# What is the Amazon Search Term Report? Search Term Report for Amazon Sellers Explained
Author: Himanshu Gaba
Author URL: https://sellerview.ai/blog/author/himanshu-gaba
Published: 2026-06-05
Meta Title: Amazon Search Term Report Guide for Sellers
Meta Description: The Amazon Search Term Report shows exactly what customers searched before clicking your ad. How to read it, harvest keywords, and cut wasted spend.
URL: https://sellerview.ai/blog/what-is-amazon-search-term-report

Most sellers running Amazon PPC have no idea what's actually triggering their ads. They set up campaigns, watch spend go up, check ACoS, and wonder why nothing's improving. The Search Term Report is the answer to that confusion — and most sellers either ignore it or look at it wrong.

## What is the Amazon Search Term Report?

The Search Term Report is an advertising report in Amazon Seller Central that shows you the exact words and phrases customers typed into the search bar before clicking your ad. Not the keywords you bid on — the actual search queries from real shoppers.

If you're running an auto campaign for a yoga mat and Amazon matches your ad to the search "non-slip exercise mat for beginners," that search term shows up in the report along with every metric that matters: impressions, clicks, spend, orders, revenue, and ACoS for that exact query.

This is one of the most valuable data sources in your entire Amazon business. It tells you exactly what your customers are searching for, what converts, and what's eating your budget for zero return.

## How the Search Term Report Works on Amazon

The report is available for Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display campaigns. Here's how to access it:

Seller Central → Advertising → Measurement & Reporting → Sponsored Ads Reports

Select: Campaign Type (Sponsored Products), Report Type (Search Term), Date Range (last 30-60 days), then click Run Report. The file downloads as a CSV with these core columns:

Customer Search Term — what the shopper actually typed. Targeting — the keyword or ASIN you bid on that matched this search. Match Type — Broad, Phrase, Exact, or Auto. Impressions / Clicks / Spend. Orders / Revenue. ACoS — ad spend ÷ ad revenue × 100. Conversion Rate — orders ÷ clicks × 100.

One critical thing most sellers don't know: Amazon only retains search term data for 65 days. After that, it's gone permanently. If you haven't set up a recurring monthly download, you're losing historical data you can never get back. Set a calendar reminder. Do it now.

## Why the Search Term Report Matters for Your Profitability

Here's the simple truth: you can't run profitable PPC without this report.

Amazon's keyword matching is aggressive. When you run a broad match or auto campaign, Amazon will match your ad to hundreds of search queries — many of which have nothing to do with your product. Every irrelevant click is money out of your pocket with zero chance of a sale.

The formula is straightforward: Revenue - Amazon fees - COGS - ad spend - returns = actual profit. If your ad spend is going to irrelevant search terms, it inflates that ad spend line and compresses your actual margin.

A seller doing $50K/month in revenue at 18% ACoS might think they're running a decent operation. But if 30% of that ad spend is going to terms that never convert, the real ACoS on productive traffic could be closer to 12% — meaning they're wasting $2,700+ every month on junk traffic.

The Search Term Report is also how you find your best keywords. Auto campaigns are your discovery engine. When you find a term converting at or below your target ACoS, you extract it, move it to a manual exact match campaign, and scale it. This is keyword harvesting — and it's the core workflow of anyone running a serious PPC operation.

Industry data shows that well-executed keyword harvesting from the Search Term Report improves campaign ACoS by 15-25% within the first 60 days. Exact match keywords pulled from auto campaigns deliver conversion rates 50-80% higher than the broad/auto traffic they came from.

## Common Mistakes Sellers Make with the Search Term Report

### Mistake 1: Looking at 7 days of data and making decisions

This is the most common error. A search term with 2 clicks in 7 days tells you nothing statistically. You need at least 30 days, ideally 60, before cutting or promoting any term. The minimum threshold for graduating a term to exact match: 2+ orders with an ACoS at or below your target over a 30-day window.

### Mistake 2: Never downloading the report at all

Shocking how many sellers run PPC for months and have never pulled this report. They're optimizing blind — adjusting bids on keywords they bid on without knowing what search terms actually triggered their spend.

### Mistake 3: Adding winning keywords without excluding them from auto campaigns

Classic mistake. You find a great term in your auto campaign, add it as exact match to a manual campaign — but leave it running in auto. Now you're competing against yourself. CPCs go up, you win fewer auctions at a worse price, margins suffer. Always add high-performing terms as negative exact keywords in the campaign they came from.

### Mistake 4: Only mining for negatives, never for expansion

Some sellers open the report, add negatives to block irrelevant terms, and call it optimization. That's only half the job. The report is also your richest source of new keyword ideas — long-tail terms, seasonal variants, use-case-specific queries that no keyword research tool would have surfaced.

## How to Use the Search Term Report the Right Way

Step 1: Set a recurring monthly download. You need historical data. The 65-day limit means monthly downloads are mandatory.

Step 2: Sort by spend, descending. Your biggest spend items get reviewed first. For every term spending more than $10, check the ACoS and order count.

Step 3: Apply the harvest rule. 2+ orders with ACoS at or below your target (typically 20-30% depending on category and margin) over 30 days = graduate to exact match manual campaign.

Step 4: Apply the negative rule. Significant spend with zero orders, or clearly irrelevant terms = add as negative keyword at the campaign level.

Step 5: Look for hidden gems in the long tail. Filter for terms with ACoS under 15% — even low-volume ones. A term that drives 3 orders/month at 10% ACoS is worth protecting with an exact match bid even if it never scales.

Step 6: Update your listing. If a search term drives significant purchases and it's not in your title, bullets, or backend keywords — it should be. The STR tells you what your actual buyers are searching; your listing should reflect that language.

Step 7: Repeat every 2-4 weeks. Search behavior shifts. New competitors enter. Seasonal terms emerge. This is not a one-time task — it's a recurring workflow.

## How Sellerview Helps You Track Search Term Performance

Sellerview pulls your ad performance data together at the SKU level, so you can see exactly how your search term spend ties back to actual product-level profitability — not just ACoS in isolation.

The Search Term Report isn't just a PPC tool. It's a window into how your customers think — what language they use, what problems they're solving, what intent they have when they find you. Most sellers treat it as optional. The ones consistently improving their margins don't.

See your real profit after ad spend, fees, and COGS on [Sellerview.ai](https://Sellerview.ai) → free trial


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