Amazon “Phrase” / Phrase Matching

Retailers who wish to place keyword-based advertising campaigns such as Headline Search Ads or Sponsored Products on Amazon can do so either within Seller Central or using Amazon Marketing Services (AMS). In both cases, when creating the campaigns, a specific match type of keywords can be defined that must be met for the ad to be played back. The match types “Exact”, “Phrase” or “Broad” can be selected.

If the phrase match is selected, the ad will be played much more often compared to the exact match, but much more controlled than the broad match, since this match type allows more combination possibilities, but the keywords used play a greater role in the playout. While the exact match only results in a display if there is a 100% match between the deposited and the searched Amazon keyword, any combinations are taken into account in the “Broad” orientation because the order of the words does not matter with the match type.

Amazon Brand Guide

When matching phrases, only the search term of a potential buyer is taken into account if all keywords or related variants (plural forms, acronyms, variants with the same trunk, abbreviations and accents) are included and a match exists. Words before or after the phrase are also taken into account. The only important thing is that the phrase as such must always be addressed in its entirety.

The basis for phrase matching is a detailed keyword search to cover the customer’s most important search queries.

What does Amazon say about the “phrase match”?

In the case of a phrase match, the customer’s search term must contain the exact phrase or phrase group. Very similar variants of the phrase also lead to a match. This match type filters the search queries more strongly than the largely fitting match, but usually finds more relevant placements for an ad.

Examples: for the keyword “baseball caps”

Search terms with match: light baseball caps, baseball caps for girls, red basebal caps

search terms without match: cool caps for baseball, baseball caps beautiful