What are negative keywords on Amazon? Put simply, they are keywords that prevent content from showing up in Amazon search results. Negative keywords can be added to your campaigns through Amazon’s Seller Central – the web interface used by merchants to market their products.
Interestingly, Amazon negative keywords have more to do with paid media than search engine optimization (SEO). You can use them in tandem with regular keywords for Amazon to prevent your ads from showing up in irrelevant search results.
Your ads don’t show up in broad or general searches when you specify negative keywords in the settings. Instead, they will only appear in searches that pertain to your Amazon campaign. This will have several benefits, such as your ad spend and cost per click (CPC) going down, but it will reduce the visibility of your ads. However, when employing Amazon keywords tips and tactics effectively and including a negative keyword strategy, you end up showing your ads to your target audience and reaching prospects actively searching for your products.
With your most lucrative negative keywords identified and the right strategy in place, your ads show up in specific user searches. These users are far more likely to make a purchase because your listing was laser-targeted and relevant to their search – a crucial aspect of how to increase ranking on Amazon.
Amazon as a Search Engine
Amazon is more than just the biggest eCommerce platform worldwide. It’s also one of the most popular search engines. The Amazon search engine has its own algorithm called A9. It’s imperative for sellers to learn how to use keywords on Amazon following A9 best practices.
Amazon works differently compared to Google, Bing and other search engines. Remember, it’s designed to be an eCommerce platform. Understanding this can help you improve your Amazon SEO strategy.
A9 only has two goals:
1. Serve the needs of the buyers Keywords that get lots of clicks but produce fewer sales
2. Sell products to those buyers
With this in mind, you can do a great job of Amazon keyword research. It’ll also help you plan your ad campaigns more effectively. Use negative keywords to tell Amazon’s search engine which queries aren’t relevant to your ads. By combining this with the information about your ideal customer profile, you can identify which search terms they use and which ones they don’t. Doing this allows you to target a very specific audience for your ads.
Regular Keywords vs. Amazon Negative Keywords
What are negative keywords on Amazon? To fully get to grips with them, you need to contrast them with positive keywords (regular keywords). Consider the following details:
• Positive keywords used by customers tell the Amazon search engine to display your product listing in searches.
• Negative search terms signal to the search engine not to display your products when it matches search terms used by shoppers.
• Positive keywords are available in all types, such as broad match, phrase match and exact match.
• Negative search terms can only be used as phrase match and exact match keywords.
• Positive keywords included in your ads make the product appear in searches.
• Negative search terms prevent your ads from appearing in searches.
Understanding these differentiators help improve your Amazon keyword research, while applying them correctly increases your Amazon ranking.
Negative Amazon Keywords Research
Here’s a basic rundown of what you need to do when you research Amazon negative keywords:
1. Run your ad campaigns to generate some data such as the number of sales, click through rate (CTR), number of impressions, conversion rates and search terms used.
2. Let your campaigns run and gather data for several weeks until you have enough reports to compare. We recommend gathering at least two to four weeks worth of data.
3. From these reports, look for keywords with a high number of clicks but with low conversion. This is a sign that they’re irrelevant to your ads – you can narrow down the negative keywords using the criteria below.
So, how do you know if a keyword in the reports is actually a negative one? Here are some of the characteristics to look for:
• Keywords that get lots of clicks but produce fewer sales
• Keywords that are reported as having low conversion rates but higher cost per conversion
• Keywords with a low CTR and low conversion rates
• Keywords that have a higher number of impressions but fewer clicks
Make a list of negative keywords using the criteria above. Do it for each ad and enter them in the Seller Central settings for each campaign.
5 Benefits of Using Negative Keywords
1. Improves CTR
Your CTR goes down when your ads appear in irrelevant search results simply because you get more views than you have clicks and negative keywords help you increase it. Experts recommend a 0.41 percent CTR.
2. Improves Conversions
Since your ads are only shown to a targeted audience, conversions go up and get better returns.
3. Prevents Internal Ad Campaign Competition
Negative keywords prevent your Amazon ad campaigns appearing in searches for similar products. Your ad campaigns get delimited toward specific niches. It’s a big boost on how to increase ranking on Amazon.
4. Improves Product Ranking
With a higher CTR, the Amazon ranking of your products is higher. Use the same data in your Amazon keyword research.
5. Reduces Costs and Unnecessary Ad Spend
With ads shown only to a targeted audience, you don’t spend your ad budget on irrelevant clicks. This helps you fine-tune your SEO Amazon strategy.
Where To Add Negative Keywords Amazon
Amazon Seller Central allows you to place negative keywords at the ad group level and at the campaign level.
• Ad Group Level: At this level, your selected negative keyword only applies to specific ads. Experts from any Amazon agency can tell you to use exact match keywords at this group level.
• Campaign Level: Always add negative keywords to all campaigns. For campaign-level placement, use phrase match keywords.
How To Add Negative Keywords Amazon
Follow these steps to add negative keywords in your Amazon campaigns:
1. Log in to your account at Amazon Seller Central.
2. Select the ad campaign where you want to add negative keywords.
3. Select an ad group if you want to place your negative keywords at the ad-group level; you can skip this step if you want to add negative keywords individually for each campaign.
4. Click on the negative keywords tab and select the match type from the drop-down menu.
5. You’ll see a box where you can enter negative keywords.
Follow the steps below to add positive keywords:
1. Go to the inventory tab in Seller Central
2. Click Manage Inventory
3. Pick a product in your list and click Edit
4. Go to the Keywords tab
5. In the Search Terms box, enter the positive keywords you want to use
Remember, add negative keywords to all campaigns – Amazon SEO services providers recommend it.
Amazon Keywords Tips
The following are some of the best practices on how to use Amazon keywords. For more custom keyword strategies, consult with an experienced Amazon SEO services provider.
• Don’t use too many broad search terms
The Amazon search engine understands certain nuances in terminology. It knows the different subtypes of products and adds them in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Using more specific and delimited keywords increases your product’s searchability.
• Use synonyms and spelling variations
Amazon Seller Central recommends the use of spelling variations and synonyms, allowing you to cast a wider net. Variations provide you with more options on how to choose Amazon keywords.
• Use keywords in the product description
Our next tip on how to choose keywords for Amazon is to use search terms in your product description. Make sure to add them to the call to action (CTA) portion of the description.
• Place them in the technical details box
Amazon can pull the information for the technical details box from the data you provide in your listing. Edit this section and add your keywords here to increase visibility.
How To Increase Ranking on Amazon
What’s next after you add negative keywords to all campaigns? To improve your Amazon ranking, you need to perform an in-depth audit. You can then determine how to optimize each product listing using regular and negative keywords Amazon.
Working with a full-service Amazon agency furnishes you with a well-rounded approach that covers negative keywords Amazon SEO and product description optimization. They can help you develop a custom SEO Amazon strategy covering all your needs.
Thrive is an Amazon SEO services agency with more than 16 years of proven industry experience. Our Amazon marketing services team has helped hundreds of companies of different sizes.
As an Amazon marketing agency, one of our winning partnerships is with Seismic Audio, a Memphis-based professional audio equipment manufacturer. Our team determined how to choose Amazon keywords that worked for the company and formulated a unique strategy that included negative search terms. With an optimized SEO Amazon strategy in place, our team was able to provide the following results for Seismic Audio:
• Twenty-six percent increase in sales volume
• Reduced advertising costs by 29 percent
• Increased unit sales by 23 percent
If you’re interested in getting stellar results like these for yourself, call our Amazon marketing agency representatives on 866-434-4748 or fill out this form.
