An Expert Guide on Amazon PPC Keyword Research

Amazon PPC is a quick way to stand out in the heap of sellers and get noticed by the buyers. But the keystone behind a successful Amazon PPC strategy is an effective and data-backed Amazon PPC keyword research. 

Without it, you risk wasting budget on irrelevant clicks, poor ACoS, and low conversion rates. With over 9.5 million sellers and rising CPC costs, blindly bidding is no longer an option.

So, in this guide, you will learn: 

• What is Amazon PPC keyword research and how Amazon’s algorithm functions. 
• What are the types of Amazon PPC keywords and how to use them. 
• How to Conduct and Implement Amazon Keyword Research
• Platforms to find high-converting Amazon PPC keywords

What Is Amazon PPC Keyword Research?

Amazon PPC keyword research simply refers to identifying search terms that Amazon shoppers actively use to find products like yours and matching them to your ads to trigger visibility in Sponsored Product, Sponsored Brand, or Sponsored Display campaigns.

If we compare it to Amazon SEO, it’s different. In Amazon SEO, the traffic is free and the Amazon keyword research is done to boost the search engine visibility. But Amazon PPC requires a bid on each keyword. This means every click will cost you money due to which bidding on the right keyword is more than crucial. While doing keyword research for Amazon PPC, you can’t only rely on high volume. Instead, you have to check multiple boxes such as high intent, high return, and relevancy of your keyword with the target audience. 

For example:

• While doing SEO, you can go with: “best yoga mat”

But in order to secure the highest position for the same keyword, you may have to pay a high bid cost. So in this case, being highly specific will rescue you. 

While doing Amazon PPC: “6mm extra thick non-slip yoga mat”

Now, this keyword has a ready-to-buy intent and that’s where your budget should go.

How Does Amazon’s Algorithm Use Keywords in PPC?

Amazon’s ad platform is powered by A9 (also known as A10), which uses behavioral signals to determine when and where to show your ad. Here’s how it works:

1. Keywords trigger relevance: Amazon compares your targeted keywords with a customer’s search query. This ensures your ads are only displayed when they match the shopper’s actual intent.
2. CTR (Click-Through Rate) signals interest: The more users click your ad, the more Amazon prioritizes it. A consistently high CTR shows Amazon that your ad is attractive and worth showing more often.
3. CVR (Conversion Rate) signals purchase intent: High-performing keywords lead to more purchases which ultimately gives a boost to the visibility. Strong CVR tells Amazon your product delivers on what shoppers are looking for, making it more likely to scale impressions
4. Bid strength and product relevance determine your ad rank in the auction. Your bid gives you a competitive edge, but Amazon also weighs how well your listing content and past sales history align with the keyword. Together, these factors decide whether your ad wins a placement and how prominently it appears.

For example, if your product has 5% CVR for “BPA-free baby bottle,” Amazon is more likely to serve that ad over a competitor with 2% CVR and a higher CPC.

Point to Remember: 
Every keyword affects your ACoS and TACoS:
ACoS measures ad spend vs ad sale
TACoS measures ad spend vs total sales (organic + paid)

Types Amazon PPC Keywords and How to Use Them 

There are 5 types of Amazon PPC keywords: 

1. Branded Keywords

These are the keywords having your brand’s or product’s name in it like “Hydroflask bottle.” They usually have the highest conversion rates and also pump up your brand’s visibility against competitors. But, your brand needs to be renowned enough to include branded keywords in your Amazon PPC strategy. 

2. Competitor Keywords

Competitor keywords reference rival brands, such as “Contigo bottle.” They help capture competitor traffic but often result in lower conversion rates and higher CPCs.

3. Generic Keywords

Generic keywords are broad, category-level terms like “water bottle” or “running shoes.” They drive high visibility and traffic but are more competitive and expensive. So, if you are really ready to spend a lot on Amazon PPC, do consider targeting generic keywords. They are also a good way to increase brand awareness. 

4. Long-tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are specific, multi-word queries like “BPA-free 32oz gym bottle.” They typically deliver lower volume but higher conversion rates due to clear purchase intent.

5. Negative keywords 

Negative keywords block irrelevant or low-intent queries like “cheap” or “free.” They reduce wasted spend and improve campaign efficiency.

Now, how to use these keywords in your Amazon PPC campaigns? Let’s say, if Nike has to run an Amazon PPC campaign, here’s how Nike should be using each keyword type in campaigns:

Keyword Type	Example	Use Case	Match Type
Branded	Nike sneakers	Brand promotion	Exact/ Phrase
Competitor	Adidas shoes	Get noticed by the people searching for Adidas’ shoes as well	Broad/ Phrase
Generic	Men’s shoes	Target large audience group	Broad
Long-Tail	Non-slip gym shoes for men	Attract the high-intent, conversion ready buyers	Exact
Negative	Free samples	Block unqualified clicks to save the PPC cost	Negative Phrase

Amazon PPC Keywords Tools 

Sourcing keywords from the right tools is essential. Combine internal Amazon data with external tools to cover both performance and search trends.

Tool	Pros	Use Case
Amazon SQP	Actual CTR, CVR	Find converting search terms
Brand Analytics	ASIN-level insights	Competitor keywords
Helium 10	Search volume + trends	Long-tail discovery
Jungle Scout	CPC, keyword difficulty	Bidding strategy
Data Dive	Semantic clustering	Intent-based keyword grouping

These tools let you validate keyword frequency, understand how shoppers interact with keywords, and prioritize keywords with a balance of volume and profitability. Furthermore, always validate keywords in your Search Term Report (STR) before scaling bids.

How to Find Keywords for Amazon PPC? 

