Find high-performing keywords and product targeting

On this page you can find keywords and products that are driving sales but aren’t registered in your ads yet, and build candidates for cleaning up targeting that isn’t selling well relative to its ad spend. Use it when you take a weekly-to-monthly stocktake of what’s inside your ads.

About this page

Item	Details
What you can do	List, from your performance data, the keyword / product-targeting candidates to add and the targeting candidates to clean up (exclude or swap out)
Applies to	Mainly Sponsored Products (SP). Some prompts also apply to Sponsored Brands (SB) and Sponsored Display (SD)
Data & connection needed	The search-term, targeting, and product-ad performance data of your connected account (no extra setup needed)
Scope	Read-only (analysis & proposals only). The prompts on this page only build candidate lists; they don’t change any ad settings. The actual additions and exclusions happen through the approval flows on the related pages

Terms used on this page

• Search terms … the words shoppers actually type into Amazon.
• Keywords … the words the advertiser registers in an ad. These are distinct from search terms.
• Product targeting … a setting that shows your ad against specific products (ASINs) or categories.
• Click-through rate (CTR) … the share of impressions that resulted in a click.
• Conversion rate (CVR) … the share of clicks that led to a purchase.
• ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales) … ad spend ÷ ad-attributed sales. Lower is more efficient.
• ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) … ad-attributed sales ÷ ad spend. Higher is more efficient.

When to use this

• You want to find search terms that are driving sales but that you haven’t registered as ad keywords yet
• You want to check product targeting that is spending ad budget but not selling
• You want to look for search terms / products that are getting clicks but that you haven’t added to your ads yet
• You want to surface search terms / products that get impressions but few clicks, as exclusion candidates
• You want to find keywords that sell well at the top of search results and decide whether to bid on them more strongly
• You want to find best-selling products that you haven’t advertised yet

Before you run

• Connected account … if you handle multiple accounts, confirm the target account is correct first.
• Target period … e.g. “past 30 days”. Same-day and previous-day data may not be final, so a recently finalized period is safest.
• Target brand / ASIN (optional) … specify these if you want to narrow to a particular brand or product. If you don’t, the whole account is covered.
• If you register your target ACoS / ROAS in Set targets for sales, ad spend, and ACoS, the “efficient / inefficient” judgment criteria are applied automatically and you can omit them from the prompt.

Quick reference

Goal	What you get	Changes	Prompt
Find untargeted search terms and products that are driving sales	A list of addition candidates with their performance	No change	Prompt 1
Check high-converting competitor products and low-performing product targeting	A list with high- / low-efficiency judgments	No change	Prompt 2
Find high-CTR search terms and products you haven’t targeted yet	A list of addition candidates with where they’re served	No change	Prompt 3
Compare low-performing targets with new addition candidates	A list of swap candidates (swap-out and swap-in)	No change	Prompt 4
Find product ads that get fewer clicks than others	A list of the products and recommended actions	No change	Prompt 5
Turn low-CTR search terms and products into exclusion candidates	A list of exclusion candidates	No change	Prompt 6
Find keywords that perform well at the top of search and can take stronger bids	A list of reinforcement candidates with headroom judgments	No change	Prompt 7
Find best-selling products you haven’t advertised yet	A list of addition plans (with recommended settings)	No change	Prompt 8

This page only finds candidates

As the “Changes” column shows — every row reads “No change” — this page goes only as far as surfacing candidates. When you actually add, exclude, or swap targets, follow the “Next steps” in each prompt below to the related page, and preview and approve the changes there.

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Prompt 1: Find high-potential search terms and products you haven’t targeted yet

Surface promising candidates that are already generating sales but that you haven’t registered as keywords or product targeting yet.

When to use — when you want to bring the best-selling search terms / products you’re missing into your ads.

What you need — the target period (default is the past 30 days) and the number of items to show (default is the top 5).

From the past 30 days, show the top 5 high-potential candidates that are
driving sales but that I haven't registered as ad keywords or
product targeting yet.
Rank them by sales, clicks, and conversion rate (CVR), highest first.

