Amazon Ads Guide
How to Harvest Amazon Ads Search Terms
Search-term harvesting turns discovery data into a more deliberate targeting plan. The important part is separating strong customer searches, product-detail-page ASINs, weak terms and terms that simply need more data.
Try our Amazon Search Term Harvesting Tool →The practical workflow
1. Start with the Amazon Search Term report
In the Amazon Ads advertising console, reporting is available underMeasurement & Reporting → Sponsored ads reports. Create a Search Term report for the sponsored-ad activity you want to review.
Amazon describes the Search Term report as a way to identify high-performing customer searches and to find search terms that may deserve negative keyword or product targeting.
Recommended fields
- Customer Search Term
- Campaign name
- Ad Group name
- Targeting / keyword
- Match type when available
- Impressions and Clicks
- Spend
- Orders
- Sales
2. Separate customer queries from ASINs
Search Term reports are not always made up only of normal text queries. Amazon can also return alphanumeric entries such as an ASIN when the ad was shown against a product detail page in eligible targeting setups.
A proven shopper query can become a deliberate manual keyword target, commonly using exact match when tighter control is wanted.
A strong ASIN can be reviewed as a manual product target rather than being treated like a normal keyword.
3. Decide what deserves harvesting
A search term should normally prove both volume andeconomic quality before it is promoted into more deliberate targeting.
Use order volume as an evidence floor
One order can be useful, but it can also be noise. Requiring a minimum number of orders helps prevent the workflow from promoting every isolated conversion as a proven winner.
Compare against your ACoS economics
If you know your target ACoS, use it as a profitability or efficiency guardrail. A term with multiple orders but an ACoS far above what your product economics can support may not be a harvest candidate yet.
4. Build a negative-targeting review queue
High-click terms with no orders are useful because they show where spend is accumulating without a purchase signal. They are not automatic negatives, but they deserve review.
The query clearly fits the product but may need more data, a lower bid or a better product-detail-page conversion rate.
If the shopper intent does not match the product, negative targeting may prevent more wasted clicks.
Product-detail-page traffic that repeatedly fails your criteria may deserve ASIN-level negative review where supported.
Keep terms visible without forcing a harvest or negative decision too early.
5. Avoid “harvesting” something you already target
A useful harvesting workflow should compare the customer search term with the targeting already present in the report. If a term is already being targeted deliberately — especially as an exact match — creating another identical target may add complexity without creating a new discovery path.
6. Set thresholds that fit your account
| Threshold | What it controls | How to think about it |
|---|---|---|
| Target ACoS | Efficiency guardrail for harvest decisions | Anchor it to product economics or your campaign objective. |
| Minimum orders | Evidence required before a term is promoted | Higher values reduce false winners but slow harvesting. |
| Zero-sale clicks | When a non-converting term enters negative review | Set it relative to CPC, expected CVR and acceptable testing spend. |
| Watchlist spend | When an undecided term deserves attention | Useful for expensive terms that have not yet hit other thresholds. |
7. Example harvesting decision
ACoS is 17.5%. If the advertiser's target ACoS is 25% and the term is not already deliberately targeted, this is a reasonable keyword-harvest candidate. If the “search term” is actually an ASIN, review it as a product-target opportunity instead.
8. Turn harvesting into a repeatable routine
- Export a consistent Search Term reporting window.
- Review harvest candidates first.
- Separate text keywords from ASIN product targets.
- Check whether the winner is already deliberately targeted.
- Review high-click, zero-order terms for negatives.
- Leave uncertain rows in a watchlist.
- Re-check performance after the next reporting cycle.
The point is not to maximize the number of keyword changes. The point is to move useful discovery data into a cleaner, more deliberate targeting structure while protecting the account from obvious waste.
Turn your Amazon Search Term report into an action list
Upload your Search Term report to identify keyword and ASIN harvest opportunities, negative-review candidates, already-targeted terms and rows that need more data.
Open the Search Term Harvester →Your report is processed directly in your browser.