For Amazon sellers, the Search Query Performance (SQP) report is one of the most powerful tools available in Seller Central, but it is also one of the most misunderstood. The report formatting and language can be daunting for newer sellers, but it’s worth the investment to learn what this report captures, and how to use it to improve your business.
When used correctly, SQP acts as a diagnostic lens for your entire sales funnel, helping you answer critical questions about customer behavior: Are shoppers discovering my brand? When they see my products in search results, do they click? Do they add the item to their cart? And finally, do they actually convert that interest into a purchase?
However, when sellers misinterpret this data, it often leads to panic over metrics that are actually healthy, or confusion over why these numbers don’t match their standard business reports. This guide will walk through what the data really means, its specific limitations, and how to use it strategically.
Crucial Context: Scope and Attribution Limitations
To access the data, navigate in Seller Central to Brands, then select Brand Analytics. Once you’re on the brand analytics page, click on Search Analytics and select Search Query Performance. The other reports on this page can also be extremely useful, and we’ll cover them in other articles.
Before analyzing a single number, it is vital to understand the strict boundaries of this report. It is not a sales report; it is a search behavior report. It doesn’t count sales from customers who went directly to your product detail page (PDP) from off Amazon, and it doesn’t include ad clicks.
Second, and most importantly, Amazon uses a strict 24-hour attribution window for this report. For a purchase to be counted against a search query, the entire journey, from the initial search impression to the final checkout, must happen within a single 24-hour period. If a customer searches for “running shoes” on Monday, clicks your product, adds it to their cart, but waits until Tuesday morning to finalize the purchase, the SQP report for Monday will show the click and the cart add, but not the purchase.
This 24-hour cutoff is the primary reason SQP purchase data will almost never align perfectly with your standard Seller Central sales reports.
The First Step: Separating Branded vs. Unbranded Searches
Before analyzing performance, you must make a crucial distinction in your data: separate branded searches from unbranded searches. The Amazon won’t sort them for you, but you can download the report and then work your spreadsheet sorting magic.
A branded search is any query that contains your company or product name. An unbranded search is generic; that is, category terms that do not specify a preference. This distinction is essential because these two groups of shoppers behave very differently.
Why branded searches usually win
You will almost always find that branded searches show significantly higher click-through rates (CTR) and higher conversion rates (CVR), leading to a disproportionate share of your total recorded sales.
This is simply how commerce works. When someone searches specifically for your brand name, they are already past the discovery phase. They know who you are, they likely already trust you, and they are much closer to making a final purchasing decision. If your branded searches didn’t outperform generic ones, that would be a red flag indicating serious issues with brand perception or pricing.
Why It’s Okay If Branded Searches Drive More Sales
You might feel anxious if you see that 20% to 30% of your clicks, and perhaps 60% to 70% of your sales, are coming solely from branded search queries.
This split is generally healthy. Branded searches represent the bottom of your sales funnel. They reflect prior brand awareness, repeat customers coming back to restock, or off-Amazon marketing efforts working as intended to drive specific intent.
The goal isn’t to force unbranded searches to sell as efficiently as branded ones. What matters is that your unbranded presence exists and is growing over time.
Why a High Unbranded Search Ratio Is a Good Thing
While branded searches capture existing demand, unbranded searches are where new discovery happens.
When a large share of your total impressions and clicks comes from unbranded queries, it indicates a healthy organic ecosystem. It means shoppers are encountering your brand for the first time while browsing the category, and that Amazon’s algorithm views your products as highly relevant beyond just your name.
A brand that sells only through branded searches is fragile. It relies entirely on expensive external traffic or a static pool of repeat customers. You need unbranded traffic to build the brand awareness that eventually feeds future branded searches.
Diagnosing the Funnel: Clicks, Cart Adds, and Purchases
The SQP report allows you to trace the customer journey step-by-step. By examining the drop-off points between these steps, you can diagnose exactly where your strategy is failing.
