auto and broad campaigns often surface terms that are related but wrong — wrong size, wrong use case, wrong audience. Negate early before they consume budget.
Promote winners systematically. When a term converts repeatedly, move it into a dedicated exact campaign where you control bid and budget independently.
Review weekly at minimum during active scaling. Daily reviews make sense in launch windows. The report is not archival — it is your optimization roadmap.
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