Key takeaways
- The Search Query Performance report shows, for each search query, your brand's share of impressions, clicks, cart adds and purchases against all of Amazon, by week, month or quarter. Brand-registered sellers find it in Brand Analytics.
- Click share ÷ impression share compares your click-through rate with the query's. Purchase share ÷ click share does the same for conversion. A result below 1 marks the stage where you lose shoppers.
- Strong purchase share with low impression share is a visibility gap: add the query as a keyword or raise its bid. Low click share points to the main image, price or reviews, and a higher bid won't fix it.
- Queries that already bring your brand purchases, with no ad targeting them, are low-risk exact keywords.
- If your brand's median purchase price sits well above the query's median, price is part of the gap. The data is brand-level and arrives days late, so pair it with your ad reports.
The Amazon Search Query Performance report shows how your brand does on each search compared with everyone else on Amazon: of all the impressions, clicks, cart adds and purchases for a query, what share went to your products. Read it as a funnel, find the stage where your share drops, and fix that stage. Use bids and keywords when shoppers don't see you, the main image and price when they see you but don't click, and the detail page and price when they click but don't buy.
What the Amazon Search Query Performance report shows
It shows your position on each query across all search results, sponsored and organic, which your ad reports can't. It sits in Amazon Brand Analytics in Seller Central, a tool Amazon offers to brand owners enrolled in Brand Registry. You can view it by week, month or quarter, for the whole brand or for a single ASIN (Amazon's product ID), and download each view.
For each search query it gives you:
- Search query volume: how many times shoppers searched the query in the period.
- Four funnel stages: impressions, clicks, cart adds and purchases. For each stage you get the query's total across Amazon, your brand's count, and your brand's share (your count ÷ the total).
- Median prices: the median price of products clicked, added to cart and purchased for the query, next to your brand's median at each stage.
Your share at each stage is your Amazon search share for that query. Amazon calls the page the Search Query Performance dashboard, and the brand view is the place to start.
How to read the funnel: impression share to purchase share
Compare each stage's share with the stage before it. Where your share falls is where you lose shoppers, and two ratios do most of the work:
Click share ÷ impression share = your click-through rate ÷ the query's click-through rate
Purchase share ÷ click share = your conversion rate ÷ the query's conversion rate
Click-through rate is clicks ÷ impressions, and conversion rate is purchases ÷ clicks. The query totals cancel out, so your click share divided by your impression share is exactly your click-through rate divided by the query's. Above 1, you beat the query average at that step. Below 1, you trail it. Cart adds sit between the two and show whether a conversion gap opens on the detail page, before the cart, or after it.
| Where your share drops | What it usually means | Check first |
|---|---|---|
| Low impression share | Shoppers rarely see you on this query | Whether an ad targets it, your bid, your organic rank |
| Click share below impression share | Shoppers see you and choose another product | Main image, title, price, star rating, review count, delivery promise |
| Cart add share below click share | The detail page loses them | Price against the query median, images, A+ content, reviews, sizes in stock |
| Purchase share below cart add share | They add to cart and don't buy | Delivery date, stock, price changes |
Worked example (illustrative numbers). Say a brand of steel water bottles sees these monthly shares:
| Query | Impression share | Click share | Purchase share | Click ÷ impression | Purchase ÷ click |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| steel water bottle 1 litre | 4% | 5% | 9% | 1.25 | 1.80 |
| insulated water bottle | 18% | 7% | 6% | 0.39 | 0.86 |
| water bottle for gym | 10% | 11% | 4% | 1.10 | 0.36 |
On the first query, shoppers who see the brand click and buy well above the average, but few see it: a visibility gap. On the second, the brand is seen often and skipped: a click gap. On the third, it wins its share of clicks and loses the sale on the page: a conversion gap. Only the first is a bid problem.
How to turn Search Query Performance data into bids and keywords
Raise bids only where the funnel says visibility is the constraint. Everywhere else, fix the listing first.
High purchase share, low impression share: buy more visibility
When purchase share is well above impression share, each impression you win turns into purchases at a higher rate than the query average. Extra visibility on that query is worth more to you than to the average listing. Find the query in your search term report. If no exact keyword targets it, add one. If one does, raise the bid in steps and re-read the next week's shares. Keep ACoS (ad spend ÷ ad sales) under your break-even; our guide to high ACoS covers the bid side.
High impression share, low click share: fix the listing before the bid
If shoppers see you often and click rarely, a higher bid buys more of the impressions they already skip. Look at what shows in the results: main image, title, price, rating, review count and delivery promise. Compare them with the products around yours for that query, change one thing at a time, and watch click share over the following weeks.
