Amazon Search Query Performance is a Brand Analytics report that shows which search queries are leading customers to your products and then tells you how those searches perform across impressions, clicks, cart adds and purchases. And while the report certainly isn’t new, it’s often one of the most underused advantages in Amazon’s toolkit.
Most Amazon sellers monitor sales, ACoS, TACoS and keyword rankings. The problem is, those numbers don’t always tell you where performance is actually breaking down. You might know sales have dropped, but you don’t know whether it’s because fewer shoppers are finding your products, fewer people are clicking your listings or whether your conversion rate has simply fallen.
What Is Amazon Search Query Performance?
Amazon Search Query Performance is part of Amazon Brand Analytics. For sellers, access requires a Professional selling account and the Brand Representative role for a brand enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry. The report shows how your brand or selected ASIN performs for relevant search queries, covering impressions, clicks, cart adds and purchases.
What Data Does the SQP Report Show?
SQP reports activity for each search query during your selected period. Distinguish the query’s overall totals from the figures for your selected brand or ASIN.
Search Query is the word or phrase entered into Amazon search.
Query Volume counts how many times that query was searched during the reporting period.
Impressions count product appearances in the query’s search results.
Clicks count product clicks originating from those search results, rather than unique shoppers.
Cart Adds count additions to baskets originating from the query’s search results.
Purchases count purchase actions originating from those search results. This is a count, not a revenue figure.
Click Share is the percentage of the query’s total clicks attributed to your selected brand or ASIN.
Purchase Share is the percentage of the query’s total purchase actions attributed to your selected brand or ASIN.
For example, if your ASIN receives 10 of the 100 purchase actions recorded for a query, its purchase share is 10%. That does not mean 10% of visitors to your listing bought the product.
How to Use SQP to Improve Amazon SEO
Use SQP to prioritise queries for Amazon SEO and listing optimisation. Start with searches that closely match your products, then review search demand and your share of impressions, clicks and purchases.
For relevant queries with low impression share, check whether your titles, bullet points and product information clearly describe what shoppers are searching for. Review product availability and advertising activity too, as these can affect visibility. Include relevant terms naturally and keep the content accurate.
Where products receive impressions but few clicks, review the main image, title, price, reviews and delivery offer. Where clicks lead to few purchases, investigate the product page, including specifications, variation choices, supporting images and A+ Content, alongside the offer itself.
Record your changes and review the same queries and products over comparable periods. SQP includes paid and organic search activity, so interpret changes alongside advertising, pricing and stock information before attributing an improvement to SEO.
How to Use Amazon Search Query Performance to Improve PPC
SQP can help you identify relevant search queries to investigate as part of your Amazon PPC management. SQP includes paid and organic search activity, so a strong purchase share should not automatically be interpreted as strong organic performance.
Start with queries that closely match your products. Review search demand and your share of impressions, clicks and purchases, then check your advertising reports to understand existing targeting, spend and advertising-attributed sales. This can help you identify potential campaign tests.
If your share of purchases is lower than your share of clicks, investigate the product page and offer. Pricing, delivery, reviews, content and product relevance may all affect shoppers’ decisions. Check the underlying numbers before drawing conclusions from small samples.
Use advertising reports to assess bids, budgets, ACoS and ROAS. Review SQP alongside them for the wider search picture, using matching marketplaces and reporting periods. The reports define and attribute activity differently, so their figures will not necessarily match and should not be subtracted to calculate organic sales.
Search Query Performance vs PPC Search Term Report
Many sellers assume that these are the same thing. They’re not. SQP report and the PPC Search Term Report answer different questions entirely.
SQP is a broad report that shows how your brand or ASIN performs throughout each stage of the search funnel and helps you understand search demand, where you’re gaining visibility and where customers are losing interest before buying.
The PPC Search Term report, on the other hand, basically just shows how paid ads have performed against search terms.
SQP reporting is useful for understanding overall search demand and any funnel leakage, while PPC reports help sellers to optimise bids, adjust budgets and tweak keywords more easily. When used together, you’ll get a much clearer picture of overall sales performance and where improvements can easily be made.
| Feature | SQP | Ads Search Term Report | Search Catalogue Performance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Full search funnel | PPC performance | ASIN search performance |
| Focus | Queries by brand or ASIN | Search terms from paid ads | Catalogue ASINs in search |
| Search demand | Yes – query volume | Paid impressions only | No |
| Impression share | Yes | Separate report | No |
| Click share | Yes | No | No |
| Purchase share | Yes | No | No |
| Best for | SEO, PPC and funnel gaps | PPC optimisation | Listing performance |
| Bid insights | Indirect | Yes | Indirect |
| Answers | Which queries win or lose shoppers? | Which search terms drive sales? | Where does each ASIN lose shoppers? |
Common Mistakes Sellers Make with SQP
One of the most common mistakes sellers make with SQP is focusing almost entirely on purchase share. While sales are obviously important, looking at purchases alone won’t tell you why performance is changing. The real value of Search Query Performance is understanding where shoppers are dropping out of the funnel, whether that’s at impressions, clicks, cart adds or purchases.
Ignoring search queries with high impressions but low click-through rates is another common mistake made when using the SQP. If your products are already appearing frequently, improving your rankings further may not make much difference, so spending some time reviewing your main image, title, pricing or review profile is likely to have a better outcome.
Some sellers also treat SQP like a PPC report. It isn’t. Don’t pick one or the other; use them both and avoid making listing changes when you’ve got limited data.
And lastly, stop assuming that every problem is keyword-related. Poor pricing, weak reviews, slow delivery or more competitive offers can all affect click-through rates and conversion. Likewise, chasing high-volume keywords that aren’t genuinely relevant to your products rarely ends well. More visibility only helps if you’re attracting the right customers in the first place.
Simple SQP Workflow for Sellers
In order to get the most from Amazon’s SQP report, it’s best practice to follow the same workflow for each listing.
- Choose a consistent scope. Select the marketplace, brand or ASIN and a completed reporting period. Use the same scope when reviewing changes.
- Prioritise relevant queries. Focus on searches that closely match your products and have enough activity to assess. Consider search volume alongside product relevance, margins and stock availability.
- Review the search funnel. Examine impressions, clicks, cart adds and purchases, including your share of activity. Check the underlying counts: small samples can produce large percentage changes.
- Investigate before choosing an action. Low impression share alone does not establish an SEO problem. Review listing relevance, availability and advertising coverage. Where shoppers see products but rarely click, investigate the title, main image, price and delivery offer. Where clicks produce few purchases, review the product page and offer.
- Record changes and review the results. Note what changed and when, then compare equivalent reporting periods. Consider promotions, advertising, pricing and stock changes when interpreting results. Use advertising reports to assess PPC performance alongside the broader SQP data.
Example: If a product has strong impressions but weak clicks for a stainless steel water bottle, the first things to review are the main image, title, price, Prime offer, reviews and whether the product matches what shoppers expect to see in the search results.
Final Takeaway
The Amazon Search Query Performance report provides great insights into listing performance, but it’s most valuable when treated like a diagnostic tool, rather than just another report. Used correctly, it will help you understand where potential buyers are being lost and where your biggest opportunities exist by connecting SEO, listing optimisation, advertising and conversion into one overall view of your search performance.
