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Search terms and negative keywords

Stop paying for searches that never sell, and harvest the ones that do

SellerPilot reads every customer search term in your Sponsored Products reports, suggests negative keywords for searches that get clicks without orders, finds wasteful words across many searches with n-gram analysis, and moves winning searches into exact-match campaigns so you can bid on them directly.

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In short

Negative keywords for searches that never sell, and winners harvested into exact-match campaigns.

  • Negative exact or phrase in one click
  • N-gram analysis: the words that waste money across many searches
  • Winners harvested into exact-match campaigns
  • Exact keywords kept out of phrase, broad and auto campaigns
Search terms screen of a demo store: search-term spend 741 USD, spend with no orders, converting terms, ACOS 21.9% against a 25% target, and every search term with clicks, spend, orders, ACOS and a status such as Converting or Above targetSearch terms screen of a demo store: search-term spend 741 USD, spend with no orders, converting terms, ACOS 21.9% against a 25% target, and every search term with clicks, spend, orders, ACOS and a status such as Converting or Above target

Demo store with sample data.

How it works

  1. Every search term is loaded

    The search term report shows the real searches that triggered your ads, with spend, clicks, orders and ACOS.

  2. Waste is flagged

    A search with enough clicks and no order (12 clicks by default) becomes a negative keyword suggestion; n-gram analysis adds single words such as "free" or a competitor's brand that waste money across many searches.

  3. Winners are found

    Searches with 2 or more orders at or under your target ACOS that are not yet an exact keyword become harvest candidates.

  4. Winners get their own campaign

    Harvested terms move into exact-match campaigns (AP | HARVEST) where you can bid on them directly, and are added as negatives where they came from so the two campaigns do not compete.

  5. You approve, or the autopilot does

    Negatives and harvests wait for your approval, or the autopilot applies them inside its limits.

Example

From an auto campaign to an exact keyword

An automatic campaign for a linen pillow cover found 140 searches last month. "linen pillow cover 18x18" had 9 orders at 19% ACOS; "free pillow" had 15 clicks and no order; the word "cheap" appears in 11 searches that together spent $64 without an order.

SellerPilot suggests: harvest "linen pillow cover 18x18" into the AP | HARVEST exact-match campaign and add it as a negative exact in the auto campaign; add "free pillow" as negative exact; and, from the n-gram view, add "cheap" as a negative phrase.

The winning search now has its own bid, and the waste stops in one approval.

Illustrative numbers, not a customer result.

Why harvesting matters

Automatic and broad campaigns are good at finding searches you would not have thought of, but poor at bidding on them: a search that converts well shares one bid with hundreds that don't. Moving it into an exact-match campaign gives it its own bid and budget, and adding it as a negative in the source campaign stops the two from bidding against each other.

The same logic runs in reverse for waste: one negative exact keyword stops one search, while one negative phrase built from a wasteful word can stop hundreds.

What you see on the search terms screen

  • Every search with spend, clicks, orders, ACOS and the campaign it came from
  • Word frequency (n-grams) with spend and orders per word
  • Search share for your key searches from Brand Analytics (Search Query Performance), for brand owners
  • Keyword rank tracking for the searches you care about

What it does not do

Stated plainly, so you know before you start.

  • It does not add negatives on searches with too few clicks to judge
  • It does not create more harvest campaigns than your limit (3 new per run and 20 per marketplace by default)
  • It does not show searches Amazon does not report: Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands search terms are shown; harvesting moves Sponsored Products terms

Questions sellers ask

What is search term harvesting on Amazon?
Taking customer search terms that converted in automatic, broad or phrase campaigns and adding them as exact-match keywords in their own campaign, so each winning search gets its own bid; the term is then added as a negative in the source campaign.
When should a search term become a negative keyword?
When it has had enough clicks to judge and still no order, or an ACOS far above your target. SellerPilot's default is 12 clicks with no order; you can change it.
Negative exact or negative phrase?
Negative exact blocks one search. Negative phrase blocks every search containing the phrase, which is how one wasteful word found by n-gram analysis can stop many searches at once. Use phrase carefully on short words.
Does harvesting work for Sponsored Brands?
Sponsored Brands search terms are shown next to Sponsored Products ones, so you can see what they cost and sell; harvesting moves Sponsored Products terms into exact-match campaigns.
Will harvested keywords compete with my existing campaigns?
No. Exact keywords are kept out of phrase, broad and auto campaigns by adding them as negatives there.

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