What you can change — the target period (e.g. past 30 days) / the number of items (e.g. top 5) / the ranking basis (sales, clicks, conversion rate, and so on).

What you get back — a table of untargeted search terms / products × sales × clicks × conversion rate × recommended match type.

Changes — analysis and proposal only. Does not change ad settings.

Next steps — once you’ve decided which candidates to add, add them to your ads through the approval flow in Create Sponsored Products (SP) campaigns. To carve search terms out of an Auto campaign, use Move search terms from Auto to Manual.

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Prompt 2: Check high-converting competitor products and low-performing product targeting

Among product targeting aimed at competitor products (other companies’ ASINs), check both the ones that convert well and the ones that aren’t selling relative to their ad spend.

When to use — when you want to sort competitor-product targeting into what to grow and what to rein in.

What you need — the target period (default is last month) and the number of top / bottom items (default is 5 each).

Sort last month's product targeting aimed at competitor products (other companies' ASINs)
by conversion rate, and identify the 5 with the highest conversion rate and
the 5 with low sales relative to their ad spend.
Flag the ones with low sales as exclusion candidates.

What you can change — the target period / the number of top / bottom items / the definition of “low performance” (conversion rate, ACoS, ROAS, and so on).

What you get back — a table of competitor products (other companies’ ASINs) × conversion rate × ad spend × ROAS × high- / low-efficiency judgment (with an exclusion recommendation for the low-efficiency ones).

Changes — analysis and proposal only. Does not change ad settings.

Next steps — exclude the exclusion candidates through the approval flow in Add negative keywords. To tidy up how competitor products are classified, see Classify ads with labels and naming rules.

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Prompt 3: Find high-CTR search terms and products you haven’t targeted yet

Find search terms / products that have a high click-through rate and are already being served in other campaigns, but that you haven’t registered as keywords or product targeting yet.

When to use — when you want to pick up search terms / products that are already getting a good response but aren’t in your ad settings yet.

What you need — the target period (default is the past 30 days).

Among the search terms and products with a high click-through rate over the past 30 days,
identify the ones that are being served in other campaigns
but that I haven't registered as keywords or product targeting yet.

What you can change — the target period / the click-through-rate threshold / the ad types to cover.

What you get back — a table of untargeted search terms / products × click-through rate × the campaign currently serving them × recommended destination for the addition.

Changes — analysis and proposal only. Does not change ad settings.

Next steps — add them through the approval flow in Create Sponsored Products (SP) campaigns.

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Prompt 4: Compare low-performing targets with new addition candidates

Line up targets whose performance has dropped recently against candidates you should add, compare them, and build a swap plan.

When to use — when you want to replace poor-performing targets with promising candidates while keeping your budget footprint the same.

What you need — the target period (default is the past 30 days) and the number of swaps (default is 2 each).

Take 2 keyword / product targets with low performance (ROAS, orders)
over the past 30 days and 2 high-potential candidates I haven't registered yet,
and line them up as a swap plan.
Put "current target", "swap-in", and "expected ROAS improvement" side by side.

What you can change — the target period / the number of swaps / the definition of “low performance” (ROAS, orders, ACoS, and so on).

What you get back — a comparison table of current target (exclusion / pause candidate) × swap-in (addition candidate) × expected ROAS improvement.

Changes — analysis and proposal only. Does not change ad settings. The actual pausing / exclusion and additions are done through the approval flows on separate pages.

Next steps — exclude and pause through Add negative keywords, and add through the approval flow in Create Sponsored Products (SP) campaigns.

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Prompt 5: Find product ads that get fewer clicks than others

Find Sponsored Products whose click-through rate is well below the brand average. Because an SP product ad’s surface is the product page’s main image, title, price, and reviews as they are, a low click-through rate can be used as a signal to revisit the product page.

When to use — when you want to surface products that are advertised but not getting clicks, and consider improving the product page or pausing delivery.

What you need — the decline threshold (default is 25% or more below the brand average).

Among Sponsored Products,
find the ones whose click-through rate is 25% or more below the brand average.
Include the number of days since delivery started.

What you can change — the decline threshold (e.g. 25%) / the range of brands / products to cover.

