For years, Amazon sellers relied on third-party tools that estimated search volume. Those tools were useful, but they were estimates. Guesses. Extrapolations based on incomplete data.
That changed with the Search Query Performance Report. Part of Amazon's Brand Analytics suite, this report gives brand-registered sellers access to actual search volume data directly from Amazon. It shows you which queries are driving impressions, clicks, add-to-carts, and purchases for your brand and your ASINs.
This is data that previously did not exist for sellers. And it changes how you should think about keyword research, listing optimization, and PPC strategy.
What the Report Contains
The Search Query Performance Report tracks four stages of the customer journey. For each search query relevant to your brand, you get data on:
For each metric, you get three data points:
Total Count
The total number of impressions, clicks, cart adds, or purchases for that search query across all products.
Brand Count
How many of those went to your brand specifically.
Brand Share
Your percentage of the total. This tells you how much of the market you're capturing.
Search Query Volume
The actual number of times that query was searched. Real data from Amazon.
You also get a Search Query Score, which ranks each query based on its importance to your brand. Amazon provides up to 1,000 queries in the brand view, giving you a comprehensive picture of which keywords matter most.
Three Ways to Use This Data
Practical Applications
Gap Analysis: Find Keywords You're Missing
Compare the keywords in your SQP report against what you're actually targeting in Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands. If Amazon says a keyword is relevant to your brand but you're not advertising on it, that's a gap. High search volume keywords you're not targeting are opportunities being left on the table.
Conversion Comparison: Find Your Strong Keywords
Compare your purchase rate to the total market purchase rate for each keyword. If your conversion rate is higher than the market average, that's a keyword where you have an advantage. Go aggressive on those. If your rate is lower, you either need to improve your listing or reconsider how much you're spending.
Spend vs. Sales Analysis: Find Waste
Calculate what percentage of your total spend goes to each keyword, and compare it to what percentage of sales that keyword generates. If you're spending 7% of your budget on a keyword that only delivers 4% of your sales, you're overspending. The math doesn't lie.
What Healthy vs. Unhealthy Keywords Look Like
Here's how to interpret the data when you combine SQP with your advertising reports:
| Metric | Strong Keyword | Weak Keyword |
|---|---|---|
| Spend % vs Sales % | Sales % > Spend % | Spend % > Sales % |
| ACoS | Below target | Above target |
| Conversion Rate | Above market average | Below market average |
| Impression Share | Growing or stable | Declining |
Key Insight
Branded keywords typically show high sales percentage with low spend percentage. That's expected. Filter out branded terms when analyzing keyword efficiency so you can focus on the non-branded opportunities where optimization actually matters.
Important Things to Know
What Data Is Included
The Search Query Performance Report includes organic impressions and Sponsored Products ads that appear on search results pages. It does not include Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, or any impressions from product detail pages. This is search bar data only, which makes it useful for understanding how your brand performs when shoppers are actively searching.
Denormalized Counts
Search volume is now denormalized, meaning if the same customer searches the same query multiple times in 24 hours, all instances are counted. This inflates the numbers compared to unique searches, but it better reflects actual search behavior.
Snapshots vs. Trends
The report interface shows a snapshot. To see trends, you need to download the data regularly and track it week-over-week or month-over-month. Trends tell you whether you're gaining or losing ground. A single snapshot does not.
How Often to Check
- For gap analysis: Once is enough to find most gaps. Check again every 2-3 months.
- For trend tracking: Download weekly or monthly and compile in a spreadsheet to spot patterns over time.
Building Your Own Analysis
The most effective approach combines data from multiple sources:
- Download SQP Report: Get your Search Query Performance data for the time period you want to analyze.
- Download SP/SB Reports: Get your Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands search term reports for the same period.
- Merge with VLOOKUPs: Create a combined view that shows each keyword's organic performance (from SQP) alongside its paid performance (from advertising reports).
- Flag the Gaps: Use conditional formatting to highlight keywords in SQP that don't appear in your advertising campaigns.
- Calculate Ratios: Build formulas that compare spend percentage to sales percentage for quick identification of inefficient keywords.
This is not complicated analysis. Basic spreadsheet skills are sufficient. The hard part is doing it consistently and acting on what you find.
What This Means for Listings
If Amazon's SQP report says a keyword is highly relevant to your brand with significant search volume, and you're not using that keyword in your listing, you're missing an opportunity. This data should inform:
- Title optimization: High-volume, high-relevance keywords deserve title placement.
- Bullet points: Secondary keywords can be woven into feature bullets.
- Backend search terms: Use remaining character space for additional relevant terms.
- A+ Content: Alt text and module text can incorporate discovered keywords.
The SQP report tells you what Amazon already thinks you're relevant for. Lean into that. Reinforce it in your content. Then advertise on it with confidence.
Watch the Full Walkthrough
See how to navigate the report, build analysis sheets, and identify keyword opportunities.
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