How the audit works
Every threshold is published, because an audit you can't inspect isn't an audit. These are defaults — reasonable starting points, not neutral facts. Your category and margins may justify different ones.
clicks ≥ 10 AND orders = 0 AND spend ≥ $10
Both a click floor and a dollar floor: one expensive click on a high-ticket item shouldn't hide, and five cheap clicks shouldn't cry wolf. Severity bands at $50 and $200.
same rule → recommended negatives
A search term report doesn't show your existing negative list, so this can't prove a negative is missing — it recommends terms worth excluding. Exact at ad-group level by default; phrase-level only above $50.
orders > 0 AND sales / spend < target
Each term is judged against the target for its own segment — 2.5x unbranded, 6x branded by default, both yours to change. Opportunity is the spend above what that target would have allowed for those sales.
term contains a brand term → branded
Matched on letters and digits only, so spacing and punctuation don't matter. Branded terms are never recommended as negatives, whatever their numbers say.
Why branded and unbranded are measured separately
Someone searching your brand name was already looking for you. That traffic converts cheaply and at high ROAS almost regardless of how well the account is run — so blending it into a single number flatters the whole account and hides how the unbranded half is doing. The unbranded half is the part that has to win customers who weren't already coming.
This isn't an argument for switching brand campaigns off. Brand defense is usually worth paying for, and a competitor bidding on your name will happily take the click if you don't. It's an argument for knowing which number is which — particularly if the account is managed on a percentage of ad spend, where branded traffic earns a fee for demand you generated somewhere else.
The default branded target of 6x is a starting point, not a rule. Well-run branded campaigns often run far higher; a genuinely contested brand term can justify lower.
What this audit will not tell you
- Whether a term is genuinely bad. A term with no orders may be doing real work — brand defense, a halo on other ASINs, a long consideration cycle the attribution window misses. The tool sees a 7-day window, not your strategy.
- Whether your agency is bad. It reports the account's numbers. Whether those numbers reflect neglect, a deliberate call, or a bad quarter is a conversation to have with whoever manages the account.
- Anything about the terms below the floors. Sub-10-click terms are statistically thin. They're counted in your total spend, never flagged as findings.
Where to get the file
In the Amazon Ads console: Measurement & Reporting → Sponsored Products → Search Term report. Last 60 days is the sweet spot — 30 is noisy on low-volume terms, 90 is better if the account has been stable. Export as CSV and drop it in above.