In order to make the most out of your Amazon PPC campaigns, relying on a random list of keywords is not an option at all. What you actually need is a structured, data-driven process that helps you discover, validate, segment, and apply keywords based on actual shopper behavior. Here’s the exact step-by-step process to conduct Amazon keyword research for PPC. 

Step 1: Keyword Mining Through SQP and Brand Analytics 

Start by using Amazon’s Search Query Performance (SQP) and Brand Analytics reports. These are available in Seller Central under the “Brands” tab. SQP allows you to see which keywords led to impressions, clicks, and conversions for your products. 

For example, if you’re selling a saddle bag, you might see high-performing queries like “bike saddle bag” or “road bike saddle bag”. Look at metrics like Click Share, Conversion Share, and Search Volume. 

Prioritize keywords that show high CTR and CVR, and remove or negate ones with poor performance.

Step 2: Keyword Expansion Through Helium 10 Magnet 

Turn to third-party tools like Helium 10 Magnet to expand your keyword list. Start by entering a seed keyword, such as “bike saddle bag.” The tool will return hundreds or thousands of related keywords, along with estimated monthly search volumes, relevancy scores, and competing product counts. 

Use filters to narrow down to long-tail, high-intent keywords by setting a minimum word count (e.g. 3+ words), and filtering for Amazon search volume above 1,000 with a relevancy score over 7.5. 

Step 3: Reverse-Engineering Competitor Listings Using Helium 10 Cerebro 

Use Helium 10 Cerebro to reverse-engineer competitor listings. Pick the ASINs of 2–3 top competitors and enter them into Cerebro. This tool shows you which keywords your competitors are ranking for, both organically and via sponsored ads. 

You’ll see each keyword’s search volume, rank position, and whether it’s used in paid campaigns. Look for keywords with a high IQ score (high volume and low competition) and prioritize those with a Sponsored Rank between 1–3 and Organic Rank between 10–50. These are excellent candidates for phrase and exact match bidding strategies.

Step 4: Using Amazon Autocomplete Feature 

Amazon’s own autocomplete feature is a goldmine to identify the real-time shopper search behavior. Go to Amazon.com, type your seed keyword slowly, and record the auto-suggestions. 

For example, typing “bike saddle bag” may return results like “bike saddle bag small,” “bike saddle bag for rear rack,” or “bike saddle bag large.” Each of these represents unique buying intents, and you can expand them further by entering each suggestion back into the search bar to find additional modifiers. These terms are ideal for broad match discovery campaigns or for segmenting campaigns by use case.

Implementation of Amazon PPC Keywords

Once you’ve built a well-researched keyword list, it’s time to implement it into your PPC structure. So, the implementation of Amazon PPC keywords will go like: 

1. Sign in to your Amazon Seller Central account. Go to the “Advertising” section and select “Campaign Manager” there.  

2. Go to “Create Campaign” and enter details such as name, duration, etc and then select Manual Targeting. 

3. Then, comes the time to choose the match type. 

Assign high-converting, high-relevance keywords to exact match campaigns. Group competitor terms into phrase match conquesting campaigns. Use broad match for generic or exploratory terms, especially if you’re launching a new product or testing new angles. 

4. Obviously, unqualified traffic is the least you want for your Amazon PPC campaign so add Amazon PPC negative keywords like “cheap”, “free” or “DIY” to block all the unqualified searches. 

5. However, right after the execution comes the step of Amazon PPC optimization. To do so, always monitor your search term reports weekly and move proven converting search terms from auto or broad match into manual exact match campaigns for better control and efficiency.

How Many Keywords Per Campaign?
Stick to 10–30 keywords per ad group. Anything beyond that:
Dilutes budget
Increases complexity
Decreases optimization efficiency

What Are Common Mistakes in Amazon PPC Keyword Research?

Avoid these common keyword errors:

1. Prioritizing search volume over conversion intent
2. Using one match type for all keywords
3. Not harvesting search terms weekly from performance data
4. Combining branded, generic, and competitor keywords in one ad group
5. Not giving enough importance to negative keywords as they consume your Amazon PPC budget. 

Each of these mistakes reduces your keyword efficiency and inflates your ad costs.

Bottom Line 

Wrapping up this blog on the note that overlooking Amazon PPC keyword research only results as the burning out of the ad spend. So, following the above roadmap, tools and strategies is the best way to only spend on the keywords that bring conversions to your Amazon store. 

However, if your PPC campaigns are still struggling with issues like high ACoS and low ROI, it’s time to audit. We at AMZDUDES are offering a free Amazon audit for a limited period of time to pinpoint the issues that are setting the sellers behind. So, get a free Amazon audit now and scale your brand on Amazon like never before. 

FAQs 

Q1:  How to do keyword research for Amazon PPC?

Start with Amazon SQP and Brand Analytics to find converting search terms. Expand the list using Helium 10 or Jungle Scout, then validate performance with Search Term Reports before adding keywords to manual campaigns.

Q2: How to find the best keywords for Amazon?

The best keywords combine high search volume with strong buyer intent. Look for long-tail terms in Helium 10 Magnet or Amazon autocomplete, and confirm profitability through high CTR and CVR in your Search Term Reports.

Q3: Can you use brand keywords on Amazon?

Yes, you can bid on your own brand keywords to defend traffic. You can also bid on competitor brand terms, though they usually bring higher CPC and lower conversions.

Q4: How many keywords should you use for Amazon ads?

Use 10–30 highly relevant keywords per ad group. Keep branded, generic, and competitor terms in separate campaigns to avoid overlap and maintain control of budget and targeting.

Q4: What are Amazon PPC negative keywords?

Amazon PPC Negative keywords are terms you block to stop irrelevant clicks. For example, adding “cheap” or “free” as negatives prevents wasted spend from unqualified shoppers.