High-Spend, No-Sales Keywords on Amazon? Here’s How to Fix Them
Your Amazon ad campaigns are spending money like crazy, but you’re not seeing any sales to show for it. You’ve got keywords that are racking up impressions and clicks, but they’re just not converting.
This is one of the most frustrating problems for Amazon sellers. It’s like throwing money into a black hole. You’re not alone if you’re dealing with this.
In this article, we’ll break down exactly how to identify and optimize those non-converting, high-spend keywords, so you can stop wasting money and start boosting your profits. Let’s dive in.
Why Are Your Keywords Getting Clicks, but Not Sales?
Before we jump into the how-to, let’s understand why this happens. There are a few common reasons why keywords might be attracting clicks but failing to convert into sales.
Irrelevant Keywords: You might be bidding on keywords that aren’t closely related to your product. People clicking on these ads might be looking for something different.
Poor Product Page: Your product listing itself might be the problem. If your images are low-quality, your description is unclear, or your reviews are poor, potential customers might bounce.
Uncompetitive Pricing: Your price might be too high compared to similar products. Shoppers are savvy and will quickly compare prices before making a purchase.
Bad Ad Copy: If your ad copy is misleading, someone could land on your product page expecting one thing but getting another.
Seasonal or Timing Mismatches Your product might be getting clicks during research phases but purchases happen later, or you’re advertising during a time when people browse but don’t buy
Step 1: Identify Your Problem Keywords
The first step is to pinpoint the keywords that are bleeding your budget dry. Here’s how:
Go to your Amazon Advertising dashboard. Navigate to your Campaign Manager.
Run a search term report. Set the date range for the past 30-60 days. This gives you a good sample size.
Download the report. Export it as a CSV file.
Open the report in a spreadsheet program. (Excel, Google Sheets, etc.)
Filter the data. Focus on these columns:
Impressions
Clicks
Spend
Sales
ACOS
Identify keywords with high spend and zero sales. Sort by “Spend” in descending order. Look for keywords with significant spend ($10+, $50+, or even $100+, depending on your budget) but zero sales.
Calculate ACOS for keywords with sales. Sort the results by spend again. Any keywords that have sales, but an ACOS of 70%+, highlight them for further analysis.
Here’s why this matters: You need to know where your money is going before you can fix the problem. Ignoring this step is like driving with your eyes closed.
Step 2: Analyze and Optimize Your Keywords
Once you’ve identified your problem keywords, it’s time to figure out why they’re not converting. Let’s look at a few optimization strategies:
Improve Keyword Relevance
Ask yourself: Is this keyword truly relevant to my product?
- Check the search term. What are people actually searching for when they trigger this keyword? Does it align with your product’s features and benefits?
For example, if you are selling a wooden cutting board but you are showing up on searches like “glass cutting board” or “plastic cutting board”.
- Refine your targeting. If the keyword is too broad, consider using more specific, long-tail keywords.
For example, if you’re selling a “stainless steel water bottle,” you might be bidding on the keyword “water bottle.” That’s too broad and an easy way to rack up a lot of spend.
Instead, you could try keywords like: “insulated stainless steel water bottle” or “leak-proof sports water bottle.”
Optimize Your Product Listing
Your product listing is your sales page. Make sure it’s converting visitors into buyers.
High-Quality Images: Use clear, professional-looking images that showcase your product from multiple angles as well as incorporating lifestyle photos of the product in action.
Compelling Description: Highlight the key features and benefits of your product within the bullet points. Make sure they are actually human-readable and not only optimized for SEO.
Competitive Price: Research similar products and price your product competitively. Of course, you also need to take into account your actual product margins (COGS, Amazon fees, etc.)
Gather Reviews: Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews (always following Amazon’s TOS). Positive reviews build trust and social proof.
You can have the best PPC strategy in the world but it won’t matter if your listing isn’t optimized.
Refine Your Bidding Strategy
Your bidding strategy can also impact your conversion rates.
Lower your bids: For non-converting keywords, try lowering your bids to reduce your ad spend. You can even lower your bid all the way down to $0.02. It’s effectively paused but if you get a click a $0.02 that will almost certainly be profitable!
Pause the keyword: If lowering your bids doesn’t help, consider pausing the keyword altogether.
Move to Negative Keywords: After pausing keywords with high spend and zero sales, consider adding them as negative keywords so that you do not accidentally bid on them again in the future (more on this below).
Ad Copy Analysis
For Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display ads, you have some additional elements to consider. Like the Ad Copy which refers to the text used in the actual ad.
Write Clear and Concise Ad Copy: Ensure your ad copy is directly related to your product and entices customers to click.
A/B Test Different Ad Copies: Experiment with different headlines, descriptions, and calls to action to see what performs best.
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Step 3: Implement Negative Keywords
Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing to customers searching for terms that aren’t relevant to your product. This is crucial for saving money and improving your ACOS.
Identify irrelevant search terms. Look for search terms in your report that are clearly unrelated to your product.
Add them as negative keywords. In your Amazon Advertising dashboard, add these terms as negative keywords to your campaign or ad group.
For example, if you’re selling dog collars, you might want to add “cat collars” as a negative keyword.
Amazon allows for two negative keyword match types: Negative Exact and Negative Phrase.
Negative exact will negate only the exact match of the search term. So if you negate “cat collars” as a negative exact you could still show up on “cat” or “collars”.
However, a negative phrase will negate any search term with “cat collars” a the start of the search term. For example, “cat collars for small cats”.
If you wanted to negate anything related to cats at all you could add the single word “cat” as a negative phrase.
Real-World Example
Let’s say you’re selling protein powder. You identify the keyword “protein” as a high-spend, low-conversion keyword.
Problem: The keyword “protein” is too broad. People searching for “protein” might be looking for protein bars, protein shakes, or even information about protein in general.
Solution:
Add negative keywords like “bars,” “shakes,” “information,” and “recipes.”
Use more specific keywords like “whey protein powder,” “vegan protein powder,” or “chocolate protein powder.”
Optimize your product listing to clearly state that you’re selling powder.
By implementing these changes, you can reduce wasted ad spend and improve your conversion rates.
The Bottom line
Optimizing non-converting keywords is an ongoing process. It requires constant monitoring, analysis, and adjustments. But by following these steps, you can stop wasting money on irrelevant clicks and start driving more profitable sales.
Don’t let those high-spend, no-sales keywords drain your budget. Take control of your campaigns and start seeing the results you deserve.
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