The Top of the Funnel: Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR measures how often shoppers choose you when they see you in search results.
If your CTR is weak, especially on unbranded searches, the issue lies on the search results page itself. You need to improve your “search-result persuasion.” If you’re an experienced seller, or you’ve been following our blog posts, you know the drill here: focus on your main hero image… it must provide clear product identification and strong contrast, even on mobile. Ensure your title uses the same language shoppers use in their queries and includes necessary category cues.
The Middle of the Funnel: Cart Add Rate
This metric, calculated by dividing total cart adds by total search volume, indicates strong purchase intent. The customer clicked through to your page and liked what they saw enough to take action.
If you have a high CTR but a low Cart Add Rate, the problem is your Product Detail Page (PDP). The listing isn’t convincing the shopper that your product solves their problem, or perhaps the reviews have scared them off.
The Bottom of the Funnel: Purchase Rate vs. Cart Abandonment
The Purchase Rate measures the final conversion efficiency of a query. It’s important to note that Amazon defines a “purchase action” as a single transaction, regardless of quantity. Buying five units of the same ASIN counts as one purchase action in this report.
The most critical diagnostic here is comparing your Cart Add counts against your Purchase counts.
If you see a high number of cart adds but a low number of eventual purchases for a specific query, you have a cart abandonment problem. The customer wanted the product, but encountered friction at the final stage. This is rarely a PDP issue; it usually signals sticker shock at checkout due to high shipping costs, slow delivery speeds, or a price point that felt too high once added to the total.
Using Median Price Data for Competitive Analysis
A frequently overlooked column in the report is the “Price (Median)” versus “Brand Price (Median).”
The “Price (Median)” shows you the median price of all ASINs that appeared for that specific search query at the time of impression. The “Brand Price (Median)” is the median price of your products that appeared.
This is a phenomenal tool for understanding your competitive landscape on a query-by-query basis. If you are trying to rank for a generic term like “stainless steel water bottle,” and the market median price is $20, but your brand median price is $35, your CTR will likely suffer unless your main image immediately conveys premium quality justify that gap. If your unbranded CTR is low, check these columns first to see if you are simply priced out of the visible market for that term.
Using Shipping Data to Make the FBM vs. FBA Decision
The SQP report also breaks down performance based on delivery speed promises—specifically Same-Day, One-Day (1D), and Two-Day (2D). Crucially, Amazon captures the shipping speed displayed at the moment of impression and attributes subsequent clicks and purchases to that speed.
This data is vital for merchants using Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) who are debating moving inventory into Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).
By reviewing high-volume, unbranded search terms, you can estimate how much “instant gratification” drives sales in your category. Look at the “Total Count” of purchases across the whole market for a query. If you see that Same-Day and 1D shipping speeds are driving vastly more share of the total market purchases than 2D speeds, it indicates a category where speed is a primary purchase driver.
If you are an FBM seller offering standard shipping in a category dominated by Same-Day demand, this data is concrete evidence that you are missing significant revenue opportunities, providing the justification needed to test FBA to capture that speed-conscious demand.
Wrapping It Up
The most important takeaway is to treat the Search Query Performance report not as a final scorecard of success, but as a diagnostic instrument. It requires context to be useful. You must understand its limitations (specifically the strict 24-hour attribution window and its focus solely on search-originated traffic) before making critical decisions based on the numbers.
By separating discovery-focused unbranded searches from intent-driven branded searches, you gain a clearer picture of your brand’s true health. Use the funnel metrics to pinpoint exactly where shoppers are dropping off, whether that’s on the search results page, your product detail page, or at the checkout. Finally, leverage the often-ignored data points around median pricing and shipping speeds to inform broader strategic moves like pricing adjustments or shifting inventory to FBA.
If navigating these complex reports and translating this data into actionable strategy feels overwhelming, you don’t have to do it alone. If you would like expert help optimizing your brand’s presence and performance on Amazon, please get in touch with us today.
