I need a reality check on something. I'm seeing competitors in my niche (kitchen, $60-70 range) index 1000+ search terms on tools like Sif within 1-2 months of launch. But when I look closer, their actual sales and conversion aren't that impressive — some even lower than mine.
Here's what I'm seeing:
Competitor A: 1000+ indexed search terms, 30 reviews at 4.2 stars, monthly sales ~300.
Competitor B: 800+ indexed search terms, 6 reviews at 3.5 stars, monthly sales ~1500.
Myself: 200+ indexed search terms, better reviews, monthly sales ~800.
Both competitors use heavy coupon stacking, frequent LD/BD, and seem to run aggressive broad match + auto campaigns. My assumption is that they're flooding the system with low-bid broad match and auto campaigns to get indexed for every possible variation.
I've reverse-engineered their ad activity. They're not running more campaigns than me — maybe even fewer. I'm spending $100-200/day. So how are they indexing thousands of search terms so quickly?
Is this just a "wide net" strategy that I'm misunderstanding? Am I missing a specific campaign structure or a tool they're using?
Any insight would help.
Answers (10)
Let me add one more thing: If you want to test their strategy without blowing your budget, run a small "catch-all" campaign:
You'll quickly see that 80-90% of the search terms are completely irrelevant. That's what their "thousands of indexed terms" actually looks like. Try it once. You'll stop envying their numbers immediately.
Then take the 2-3 relevant terms you discovered, move them to an exact match campaign with higher bids, and scale from there. That's how you use broad match strategically — not as a permanent strategy, but as a discovery tool.
Those competitors with thousands of indexed terms but mediocre conversion? They're running "spray and pray" budgets. High spend, low efficiency. They'll burn out when they can't sustain the ad cost.
Your slower, cleaner approach — focused on relevance, not volume — will win long-term. Keep optimizing your listing quality (Premium A+, video, comparison charts). Kitchen buyers are comparison shoppers. They research. A clean, trustworthy listing with good images and clear value props will outperform a noisy, keyword-stuffed listing every time.
Stay the course. Build real value. The indexed term count will follow — but more importantly, so will the sales.
Run your ASIN through a tool that separates organic vs. ad keywords. If organic coverage is low, you need to focus on improving organic rank on your top terms — not just running more ads.
Organic coverage is what protects you when you cut ad spend. That's where real profit comes from.
One thing nobody's mentioned: Deal traffic inflates indexed term counts significantly.
If they're running LD/BD frequently, Amazon's algorithm temporarily boosts visibility across a wider range of search terms during the deal window. Those terms get indexed during the deal, then drop off after the deal ends. But Sif still counts them for 30 days.
So a competitor running weekly BD will look like they have 2-3x more indexed terms than you, even if their baseline organic ranking is weaker.
Don't let this mess with your head. Keep building your organic rank brick by brick. It's slower, but it's real.
Month 1: Indexed 1500+ terms. Felt like a genius. ACOS: 45%.
Month 2: Started trimming garbage terms. ACOS dropped to 35%. Indexed terms dropped to 800.
Month 3: Focused only on terms with actual conversion history. ACOS hit 22%. Indexed terms dropped to 200. Sales went up.
The indexed term count dropped 87%. Sales increased 40%.
The only number that matters is your ACOS and your organic rank on your top 10-20 converting terms. Everything else is noise.