Keyword Research

Intent beats volume

The biggest keyword is not always the best keyword. A high-volume term full of browsers can drain budget, while a smaller, high-intent term quietly prints profit. Research is about finding the terms that signal a ready-to-buy shopper for your specific product.

Where keywords come from

Start with a seed list drawn from the places real demand already shows up:

• Your own listing: the words you use in the title, bullets, and backend terms.
• Your reviews: the language customers use to describe the problem you solve.
• Competitors: the obvious terms their listings rank and advertise for.
• Amazon’s own suggestions: autocomplete and related searches.

Let discovery do the finding

A seed list is a hypothesis. The truth comes from spending real money on discovery — auto and broad campaigns surface the exact phrases shoppers type, including the long-tail winners you would never have guessed sitting in a spreadsheet.

The harvest loop

The search-term report is the heart of keyword research. Find terms that converted profitably, promote them into exact-match campaigns where you control the bid, and negate them in the discovery campaign so you are not paying twice. Repeat weekly and your account compounds into a deliberate keyword map.

Build the map by intent

Organize what you find by role, because each tier deserves a different bid and expectation:

• Head terms: high volume, competitive, broad intent — your visibility plays.
• Mid-tail: more specific, usually better converting and cheaper.
• Long-tail: precise buyer intent — small volume, high efficiency, your margin engine.

Negatives are half the job

Research is not only about the terms you want — it is just as much about the ones you do not. Every irrelevant or wasteful term you negate sharpens the whole account and protects the budget that should be flowing to winners.

Master Sifu — SellerMate’s search-term reporting surfaces harvest candidates and wasteful terms side by side, so building and pruning your keyword map becomes a weekly habit instead of a quarterly project.