Finding the right keywords can make or break your Amazon PPC campaigns. Most sellers waste thousands of dollars on clicks that never convert because they’re targeting the wrong terms. And more often than not, the problem isn’t the budget, it’s the research process.
Amazon PPC keyword research tools solve this by showing you exactly what customers search for, what competitors rank for, and which keywords actually drive sales. But with dozens of tools available, choosing the right one gets complicated fast.
This guide breaks down the best Amazon PPC keyword research software based on real performance data, pricing, and features that matter.
TL;DR – 4 Best Amazon PPC Keyword Research Software
If you don’t have time to read through the entire analysis, here’s the quick breakdown:
| Tool | Best For | Key Strength | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helium 10 | Comprehensive keyword research | Most accurate data + dual tools (Magnet & Cerebro) | Tiered plans from ~$29/mo |
| Jungle Scout | Historical trend analysis | 2-year keyword history + reverse ASIN for 10 competitors | Monthly or annual plans |
| ZonGuru | Revenue-focused keywords | Shows actual revenue per keyword, not just volume | Scales with active SKUs |
| AMZScout | Budget-conscious sellers | Solid basics at lower cost, 12 marketplaces | Most affordable option |
Most successful sellers don’t rely on just one tool. They combine Amazon’s native data (when available) with one or two third-party tools for competitor analysis and keyword discovery.
But Keywords Are Just Step One
Finding profitable keywords is one thing. Turning them into sales without burning your ad budget? That’s the real challenge.
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Why Amazon PPC Keyword Research Software Is Essential for Sellers
Manual keyword research doesn’t scale beyond basic product catalogs. When you’re managing 50+ SKUs or spending $10,000+ monthly on ads, the data volume becomes unmanageable.
Here’s why software becomes necessary:
- You Can’t Manually Analyze Millions of Keywords: Amazon generates countless keyword possibilities across your product categories. Sorting through them to find high-converting terms takes hours that tools complete in seconds.
- Competitor Analysis Becomes Impossible at Scale: Checking what keywords your top 10 competitors rank for means manually reviewing hundreds of listings. Tools pull this data instantly and show you exactly where to focus.
- Budget Waste Adds Up Fast Without Data: Most sellers waste a portion of their ad spend on irrelevant keywords. Tools identify these money-draining terms before they damage your ACOS.
- Search Behavior Changes Constantly: Customer search patterns shift with seasons, trends, and competition. Manual tracking can’t keep up, but software updates continuously with fresh data.
- Negative Keywords Require Ongoing Management: Adding thousands of negative keywords manually (essential for efficiency) becomes a full-time job. Automation handles this systematically.
- Time Savings Directly Impact Profitability: What takes 4-5 hours manually takes 20 minutes with software. That recovered time goes toward strategy instead of data entry.
The alternative is accepting limited growth, higher costs, and staying stuck while competitors who use tools pull ahead.
How to Choose the Right Amazon PPC Keyword Research Software
Not all keyword tools provide the same capabilities. Focus on these core requirements when evaluating options:
- Search Volume Data: Monthly estimates for each keyword with at least 60 days of historical data (12+ months is ideal for identifying seasonal patterns).
- Competition Metrics: Number of competing products ranking for each keyword, sponsored ASIN count, and estimated PPC bid costs for exact, phrase, and broad match types.
- Reverse ASIN Lookup: Analyzes competitor keywords since manual brainstorming misses most of the relevant terms.
- Search Term Reports: Shows actual customer queries triggering your ads, not just what you think they search. The best tools automatically harvest high-performing search terms and move them to manual campaigns.
- Automation Capabilities: AI models need at least 12 months of historical data for accurate predictions. Rule-based automation provides more control than AI for most sellers. Look for target ACOS/ROAS settings, hourly bid adjustments, placement optimization, and dayparting features for automated Amazon advertising.
- Marketplace Support: Verify your target marketplaces receive full support. Check whether pricing covers all marketplaces or charges per-marketplace fees – costs can double or triple for international sellers.
