We don't pay for any Amazon data. Amazon gives everything you need for free.

The SQP report tells sellers search volume, impressions, clicks and purchases for their top 1k keywords.

How we use this report to understand what drives our Amazon business (+ a great free tool):

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To find this report: Brand Analytics ➔ Search Analytics ➔ Search Query Performance

At the top, toggle between 2 ways to view search data:
➔ "Brand View": 1k most important search terms to your brand.
➔ "ASIN View": 100 most important search terms by ASIN.

First: Organize & Label the Data.

Export the top 1k keywords by week as far back as possible. Merge into 1 spreadsheet. A free chrome extension makes this very easy. I'll share it at the end.

In a new tab, list each unique search term and add columns with fields you'd like to filter by. Match these fields into the main dataset. These are the fields I add:

• Keyword type: Branded, Generic or Competitor
• Competitor: Yeti, Hydro Flask, etc.
• Product Type: Adult Bottle, Kid's Bottle, Backpack, etc.
• License: Character or Sports Team

Now I can see our performance when customers search for Yeti, ice buckets, Paw Patrol, our branded keywords, etc.

Labelling is key. This is the hardest part but make this file a template so you only have to do it once. Search formulas to make this process easier.

Here are a few ways I look at the data:

1. Search Type

One of my favorite charts is the % of our clicks coming from branded, generic and competitor search terms.

Successfully brand building means more clicks from branded search terms over time.

Generic keywords drove 60% of clicks into our listings. Now branded keywords drive most of our clicks. A main business KPI is growing clicks from branded search, this is how we track it.

Notice how generic clicks spike in holidays. Competitor clicks is a direct result of Amazon Ads.


2. How Are Customers Finding a Listing?

Pulling the "ASIN View" report for every ASIN in a listing shows exactly how customers are finding your listing.

For our kids listings, character specific keywords are a huge driver. They sum up to be about 40% of traffic.

"Spiderman Toys" has been a great keyword for us. We can know how we're doing YoY on keywords like this. Maybe there is a character where we should be performing better on "toys" keywords.

The free chrome extension is a lifesaver for pulling this data.


3. Amazon Ads Incrementality

Knowing if Amazon Ads are increasing total sales is one of life's great mysteries.

Match this report with Amazon Ads click data by keyword & date.

Test turning on and off campaigns and watch what happens to clicks in the SQP report.

The change in average clicks from a keyword is what ads are actually producing.

You can understand how much money you are lighting on fire with branded ads. Only 20% of branded ad clicks are incremental for us.

We only get 75% of the impressions on branded keywords but we get 90% of the clicks and 95% of the sales. I'm fine taking a 20+ ROAS on branded ad campaigns and letting other brands go for it.

4. Simple Modern vs Competition's Search Volume

We compare total searches and clicks for our brand to competitors by week.

It shows relative brand health and who's trending up/down.

This shows our search volume passing Hydro Flask over the last 2 years:


5. Clickshare Compared to the Market

Selling on Amazon is about maximizing market share of on high volume keywords.

Know your market share on these keywords:
• Category (ex: Water Bottles, kids backpacks)
• 20 highest search volume keywords
• Competitor keywords

Year over year is the most helpful. It accounts for seasonality.

Work on maximizing brand share, then it’s about maintaining it. Amazon caps brand share at a certain point. They don't want brands to monopolize big keywords.

6. Flipping Competitor's Customers

With this data, you can see search volume for competitor keywords.

If successful, this is a great customer acquisition tactic. A great use for SP ads.

10% of our clicks come from competitor keywords.

You can also see how many of your own branded clicks are being lost to competition.

25% of Simple Modern branded impressions are for competitors but they only take 4% of branded search orders. I can live with that.

Conclusion:

Amazon gives sellers the information to know exactly what is happening. Sellers don't need expensive tools to understand what's happening. As one of Amazon's top sellers, this is how we gain insight.

Download your Search Term reports to know how you sales are happening and where the opportunities are.