1. Your search term report
Seller Central → Advertising → Campaign Manager → Measurement & reporting → Sponsored ads reports → Create report → Search term → a 30 to 60 day range, Daily or Summary → CSV. Needs Customer Search Term, Spend, Clicks and Orders; Campaign Name, Ad Group Name, Targeting, Match Type, Impressions and Total Sales are used when present.
Choose a file or paste report text, then click Analyze.
Result
Where the money went
| Bucket | Spend | Share of spend |
|---|
Negative-keyword candidates
No orders, and either enough clicks to be proven or more spend than one order is worth. A review list, not an instruction: seasonal, branded and new-listing terms can look like this and then convert.
| Search term | Campaign / ad group | Spend | Clicks | Evidence |
|---|
Harvest into exact match
| Search term | Orders | Sales | ACOS | Avg. CPC | Suggested bid |
|---|
Bids above break-even
Terms that sold but cost more than the target ACOS allows. The break-even CPC is sales per click times the target ACOS. The saving assumes the same clicks and orders at the lower bid, which lower bids rarely deliver.
| Search term | Campaign / ad group | Spend | ACOS | Avg. CPC | Break-even CPC | Spend above break-even |
|---|
Terms served by more than one campaign
| Search term | Campaigns | Spend | Orders | ACOS |
|---|
Every search term
| Search term | Spend | Clicks | Orders | Sales | ACOS | CPC | Click to order |
|---|
The model, and what it leaves out
- Placement: rows are combined per campaign, ad group and search term (case-insensitive), because a negative is applied to a placement. Harvest and overlap combine placements per search term.
- Reconciles. Spend on profitable placements, unprofitable placements and the proven, overspent and watch tiers adds up to your total spend, and the last three add up to the no-order figure.
- Proven no-order spend means the fewest clicks n with (1 − rate)n under 0.05 at the account's click-to-order rate. Overspent is more than one order's worth at the target ACOS (average order value × target ACOS) with none; watch is everything else.
- Unprofitable: orders, but ACOS above the target. ACOS is recomputed from spend and sales, not read from the file.
- Harvest: at least the minimum orders, ACOS at or under the target, not an ASIN target, and no exact-match keyword equal to the term in the file. Suggested bid = the lower of the average CPC and order value × click-to-order rate × target ACOS.
- Not modelled: attribution delay (recent days are understated), halo and other-SKU sales beyond what the report attributes, organic rank lift from ads, lifetime value and repeat purchase, seasonality, placement and budget effects, auction dynamics, and what a lower bid would do to impressions. ACOS here uses total attributed sales; margin is yours to supply.
Common questions
How do I find wasted spend in my Amazon Sponsored Products search term report?
Download the Search term report (Seller Central, Advertising, Campaign Manager, Measurement and reporting, Sponsored ads reports, Search term, CSV) and drop it here. The tool groups rows by campaign, ad group and search term and lists the terms with no orders. A term is proven when it had enough clicks that, at your account's own click-to-order rate, seeing no order would happen by chance less than 5% of the time; overspent when it spent more than one order is worth at your target ACOS; and watch otherwise.
What ACOS should I use as the target?
Your break-even ACOS is your profit margin before ad spend: if you keep 35% of the price after fees and cost of goods, an ACOS above 35% loses money on that sale. Enter it in the target field. If you leave it blank the tool uses your account's average ACOS, which tells you which terms are worse than your own average, not which lose money.
What is a search term harvest?
A search term from an auto, broad or phrase campaign that already earns orders at an acceptable ACOS and has no exact-match keyword of its own in the file. Moving it to an exact-match campaign gives you control of its bid. The suggested bid is the lower of the current average CPC and the break-even CPC, which is order value times click-to-order rate times target ACOS.
Should I add every flagged term as a negative keyword?
No. The list is a review sheet. Seasonal terms, branded terms and new listings can show no orders in a short window and convert later, and a negative also stops the term from ever showing on that campaign. Read each in context.
Which columns and file formats does it read?
Customer Search Term (or Search term), Spend, Clicks and an Orders column are required. Campaign Name, Ad Group Name, Targeting, Match Type, Impressions, Total Sales and the report dates are used when present. The 7, 14 or 30 day attribution prefix and a currency in the header are ignored, thousands separators are handled, and comma, tab and semicolon files in UTF-8 or UTF-16 are read. Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands search term reports work; Sponsored Display has none.
Is this advertising or financial advice?
No. It applies arithmetic to the file you provide and does not replace your own judgement or a qualified adviser. It is independent of Amazon and is not affiliated with or endorsed by it.