- Pricing Models: Flat fee tiers provide cost certainty while the percentage of ad spend scales with business, but gets expensive.
Top 4 Amazon PPC Keyword Research Tools
When we started digging through what Amazon keyword research tools users like best, we found the most important thing they care about.
They care about three things:
- Data accuracy: Is the search volume estimate close to reality?
- Competitor insights: What keywords are successful sellers ranking for?
- PPC efficiency: Which keywords will give the best ROI for advertising spend?
To find the best option based on these parameters, we surfed through hundreds of Reddit threads and found only 7 comprehensive threads where sellers discussed their actual keyword research strategies and tools.
Here’s what the data showed:
| Tool | Total Votes | Threads Mentioned | Primary Strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helium 10 | 47 | 6 out of 7 | Keyword discovery + competitor analysis |
| Jungle Scout | 14 | 3 out of 7 | Reverse ASIN keyword research |
| AMZScout | 2 poll votes | 1 out of 7 | Budget-friendly keyword basics |
| ZonGuru | 1 mention | 1 out of 7 | Revenue-focused keyword data + niche optimization |
For a deeper comparison of Amazon PPC software capabilities and features, we analyzed both seller feedback and official tool specifications.
Let’s break down what each tool actually does for keyword research:
1. Helium 10: Magnet + Cerebro for Deep Keyword Research
Helium 10 dominated every conversation about keyword research. It came up in 6 out of 7 threads, with sellers consistently praising two specific tools: Magnet and Cerebro.
What Sellers Say on Reddit
From this thread, u/GSANGSAN summed it up well:
“Mate, I’ve got to give a shout out to Helium 10. It’s like the Swiss Army knife of Amazon tools. I particularly like it for product research. It honestly just makes digging into the niche and competition so much easier. Also, the keyword research functionality is on-point. It’s got this feature called Magnet 2 that’s basically a keyword magnet. You input a seed keyword and it just brings up all relevant and high-volume keywords you might not have thought of.”
And when comparing it to competitors:
“I’ve tried a few others like Jungle Scout and Viral Launch. They’re not bad either, but I found Helium 10’s data to be more accurate and its interface friendlier.”
What Helium 10 Actually Offers
Helium 10’s Magnet and Cerebro are two of the best Amazon keyword research tools on the market:
- Magnet helps with exploratory keyword research with filters for search volume, competing products, and title density. Key filters include:
- Word count
- Search volume
- Keyword sales estimates
- Number of competing products
- Title density (how many top listings use this keyword)
- Cerebro enables competitive analysis by allowing sellers to reverse engineer their competitors’ keyword targets.
Amazon Brand Analytics Integration: With Amazon Brand Analytics connected to your Helium 10 account, you can see click share and conversion share data for each keyword, along with the suggested PPC bid amount and the number of sponsored ads, to figure out if it’s a viable keyword target for Amazon PPC.
2. Jungle Scout: Keyword Scout for Reverse ASIN Research
Jungle Scout came up in 3 threads, with sellers specifically mentioning it for keyword research and competitor analysis. While it didn’t get as many votes as Helium 10, those who used it had specific reasons.
What Sellers Say on Reddit
From this thread, u/Pitiful-Extent9596 listed their complete tech stack:
“Junglescout for keyword and competitor research”
What Jungle Scout Offers
Keyword Scout pulls millions of data points to show exact and broad keyword search volumes, and allows sellers to reverse-search up to 10 ASINs and compare their related organic and sponsored keywords.
Other key features include:
- Historical Keyword Data: Users can analyze past keyword performance for up to two years and view monthly and quarterly trend data to generate a full picture of a product’s seasonality and popularity over time, adjust PPC campaigns, and optimize listings.
- PPC Cost Data: Sellers can see the cost-per-click for keywords in exact, broad, and headline search ads to help save on competitive keywords and improve campaigns, and can find low-cost keywords with rank potential and target them with inexpensive PPC campaigns.
