Imagine this scenario: your carefully crafted Amazon PPC campaign, featuring high-quality products and precisely targeted keywords, loses valuable advertising dollars because customers mistype a single letter. Meanwhile, competitors swoop in to capture that traffic. This frustrating situation is all too familiar for many sellers.
In today's fast-paced digital environment, where autocorrect and predictive text have become ubiquitous, spelling accuracy has noticeably declined. Amazon's search bar reflects this trend, with misspelled keywords appearing frequently. Many sellers invest heavily in misspelled keyword generators to capture this traffic, but is this strategy truly effective?
Understanding Amazon PPC Keyword Matching
Amazon PPC operates with three primary keyword matching types: exact match, phrase match, and broad match. Each handles misspellings differently.
1. Exact Match: Not as Exact as You Think
Contrary to common belief, Amazon's exact match isn't strictly literal. For example, if your keyword is "board" (singular) and a user searches "boards" (plural), your ad may still display. Amazon's system recognizes these variations as equivalent unless specifically excluded.
Key observations about exact match:
- Amazon interprets singular/plural forms, common misspellings, and minor variations as equivalent
- Negative keywords cannot differentiate between singular/plural forms or spelling variations
- Certain "insignificant" words (like articles) may be inserted without affecting match eligibility
2. Broad and Phrase Match: Greater Flexibility
These matching types demonstrate even more leniency with misspellings. A phrase match for "running shoes" will trigger ads for both singular and plural forms, as well as common spelling variations.
3. Amazon's Blind Spot: Singular vs. Plural Differentiation
While Amazon handles many variations well, it currently cannot distinguish between singular and plural forms when sellers want to target one specifically. Experimental campaigns attempting to separate these forms through negative keywords have proven ineffective, blocking all impressions regardless of intent.
4. Brand Analytics: Potential Pitfalls in Search Term Reports
Amazon's search term ranking reports display search frequency but don't consolidate misspellings or singular/plural variations. For instance, "vitamin" and "vitamins" appear as separate entries, potentially leading to misinterpretation of actual search volumes.
5. Conclusion: Optimize Strategically
The current evidence suggests that investing in misspelled keyword generators or creating separate campaigns for spelling variations is unnecessary. Amazon's algorithm has evolved to automatically correct most common errors and match them with appropriate keywords.
While the system isn't perfect—particularly in its inability to differentiate between intentionally targeted singular/plural forms—the solution lies in focusing on core optimization strategies rather than chasing every possible keyword variation. Prioritizing listing quality, conversion rates, and strategic bidding will yield better returns than attempting to account for every potential customer typing error.