What you get back — a table of product ad × current click-through rate × brand-average click-through rate × days running × recommended action (revisit the product page — main image, title, etc. — or consider pausing delivery).

Changes — analysis and proposal only. Does not change ad settings.

Next steps — you can build product-page improvement ideas in Diagnose your catalog and build improvement proposals (apply them manually in Seller Central / Vendor Central). To revisit bids, use Adjust bids.

This is different from creative fatigue

“Creative fatigue” — click-through rate declining because you serve the same banner or video for a long time — is analysis specific to Amazon DSP. SP product ads have no creative unit like a banner; the ad surface is determined by the product page content. For detecting DSP creative fatigue, use Analyze Amazon DSP delivery performance.

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Prompt 6: Turn low-CTR search terms and products into exclusion candidates

Surface search terms / products that get plenty of impressions but few clicks, and gather them as exclusion candidates.

When to use — when you want to clean up search terms / products that only rack up impressions without clicks and drag down your ad efficiency.

What you need — the minimum impressions (default is 1,000 or more) and the low-CTR cutoff (default is 50% or less of the account average).

Analyze the search terms / product targeting in SP campaigns with 1,000 or more impressions,
and gather the ones whose click-through rate is 50% or less of the account average
as exclusion candidates.

What you can change — the minimum impressions (e.g. 1,000) / the low-CTR cutoff (e.g. 50% or less of the account average).

What you get back — a table of exclusion-candidate search terms / products × impressions × click-through rate × ratio to the account average × recommended match type.

Changes — analysis and proposal only. Does not change ad settings.

Next steps — carry out the exclusions through the approval flow in Add negative keywords.

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Prompt 7: Find keywords that perform well at the top of search and can take stronger bids

Find keywords that appear often at the top of search results (Top of Search) and also perform well (low ACoS, high ROAS), and judge whether there is room to bid on them more strongly.

When to use — when you want to identify keywords that are already strong and decide whether to push for even more top placement.

What you need — the target is your active SP campaigns. If you’ve registered a target ACoS / ROAS, that becomes the judgment basis.

In my active SP campaigns, identify the keywords with a high top-of-search impression share
that also have a low ACoS and a high ROAS.
Also judge whether there is room to raise their bids further.

What you can change — the range of campaigns to cover / the definition of “good performance” (ACoS / ROAS thresholds).

What you get back — a table of keyword × top-of-search impression share × ACoS × ROAS × bid-raise headroom judgment. A share above 95% is judged “near the ceiling”; anything below that is judged “room to raise”.

Changes — analysis and proposal only. Does not change ad settings.

Next steps — raise bids through the approval flow in Adjust bids.

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Prompt 8: Find best-selling products you haven’t advertised yet

Among your top-selling products, find the ones you sell but haven’t put into Sponsored Products, and build a plan to add them to your ads.

When to use — when you want to grow products that are selling well but aren’t advertised, by advertising them.

What you need — the number of top-selling products to cover (default is the top 10 products).

Check the top 10 products by sales, and build a plan to add the ones that are
on sale but not running in Sponsored Products.
Also include the recommended destination campaign, the initial bid, and the initial daily budget.

What you can change — the number of items (e.g. top 10 products) / the assumptions behind the recommended bid and daily budget.

What you get back — a table of product (ASIN) × sales × recommended destination campaign × initial bid × initial daily budget.

Changes — analysis and proposal only. Does not change ad settings.

Next steps — add them to your ads through the approval flow in Create Sponsored Products (SP) campaigns.

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Related

• Add negative keywords — execute the exclusion candidates you surfaced through the approval flow
• Move search terms from Auto to Manual — carve high-potential search terms out into Manual campaigns
• Adjust bids — raise or lower bids based on top-of-search impression share
• Create Sponsored Products (SP) campaigns — build the addition candidates into campaigns
• Diagnose your catalog and build improvement proposals — revisit the product pages of products that aren’t getting clicks
• Analyze Amazon DSP delivery performance — DSP creative-fatigue and order / line-item analysis
• Manage inventory and sales opportunities — consider ad emphasis based on inventory status