February 3, 2023
Elevate your Brand with Amazon’s Search Query Performance Report
Now exportable, the performance report is an incredibly powerful advertising resource for keyword discovery and prioritizing your Sponsored Ads spend.
As Amazon brands and advertisers, you know success on the platform is fueled by early exploration and effective implementation of new features, tools, and reports. Being first can offer you the edge you need to level up from your competition and gain market share.
With the ability to download Amazon’s Search Query Performance report, we now have a new key to unlock untapped keywords with needle-moving potential.
Continue reading to learn where to find the report, how to interpret it, and then most importantly, actionable ways to use it.
Prefer to Listen? Check out our Podcast on the Search Query Performance Report
find the report
Within the ad console, head over to the Brands tab and select Brand Analytics. It will bring you straight to the Search Query Performance page, which looks like this:
If you’re initially overwhelmed by this expansive table, reviewing Amazon’s metrics glossary is a great place to start.
Before diving into the data, be sure to note there are several options for customization. You can look at the overall Brand level or breakdown the search queries at the ASIN level. You can also choose a Weekly, Monthly, or Quarterly Reporting Range, and then select the specific date range from there.
When reviewing these options, here are a few things to consider:
- Brand or ASIN level: What does your catalog look like? If you have a diverse product mix, you will likely want to filter based on the ASIN level. If you have a catalog that features closely related products and substitutes, the overarching Brand view may be helpful.
- Reporting Range and Time Period: For keyword analysis, consider pulling the report for longer ranges – monthly or quarterly. Looking at weekly increments is helpful when tracking seasonal trends or changes.
Reading the report
The Search Query Performance report is a great keyword discovery tool on the surface, but when you dig deeper, it can also provide some high-level analysis for your brand and where it stands in the competitive marketplace. The report lists up to 1,000 keywords that Amazon deems relevant to your Brand, ranking these top performing keywords and providing useful metrics associated with the keywords.
These useful metrics include Search Query Volume, followed by four categories of data – Search Funnel Impressions, Clicks, Cart Adds, and Purchases. Within those categories you have applicable metrics for each stage of the funnel, including Brand Share.
using the report
You found the report, you understand the metrics, now how do we use this information? What are we looking for? Let’s walk through three different use cases:
Keyword Discovery
One way to use the Search Query Performance report as a keyword discovery tool is to screen for keywords with Add-to-Cart and Purchase Share advantages relative to Click and Impression Share.
If the Brand Share of conversion metrics exceeds Brand Share of traffic metrics, this tells us your Brand has higher conversion rates than the general market for that keyword.
After exporting the report, look for targets with the highest Cart Add and Purchase Share relative to Click and Impression Share. Next, review Click Rate, Cart Add Rate, and Purchase Rate to gauge overall relevancy – the higher the better.
After identifying keywords with advantages, next gauge the scale of the opportunity. First, review your brand’s share of Purchases, Cart Adds, Clicks, and Impressions – if these are high (e.g. above 80%), you already own the majority of the market. Next, review the overall Search Query Volume, which is a measure of overall search volume for the keyword on Amazon.
Basically, the greatest opportunities are keywords with high advantages (conversion to traffic share), high relevancy, high search volume, and low current Brand Share – consider pushing harder for these targets within your Sponsored Ads campaigns.
Trend Analysis
If you have a highly seasonal product, understanding when shoppers begin their search not only helps direct your advertising strategy, but can assist in inventory planning, too. This is where the weekly dimension of the Search Query Performance report is incredibly valuable.
Use the weekly reporting range to export data by the week for whatever extended time period you’re reviewing. Export the data to Excel and you can build a model that measures keywords or search trends over time. This will give you insight into when your season “begins,” allowing you to get ahead of the curve on advertising.
Once you chart out your overall search volume trend for a keyword or list of keywords, you can start graphing your Brand Share over time.
As you shift your advertising strategy to push ahead of the curve or ahead of your season, you’ll now be able to measure how your Brand Share is affected by that decision at every stage of the funnel.
Brand Defense Efficiency
A constant debate we hear in the Amazon advertising world – is it worth it to defend your brand or are you poaching organic sales?
You may be able to answer this question once and for all with a test using the Search Query Performance report.
Consider running a four-week test where you turn off campaigns targeting Branded keywords, while reallocating that spend to more competitive category targets. Pull a Search Query Performance report on a weekly cadence and review how metrics change for both over the course of the month.
You can add another element of review and bring TACoS into the equation – how does it compare with a full suite of Brand Defense tactics to prioritizing category keywords? Weigh the cost-benefit and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Diving Deep
If you haven’t yet taken the time to explore the Search Query Performance tab, we highly recommend walking through the tool – you’ll quickly learn there is a ton of value you can add to your advertising strategy. We are just diving in ourselves and are continually brainstorming more ways to implement the data.