I was tweaking my Sponsored Products (SP) ad campaigns late last night during the fall peak event and caught a mistake I almost missed. My Sponsored Brands (SB) and Sponsored Brands Video (SBV) campaigns were still running old creatives after I updated my main image and packaging earlier that week. I paused those right away to cut wasted spend, and while I was in the account, I decided to test raising bids on my two core high-volume keywords to lock in better top-page positions.

It worked even better than I expected. I locked in the 4th position for both core terms without blowing my bid budget, and I even noticed one of my ads popped up in the recommended products section below the search results. I’ve talked about Top of Search (TOS) positioning briefly in past SP ad breakdowns, but I wanted to do a full deep dive today with all the tiny details most guides skip—because those small steps are what make the difference between a wasted bid and a profitable position.

Last week, I tried to take photos of the full moon with my iPhone and followed every TikTok tutorial step by step, but my shots were always blurry. It turns out every guide glossed over one tiny detail: you have to switch your video mode to 4K 60fps first, not the default 30fps. As soon as I adjusted that one setting, I got crisp, clear shots of the moon’s surface right away. That’s exactly how keyword positioning works too—everyone knows the basic step of raising your bid, but the easy-to-miss details are what make or break your results.

First, let’s cover when this strategy actually makes sense—because using it on the wrong listing will just drain your budget. This works best for listings that have already accumulated 20 to 300+ verified reviews, so your conversion rate is stable enough to justify the higher bid costs. If you’re running a brand-new listing with 0 or only a handful of reviews, you’ll likely waste budget on clicks that don’t convert, so hold off on core keyword positioning until you have enough social proof.

I see a lot of sellers stick to only mid and long-tail keywords to keep bid costs low, but that creates a hard traffic ceiling you’ll never break through. If you want to grow your order volume past your current plateau, you have to compete for the high-volume core keywords that drive 70%+ of category search traffic. Most of the time, when we talk about keyword positioning, we’re referring to securing top positions in the SP ad slots on the first page of search results—usually the top 5 spots. I’ve also started testing positioning for the recommended product slots below search results, which I’ll break down in a future post once I have more data.

You can use this strategy in both the launch phase and the mature, stable phase of your listing. During launch, it’s your best tool to break into the core traffic pool and build historical rank momentum. Once your listing is stable, it’s your best defense to hold onto your market share and keep competitors from eating into your traffic.

The biggest variable that impacts your positioning cost is your keyword quality score, which is determined by your listing’s historical performance, conversion rate, and relevance to the keyword. The lower your quality score, the higher you’ll have to bid to lock in the same position as a higher-weight listing. That’s the detail most generic guides skip, and it’s why two sellers can bid the same amount for the same keyword and get completely different positions.

Now let’s walk through the exact process I used last night to lock in my positions.

First, use an incognito browser to eliminate bias. I first tried checking my ad positions in my regular browser, but personalized search results and cache made it impossible to tell if my bids were actually working. Switching to incognito mode removes all personalization, so you’ll see the same results a regular shopper would see when searching for your keyword.

Next, set your base bid correctly—this step is non-negotiable for consistent results. For high-volume core keywords pulled from Amazon Brand Analytics, I always use exact match for positioning. If your listing has low historical weight, the TOS bid multiplier barely moves the needle when it comes to reliable positioning. Your base bid is the single most important factor here: if your base bid is too low, even a 100% TOS multiplier won’t get you a stable position. I recommend starting with a base bid 20-30% above Amazon’s suggested range—for my core term, the suggested bid was $2.5-$2.6, so I started at $2.9, which locked me in the 4th spot without overspending.

Choose your bidding strategy based on your listing’s stage. For growing listings (like mine), I prefer “down only” bidding—it gives me control over costs while still allowing small adjustments. If you need to lock a spot quickly, “up and down” bidding works, but be cautious: it can drain your budget fast if not monitored. New listings can test fixed bids to establish consistent performance data before moving to dynamic strategies.

Validate your position with multi-zip testing to avoid false positives. I test 5 zip codes covering major US regions: 12304 (Northeast), 33101 (Southeast), 75241 (Central/Texas), 90001 (West Coast), and 98101 (Pacific Northwest). If your ad shows up in the same position across all 5 tests, you’ve locked in a stable spot—critical in Amazon’s personalized search ecosystem.

Finally, don’t chase the #1 spot. For my $12 product, bidding to take the 1st position would have pushed my CPC to $3.5-$4.00, making my ACOS unsustainable. The 4th spot delivered nearly the same traffic but with a 22% lower CPC, balancing volume and profitability. If you want to optimize further, tweak bids in $0.05 increments to find your cost ceiling—but don’t waste hours chasing pennies; your time is better spent optimizing your listing or testing new keywords.

One last note: positioning is both offensive and defensive. Top BSR listings in every category hold core keyword spots consistently—they know that losing a top position leads to dropped orders, lower organic rankings, and higher costs to reclaim the spot later. Even mature listings benefit from maintaining top 5 positions for core terms.

I have tested this strategy in European and American markets, and it’s consistently delivered reliable results. If you’re struggling with unstable ad positions or traffic plateaus, give this process a try during the next peak event. Have you tested keyword positioning with similar results? Drop a comment below to share your experience—let’s learn from one another.