- Organic vs. Sponsored Data: One feature that sets Keyword Scout apart is the ability to see which keywords are driving organic traffic versus sponsored traffic for your competitors. This helps you understand whether you need to rank organically or if PPC is the main driver.
- Marketplace Coverage: Unlike some of its competitors, Jungle Scout supports keyword research across 10 marketplaces, making it a versatile choice for sellers with international ambitions.
3. AMZScout: Budget-Friendly Keyword Research
AMZScout received two poll votes in this thread and stands out as a solid budget-friendly alternative for sellers who need essential keyword research capabilities without the premium price tag.
What AMZScout Offers
AMZScout’s keyword generators provide accurate data for over 3 billion search terms and get keyword suggestions for a total of 500 million Amazon products.
The platform has three main keyword tools:
- Reverse ASIN Lookup: Enter a competitor’s ASIN to see which keywords they’re targeting to expand your keyword list and get more traffic, with a relevancy score to know which broad and specific terms are best to add to PPC campaigns.
- Amazon Keyword Search: Enter any product or niche and discover which related keywords are the most searched, then use these keywords for your listing.
- Keyword Tracker: Track keyword ranks over time and analyze trends with accurate daily reports, research how many competitors you have for each search term, and identify search terms that aren’t worth investing advertising money into. This feature is useful for monitoring your Amazon ads performance and adjusting strategy based on ranking changes.
One unique feature: The tool can alert you the moment your product loses its organic position, so you can start your ads as soon as this happens to continue to rank keywords on Amazon and gain an edge over competitors.
Who It’s For
AMZScout covers 14 major Amazon markets with 1,500+ keyword searches available each month, making it a particularly good option for small-to-medium-sized sellers who don’t need exhaustive daily research but still want to stay competitive.
While AMZScout doesn’t offer the advanced filters available in Helium 10 or Jungle Scout, it compensates with straightforward, easy-to-navigate features.
4. ZonGuru’s Keywords on Fire for Niche Optimization
ZonGuru deserves recognition as an excellent software for sellers focused on niche keyword optimization. With a 4.4-star rating on Google Reviews, sellers consistently praise its unique approach.
What Sellers Say on Reddit
One seller in this Reddit thread shared their early success story:
“I’ve used zonguru to find this product along with websites that showed top keywords in the UK, etc. And i did not buy a guide either, there’s enough free resources on the internet.”
Google Reviews echo this sentiment. Wendy Owen, an Amazon Australia seller, shared:
“ZonGuru is really the only program that helps Amazon Australia sellers. Whether you need product research, keyword analysis or sales monitoring, ZonGuru makes it easy. Their support is top notch.”
Elinor Owen added:
“Tried a number of similar services but none of the others quite does everything I need. ZonGuru has been a perfect fit for our business and support since joining has been consistently brilliant.”
While it doesn’t offer seed keyword research like Helium 10 or Jungle Scout, its Keywords on Fire tool makes up for this by delivering highly targeted keyword suggestions.
What ZonGuru’s Keywords on Fire Offers
Keywords on Fire provides 15 essential data points, including:
- Search volume with rock-solid monthly search volume numbers directly from Amazon’s Brand Analytics API
- Dollars from keywords showing the monthly revenue each keyword generates for the top 25 listings
- PPC bid showing what the average PPC bid is, so you spend your ad budget the smart way
The ZG Score tells you the relevancy score of a keyword based on all the other data points, with the score ranging between 0 to 100.
This proprietary scoring system helps you quickly identify which keywords are worth targeting for effective Amazon PPC optimization.
Integration with Listing Optimizer: Keywords on Fire is fully integrated with ZonGuru’s exclusive Listing Optimizer tool, so you can quickly apply those top keywords and start seeing benefits even faster by simply importing them to Listing Optimizer with the click of a mouse.
Who It’s For
ZonGuru works well for sellers who want to focus on highly targeted, revenue-generating keywords rather than casting a wide net.
