Amazon glossary

What is a search term?

Search term — The actual words a shopper typed.

By AIAdKing Editorial Team · Reviewed September 3, 2026

Search term — The actual words a shopper typed: A search term is the actual phrase a shopper typed into Amazon, as opposed to the keyword you targeted. The Search Term Report shows which real searches triggered your ads — the raw material for finding new keywords to add and wasteful ones to block as negatives.

In depth

Keywords are what you target; search terms are what shoppers actually typed before your ad appeared. Broad match, phrase match and automatic campaigns deliberately widen that gap — one broad keyword can match hundreds of distinct search terms — and the Search Term Report is where the gap becomes visible. Working it is the highest-leverage routine in Amazon PPC: converting terms graduate into exact-match keywords with their own bids (see match types for the graduation path), while terms that spend without selling get blocked as negative keywords. The profitability logic is that your budget is finite: every dollar a junk term burns is a dollar a proven term didn’t get, so the report is effectively a weekly list of budget transfers waiting to be made — our negative keywords guide reduces the workflow to a repeatable checklist.

Worked example

You target the broad keyword "lunch box". The Search Term Report reveals what shoppers actually typed: "bento box for adults" (60 clicks, 9 orders), "lunch box for office men" (45 clicks, 7 orders), and "disney lunch box kids" (110 clicks, 0 orders — you sell plain steel boxes). Actions: add the two converters as exact-match keywords with their own bids, and negate "disney" as a negative phrase. At a $0.42 average CPC, that one dead term alone was burning 110 × $0.42 ≈ $46 a month.

When to use it

Review the Search Term Report weekly for auto and broad campaigns during active optimisation, monthly for stable accounts. Always pull it after enabling a new broad keyword or auto campaign — the first fortnight surfaces most of the surprising matches.

Common mistakes

Confusing keyword and search-term reports — bid decisions made on keyword-level data miss that one keyword may hide ten great terms and forty duds.
Harvesting winners but never negating them in the source campaign — the graduated term keeps matching there too, so you end up bidding against yourself.
Acting on single-click data — a term needs enough clicks to judge; negating everything without an instant order kills discovery.

How AIAdKing handles Search term

AIAdKing reads your search-term data every night, promoting converting terms and blocking the ones that spend without selling — the search-term cleanup most sellers never have time to do.

Search term — quick answers