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Introduction
A frequently misunderstood part of Amazon advertising is the distinction between keywords and search terms. Both play a crucial role in how your ads perform, and we break them down below.
Keywords
Used to target your ads to potential customers - these are what you bid on in your campaigns.
You can choose keywords yourself with manual targeting, or let Amazon choose them with automatic targeting.
Keywords are one type of target, alongside product targets.
There are different keyword match types: exact, phrase, and broad.
Keywords are matched to a customer's search term.
Search Terms
What a shopper actually types into the Amazon search bar when looking for a product.
Strong, high-performing search terms can be “harvested” and turned into keywords that you bid on, as long as they’re relevant to your product or ad.
In summary, keywords are the terms you choose and bid on as an advertiser, while search terms are the actual phrases customers type into Amazon when looking for products.