Keywords on Fire is basically a reverse ASIN lookup that helps collect the most relevant, strong, and impactful keywords that customers are writing into the Amazon search engine, with an API connection with Amazonproviding data they’re willing to share with a third party.
Advanced Keyword Research Strategies Using These Tools
Once you’ve chosen your tool, these proven advanced Amazon advertising tips help you extract maximum value from your keyword research efforts:
The Reverse ASIN Methodology
PPC expert Mina Elias champions a systematic approach that transforms keyword research from guesswork into a data-driven strategy.
In his detailed walkthrough with Helium 10’s Bradley Sutton, he shows how to leverage reverse ASIN tools effectively:
The Step-by-Step Process:
- Search Amazon with your main seed keyword – Start by identifying your primary product category
- Identify your top competitors – Select 3-10 competitors sorted by revenue (Bradley recommends at least 3-4, though 10 is ideal for comprehensive research)
- Run competitors through Cerebro – Input these ASINs into a reverse ASIN tool to extract all keywords where they rank organically and in sponsored results
- Apply strategic filters – From the thousands of initial keywords, filter to show only terms where the majority of your competitors rank (typically 3+ out of 5, or adjust proportionally for larger competitor sets)
- Refine to highly relevant terms – This filtering dramatically reduces your list to proven, sales-driving keywords rather than theoretical possibilities
Bradley recommends using the “Top Keywords” filter with these parameters:
- Minimum 500 search volume
- Competitor rank average of 1-40 (top of page 1 to page 2)
- At least 60% of analyzed competitors ranking for the term
This filtering ensures you target terms proven to drive sales for similar products. Even a niche product like coffin shelves can initially return 4,000+ keywords, which are then refined down to just the most critical terms through proper filtering.
Prioritizing Keywords by Competitor Overlap
After filtering your keyword list, rank them by how many competitors (out of 10) rank in positions 1-30.
This prioritization framework, shared by experienced sellers on Reddit, helps you focus your budget on proven converters:
- High Priority: 5-10 competitors ranking → Start PPC campaigns here first
- Medium Priority: 3-4 competitors ranking → Add after 30 days
- Low Priority: 1-2 competitors ranking → Test with broad/phrase match later
Keywords where 5+ competitors rank in the top 30 are proven converters. If competitors can’t rank beyond position 30 for a keyword, it’s typically too broad or irrelevant.
Focus your initial budget on high-overlap keywords for faster, more profitable results.
The 5 Keyword Rule
If campaigns contain more than 5 keywords, sort by sales and pause everything not generating sales in the last 30 days.
Relaunch non-performers in separate campaigns rather than deleting them.
This allows individual budget control and prevents high-performers from being capped by underperformers in the same campaign.
Long-Tail Keyword Strategy
Build large lists of 50-200+ long-tail variations per product.
Examples like “wireless noise-canceling gaming headset for PC” versus generic “headset” illustrate specificity that both reduces costs and improves relevance.
Long-tail keywords provide:
- Less competition producing lower CPCs
- Higher buyer intent improving conversion rates
- More specific targeting attracting relevant traffic
The cumulative impact from many long-tail variations generates aggregate traffic despite lower individual volume.
Negative Keyword Research
Negative keywords are search terms you tell Amazon not to show your ads for. They help you avoid paying for clicks that won’t convert into sales.
Think of it this way: if you sell “organic dog treats,” you don’t want your ads showing up when someone searches for “cat treats” or “free dog food samples.” Those clicks cost money but won’t result in sales.
Here’s how to find and add negative keywords:
- Step 1: Download your search term report from Amazon (covering the last 30-60 days). This shows every search that triggered your ads.
- Step 2: Filter for searches that got clicks but zero sales. Look for patterns — maybe you’re showing up for “cheap,” “DIY,” or competitor brand names.
- Step 3: Add these as negative keywords in your campaigns. Start with exact match (blocks that specific phrase only), then expand to phrase match (blocks variations containing that phrase).
