Identify Underperforming Amazon Ads Keywords
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Quick answer
Underperforming Amazon Ads keywords are search terms that draw spend without delivering enough clicks, orders, or target ROAS. They are identified by reviewing performance signals such as spend, clicks, conversion rate, ACoS, and ROAS across a selected time period. A ranked cleanup queue helps advertisers spot terms that may be paused, added as negative keywords, or considered for bid reductions before comparing changes.
Before you judge whether a bid change worked, it helps to know which keywords were already underperforming. This page explains what to look for and how to use signals from your Amazon Ads data to make cleaner before-and-after comparisons.
Signals that reveal an underperforming keyword
An underperforming keyword is not simply one with a high click count or low sales. Look at the relationship between spend and return. Common warning signs include:
- High spend with no orders: Clicks are consuming budget but not converting.
- ACoS above target: The cost of sales is higher than the campaign can support.
- Low ROAS: Revenue is too weak relative to ad spend.
- High impressions but low CTR: The term may be relevant but the listing or match type is not resonating.
Review these signals together rather than relying on a single metric. A keyword with high ACoS but strong order volume may need a bid adjustment instead of a pause, while a term with spend and no orders more often belongs in a negative keyword review.
How to compare keyword performance before and after a bid change
Start by exporting or opening the search term report for a period before the bid change and an equal period after. Sort by spend, orders, and ROAS. Mark terms that appear in the underperforming bucket in both windows.
If the goal of the bid change was to reduce wasted spend, compare total spend and ACoS for the flagged terms. A useful approach is to:
- Set the same date range length for before and after periods.
- Remove terms that were paused or added as negatives during the test period.
- Check whether lower bids reduced impressions or simply reduced clicks without improving conversion.
Tools that rank underperforming search terms can speed up this process. For example, the Amazon Negative Keyword Tool by Todoza evaluates multiple campaign signals and builds a cleanup queue for negative keyword and bid reduction candidates.
When this matters
This process is especially useful when a bid change is meant to improve efficiency rather than simply increase clicks. If you do not isolate underperforming terms first, overall performance may improve or decline for reasons unrelated to the bid adjustment — such as one keyword consuming most of the budget or a seasonal shift in conversion. Separating those terms makes the before-and-after comparison more reliable.
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Related guides
Once underperforming keywords are isolated, the next step is to track how the bid change affects placement-level efficiency. Returning to the parent guide can help you compare placement performance before and after a bid change with a clearer, less noisy dataset.