Clicks but low purchase share: fix the page first
A purchase share well below click share means each click converts worse than the query average, so every rupee spent there buys fewer orders than it should. Check your price against the query median (next section), then images, A+ content and reviews. Until the page improves, a lower bid on that query limits the loss.
Purchases with no ad coverage: add the query as a keyword
A query that already brings your brand purchases, with no ad targeting it, is a low-risk keyword because it has proven it converts for you. Export the brand view for the last month or quarter, list the queries where your brand has purchases, and check each against your targeted keywords and search term report. Add the missing ones as exact keywords, bid within your break-even ACoS, and review them after a few weeks.
Clicks without purchases for months: check for negatives
If a query brings your brand clicks and no purchases across a month or a quarter, run it through the checks in our guide to Amazon negative keywords. It may be a real market that is wrong for your product.
Price-fit check: your price against the query's median purchase price
If your brand's median purchase price sits well above the query's median, price is part of any click or conversion gap on that query, and bids won't close it. The report shows both numbers, so the check is quick.
Our rule of thumb: within about 10% of the query median, your price is competitive for that search. More than 25% above it, expect price to hold back clicks and purchases unless the listing makes the premium obvious. Where you have clicks but no purchases, compare your brand's median click price with the query's median purchase price instead.
Worked example. Say the median purchase price for "insulated water bottle" is ₹799 and your brand's is ₹1,199. ₹1,199 ÷ ₹799 is about 1.5, so you sit 50% above the query median, which fits the click gap in the table above. The options are a lower-priced product for that query, a coupon or price test, or a smaller bid that accepts a smaller share. Run any price change through our profit calculator first, so you know the margin survives it.
What the Search Query Performance report can't tell you
The report is strong on direction and weak on detail, so pair it with your ad reports before changing bids.
- It doesn't split ads from organic. Your share counts sponsored and organic results together, and your search term report shows the ad part. Because of that mix, judge an ad push by total sales, not ad sales alone. That is what TACoS (ad spend ÷ total sales) measures; see TACoS vs ACoS.
- It shows your share, not who took the rest. Brand Analytics has a separate search terms report that lists the top clicked products for a search.
- It arrives late. Weekly data lands a few days after the week closes, which suits weekly and monthly decisions better than daily bid changes.
- It only covers queries where your products appeared. Demand you are invisible for won't be in it.
- Small queries swing. If a query has 10 purchases in total, one purchase moves your share by 10 percentage points. Use the monthly or quarterly view for low-volume queries.
- It is brand-level by default. The ASIN view helps when one product carries a query, but the shares are still against all of Amazon, not against your campaigns.
A weekly routine with the Search Query Performance dashboard
Run the same steps every week, so each change can be judged against last week's shares:
- Open the Search Query Performance dashboard, brand view, for the latest complete week, or month if your volumes are small.
- Sort by search query volume and start from the top.
- Work out click share ÷ impression share and purchase share ÷ click share, and mark anything below 1.
- Match each query to your search term report: is an ad targeting it, and at what ACoS?
- Act by case: bids and keywords for visibility gaps, listing work for click and conversion gaps, negatives for long runs of clicks without purchases.
- Note what you changed and re-read the same queries a few weeks later.
ScaleSKUs pulls this data weekly through Amazon's Selling Partner API and lines each query up against your ad data, flagging high-demand queries you don't advertise on and queries where your price sits well above the median. Nothing changes on Amazon until someone on your team approves it. See how it works.
Frequently asked questions
Who can see the Search Query Performance report?
Brand owners enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry can, through Brand Analytics in Seller Central. Without a registered brand the report isn't available. Your search term report is the nearest alternative, though it only covers searches where your ads showed.
How often is Search Query Performance data updated?
Amazon publishes it by week, month and quarter. Weekly data appears a few days after the week ends, so plan your review around the latest complete week, not the current one.
Does the Search Query Performance report include ads?
Yes, without separating them. Impressions, clicks, cart adds and purchases count whether they came from a sponsored or an organic result, so a rise in share can come from either. Your search term report shows the ad part.
How is it different from the Amazon search term report?
The search term report covers only your ads: the searches that triggered them, with clicks, spend, orders and ACoS. The Search Query Performance report covers each query across Amazon and your brand's share of it, ads and organic together. Use the first for bid maths and the second to see where you win and where you are missing.
What is a good impression share?
There is no universal benchmark, because it depends on how broad the query is and how many brands compete on it. The ratios tell you more. If click share ÷ impression share and purchase share ÷ click share are both near or above 1, more visibility is likely to pay. If either is well below 1, fix that stage first.