Pro tip: Keep your brand campaigns separate from generic campaigns by adding your brand name as a negative keyword in generic campaigns. This prevents your campaigns from competing against each other.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using PPC Keyword Tools
Even with the best software, poor execution undermines results. Here are the most common mistakes sellers make and how to avoid them.
- Ignoring Keyword Research Entirely: 35% of Amazon shoppers click the first result, and 70% never browse past the first page. Not doing keyword research is like throwing money down the drain.
- Over-Relying on Broad, Generic Keywords: Targeting only broad, high-competition keywords wastes budgets on irrelevant traffic. Advertising “mens black hiking shoes” using the keyword “mens shoes” attracts the wrong audiences who click out of curiosity without purchase intent. Narrow in on niche, long-tail keywords relating specifically to your product.
- Blindly Trusting Tool-Generated Keywords: Algorithms may suggest irrelevant words like “cute” or “things” for pencil searches, creating impressions with very few clicks and even fewer conversions. Always manually vet all keywords for actual purchase intent and relevance before adding to campaigns. Use tools as starting points, not final decision-makers.
- The “Set It and Forget It” Mentality: Without adjustments, sellers miss optimization opportunities, waste spend on poor-performing keywords, and see stagnant performance. Review campaign performance weekly or bi-weekly minimum, or consider working with a professional Amazon PPC agency for ongoing optimization.
- Not Harvesting Keywords from Automatic Campaigns: Running automatic campaigns without mining them for high-performing keywords to move to manual campaigns wastes the discovery mechanism. Use automatic campaigns supplementally to discover new keyword opportunities, then harvest winners for manual campaigns within 2-3 weeks.
- Ignoring the Connection Between Listing Optimization and PPC: Even perfect keyword targeting fails if the landing page doesn’t convert. Ensure listings have high-quality images, optimized titles and bullet points, at least 15+ verified reviews with 3.5+ star ratings, A+ Content where eligible, competitive pricing, and stock availability. Consider getting an Amazon listing audit to identify conversion-killing issues before scaling your PPC spend.
- Making Hasty Changes Without Sufficient Data: Campaigns need time to develop sufficient data. Changes before 7 days rely on incomplete, misleading information. Keywords may underperform due to seasonality or temporary bid issues rather than fundamental problems. Let campaigns run at least 7-14 days before major changes.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Below are answers to common questions about Amazon PPC keyword research tools:
Do I Need Different Tools for Different Amazon Marketplaces?
Most major tools support multiple marketplaces with a single account. However, you must conduct separate keyword research for each marketplace because customer search behavior differs by language and region.
How Often Should I Conduct Keyword Research?
Conduct comprehensive keyword research before product launches and every 2 months for ongoing maintenance. Review search term reports weekly or bi-weekly to identify new opportunities and negative keywords.
Increase frequency during seasonal changes, product updates, or when campaign performance drops.
Can These Tools Help with Organic Ranking as well as PPC?
Yes, PPC tools directly improve organic rankings by identifying high-converting keywords you can add to titles, bullets, and backend terms for better Amazon SEO optimization. PPC-driven sales signal relevance to Amazon’s algorithm, improving organic position over time.
How Much Do Amazon PPC Keyword Research Tools Typically Cost?
Amazon keyword research tools can cost $29-99+ per month. Budget-friendly tools like AMZScout start around $20-30/month. Comprehensive platforms like Helium 10 and Jungle Scout typically cost $49-99/month, depending on your plan tier.
Most tools offer annual discounts of 20-40% if you pay upfront.
Conclusion
Execution matters more than software. Most sellers who see real improvements combine great tools with consistent optimization and expert guidance.
At IG PPC, we specialize in managing serious sellers with 7- to 9-figure accounts. We handle the entire optimization process — from deep-dive keyword audits to strategic campaign management. Our team continuously adjusts bids and discovers high-converting keywords while you focus on growing your business.
We’ve managed over $1.5 billion in annual sales with a 95% client retention rate because we deliver results, not excuses. Now, you can schedule your free Amazon PPC audit with us, and we’ll tell you where your budget is leaking!
