After managing hundreds of brands on Amazon, we have a strong opinion on Search Query Performance (SQP): it’s the single most underused report in Brand Analytics, and it tells you things your ad reports cannot. Most accounts we audit have either never opened SQP or use it once a quarter as a vague check-in. That’s a mistake worth real money.
This is how we actually use SQP in 2026 — the click share vs purchase share method, the top-10 query workflow, and the five patterns that show up across our portfolio of brands doing $100K+/month on Amazon.
What SQP actually shows that ad reports don’t
Sponsored Ads reports tell you what paid traffic did. SQP tells you what all traffic did — paid plus organic — for a given query, at the marketplace level. That distinction matters because:
- Your sponsored campaigns might be performing fine while you bleed organic share on the same query
- The opposite — strong organic with terrible paid — shows up nowhere in your ad console
- Competitor share is invisible in sponsored data but explicit in SQP
SQP gives you three numbers per query that matter:
- Search query impression share — how often your ASIN appeared in results for that query
- Click share — what % of all clicks on that query went to your ASIN
- Purchase share — what % of all purchases on that query went to your ASIN
The relationship between those three numbers is the analysis. The numbers themselves, in isolation, are noise.
The click share vs purchase share gap
This is the single most actionable SQP metric and almost no brand we audit looks at it.
The interpretation is simple:
- Click share > purchase share by more than a few points → shoppers click your listing but buy a competitor’s
- Purchase share > click share by more than a few points → shoppers who click you buy — your listing converts well; you have a traffic problem
- Both low → you’re not visible on this query
Brand reaction to each pattern is wildly different and brands act on the wrong one constantly.
When click share exceeds purchase share by 4+ points, the problem is the listing, not the ad. Adding spend to a listing that loses post-click will accelerate the bleed. We see this pattern in roughly 32% of the SQP queries we analyze across our portfolio. The brand’s instinct is to bid harder. The right move is to fix the listing.
When purchase share exceeds click share by 4+ points, the problem is visibility. The listing is converting; it’s just not getting seen. Here adding spend, fixing title/image-1 for thumbnail CTR, or attacking the query with Sponsored Brands all make sense. This pattern shows up in about 19% of queries.
The top-10 query method
We run this workflow for every brand on day 30 of an engagement. It takes 90 minutes. It produces a punch list of the listing and advertising work for the next 60 days.
Step 1: Pull SQP weekly view for the last 4 weeks, brand-level, sorted by your ASIN’s search query impressions descending.
Step 2: Take the top 10 queries by impression volume. These are where most of your brand’s marketplace activity actually happens. Tail queries matter less than founders think.
Step 3: For each query, calculate the click share vs purchase share delta. Mark each:
- Green (purchase share ≥ click share) → listing converts. Traffic is the problem if share is low.
- Yellow (delta 0–4 points) → roughly balanced. Optimize at margins.
- Red (click share > purchase share by 4+ points) → listing problem. Stop adding spend. Fix the listing.
Step 4: For each red query, compare to the top-3 ASINs on that query. Pull their listings up on mobile. The conversion gap is usually visible within 30 seconds — better hero image, clearer comparison, stronger review signal, better-priced bundle.
Step 5: Build the punch list. Three columns: queries to fix listings for, queries to increase spend on, queries to ignore (low volume or wrong intent).
That’s the method. Run it monthly. Most brands need it quarterly minimum; high-velocity brands need it monthly.
The five patterns we see across the portfolio
Here are the patterns that show up in 80%+ of brand SQP audits we run:
Pattern 1: Branded queries with weak purchase share
Your own brand name should show purchase share north of 50% — often 70%+ for healthy brands. When branded purchase share sits at 30–40%, you have a listing-disambiguation problem: shoppers searching for your brand are buying competitor products that show up alongside. Usually a Sponsored Products defense issue plus a hero image that doesn’t carry the brand strongly enough to win the click against lookalikes.
Pattern 2: Generic high-volume queries with high click share but low purchase share
Classic listing problem. The thumbnail and title pull the click; the listing fails to close. This is where 80% of our hero image and image stack rebuild work originates — not from internal CVR dashboards but from SQP gap analysis.
Pattern 3: Long-tail intent queries with strong purchase share but tiny impression share
The “if only more people saw this listing, they’d buy” pattern. These queries are where Sponsored Products manual exact-match campaigns earn their ACOS. Adding visibility on queries that already convert is the highest-confidence spend a brand can make.
Pattern 4: Competitor-brand queries
Your ASIN shows up in SQP for searches on a competitor’s brand name. Click share might be reasonable; purchase share is almost always weak. These queries are tempting to attack with Sponsored Products conquest campaigns. We’ve found the ROI rarely justifies it unless the price gap to the competitor is significant and your reviews are within 0.2 stars of theirs.
Pattern 5: Seasonal query drift
Queries that produced 80% of revenue 12 months ago and now produce 30%. Buyer language migrates faster than most catalogs update. The SQP top-10 list changes meaningfully across 6-month windows in roughly 60% of categories we manage. If your titles and bullets were written for last year’s query language, you’re losing visibility on this year’s high-intent traffic.
How to use SQP alongside campaign data
SQP is the diagnostic. Sponsored ads reports are the execution. The workflow we run for our portfolio:
Brands that try to fix listing-conversion problems with ad spend lose money. Brands that try to fix visibility problems with listing rebuilds lose months. SQP tells you which one you have.
What SQP doesn’t show
For honesty:
- No conversion attribution at the query level — purchase share is share-of-purchases, not your CVR on that query
- No keyword performance trending inside a single week — SQP is weekly or monthly only
- No mobile vs desktop split — and that gap can be 31%+ in some categories
- No NTB% on the query — you can’t tell if purchases on that query are repeat buyers or new
Pair SQP with Brand Analytics’ Repeat Purchase Behavior report and your sponsored ads reports for the full picture. None of them is enough alone.
Frequently asked questions
How often should we pull SQP reports?
Monthly minimum for the top-10 method. Weekly if you’re scaling fast, in a peak season, or testing new listing creative. The weekly view has a 7-day lag — plan around it.
Does SQP work for sellers without Brand Registry?
No. SQP requires Brand Registry. If you’re not registered, this is one more reason to fix that — the report is meaningfully more valuable than the ad reports you do have access to.
How accurate is SQP impression data?
Reasonably accurate at the brand-aggregate level. ASIN-level SQP can be noisier when impressions on a query are low. Use the report for directional decisions, not for sub-percent-point optimization.
Should we share SQP analysis with our agency?
Yes. If your agency doesn’t ask for or use SQP in monthly reporting, that’s a signal. We covered the 8 numbers every monthly Amazon report should include — SQP-derived insights are one of them.
Can SQP replace third-party keyword tools like Helium 10?
Not quite. Third-party tools give you broader keyword research and competitor data SQP doesn’t. SQP gives you actual marketplace-level performance data that third-party tools can only estimate. Use both — they answer different questions.
Bottom line
Search Query Performance is the most useful report in Brand Analytics and the least used. The click share vs purchase share gap tells you where the problem is — listing or traffic — and that diagnosis changes which lever to pull. Most brands pull the wrong lever and wonder why ACOS keeps climbing.
If you’re looking for a team that manages every lever — creative, advertising, and operations — Velocity Sellers works with brands doing $100K+/month on Amazon. Contact us for a free account audit.
