The Amazon Search Term Report.

What the file contains.

One row per customer search query, per targeting, per match type, per day — which is why the file runs to tens of thousands of rows on even a modest account. The two columns that matter most sit next to each other and are easy to conflate: the targeting is what you bid on, and the customer search term is what somebody actually typed. On an automatic or broad campaign those are routinely nothing like each other, and the gap between them is the whole point of the report.

Alongside them: impressions, clicks, spend, 7-day attributed sales and orders, and a conversion rate. The attribution window is seven days by default for Sponsored Products, which matters when you compare this file against a Sponsored Brands export that defaults to fourteen.

It is the single most useful advertising export Amazon publishes, and the one most often downloaded once and never opened again, because a raw file of forty thousand rows does not volunteer its conclusions.

What it can tell you.

• Which exact search terms took money and returned no orders
• Which terms convert well enough to promote into their own exact-match targeting
• How spend splits across broad, phrase, exact and automatic targeting
• Which negative keywords would have saved money last month, and how much

Columns worth understanding.

Targeting

What you bid on — a keyword, an ASIN, or a match type like 'loose-match' on an auto campaign. Not what the customer searched.

Customer Search Term

The query actually typed. On automatic campaigns this is where you discover what Amazon thinks your product is.

7 Day Total Sales

Revenue attributed to clicks within seven days. Sponsored Brands uses fourteen, so the two are not comparable side by side.

Match Type

Broad, phrase or exact. A term appearing under two match types is being paid for twice unless one is negated.

How to export it.

1. 01Login to Amazon Seller Central
2. 02Open Amazon Ads
3. 03Navigate to Measurement & Reporting
4. 04Click Sponsored ads reports
5. 05Click Create report
6. 06Under Report category, select Sponsored Products
7. 07Under Report type, select Search Term Report
8. 08Set the Report period and your required Date Range
9. 09Click Run report
10. 10Download it once it has finished running.
11. 11Upload the downloaded CSV/XLSX file here.

You end up with a CSV / XLSX file.

Where reading it goes wrong.

1. 01

   Judging a term on too few clicks

   A term with three clicks and no order tells you nothing. The threshold worth using is roughly the reciprocal of your conversion rate — at 10% conversion, a term needs past twenty clicks before its lack of orders is evidence rather than noise.

2. 02

   Negating a search term instead of a targeting

   Negatives apply to search terms, but the money is often being spent by a broad targeting that matches dozens of them. Negating one term stops one leak; the n-gram view finds the word that is leaking across forty.

3. 03

   Pulling too short a window

   Attribution lags. A seven-day pull taken today undercounts sales that will still arrive, so recent periods always look worse than they turn out to be. Thirty days minimum, and do not compare a fresh pull against a settled one.

Reports to pull alongside it.

• Amazon N-Gram AnalysisBreak your search terms into 1/2/3-word fragments to find hidden converters and waste patterns.
• Amazon Keyword HarvestingHarvesting from your Search Term Report: converting terms scored and walked up the Auto → Broad → Phrase → Exact ladder, priced at 80% of their own CPC, with an Amazon bulk file you approve line by line.
• SP Targeting ReportEvery keyword and product target you bid on, with a call on each: raise, reduce, cut or leave. Shows the targets that took no clicks at all — the ones the Search Term Report cannot list — and where a converting target is barely reaching the top of search.