Top-of-Search Impression Share on Amazon: What It Is and How to Raise It

Top-of-search impression share (TOS IS) is the percentage of eligible top-of-search impressions your Sponsored Products campaign won. If a campaign shows 18%, it won 18 out of every 100 top-of-search impressions it was eligible for; competitors took the rest. It tells you how much room you have to grow in the most visible ad slot, and whether a bid or placement change actually moved you up.

What counts as top of search

Top of search means the sponsored placements at the top of the first page of Amazon search results, above or beside the first organic results. Shoppers see these first, and in most accounts they get higher click-through and conversion rates than ads further down the page or on product detail pages. That is also why they usually cost more per click.

Where to find it

• Campaign manager: for Sponsored Products, add the Top-of-search impression share column from the Columns menu. It shows at campaign level for the selected date range.
• Search term impression share report: under Sponsored ads reports, this Sponsored Products report shows your impression share and impression rank for individual search terms where you received impressions.
• Placement report: shows impressions, clicks, spend and sales by placement, so you can see what top-of-search traffic actually delivers.

Impression share is only calculated where you had enough eligible impressions, so small campaigns and rare search terms may show blank values.

TOS IS vs impression rank

The search term impression share report includes two related metrics. Impression share is how many of the available impressions you won. Impression rank is where you typically stood relative to other advertisers on that term. A rank of 1 with low share means you were often the top ad when you showed, but you were eligible less often, perhaps because of budget or time-of-day limits. A high share with a poor rank means you appear frequently but usually below competitors.

How bids and placements control TOS IS

Two levers move your top-of-search share in Sponsored Products.

1. Base bid on the keyword or target. A higher bid increases how often you win any placement, including top of search.
2. Top-of-search placement adjustment. In campaign settings, you can increase bids for top of search (first page) by up to 900%. A $1.00 base bid with a 50% adjustment bids up to $1.50 for top-of-search slots only.

Your campaign's bidding strategy also matters. With dynamic bids (up and down), Amazon may raise bids by up to 100% for top-of-search placements when it predicts a conversion is more likely, on top of any placement adjustment. See Amazon bidding strategies explained and placement bid adjustments for the full mechanics.

When raising TOS IS pays off

Winning more top-of-search impressions is only worth it if those impressions convert at an ACoS you can live with. Check the placement report first.

In this example (average order $35, target ACoS 32%), top of search has the highest CPC but the best ACoS because conversion is nearly double. With a campaign TOS IS of 14%, there is plenty of top-of-search inventory left to win. That is a strong case for increasing the top-of-search adjustment.

If the table looked the other way, with top-of-search ACoS above target, pushing TOS IS higher would just buy expensive clicks. Then you would hold or lower the adjustment and focus on conversion first.

Step-by-step: raising TOS IS on a winning campaign

1. Confirm the campaign is not limited by budget. If it runs out of money by mid-afternoon, a higher bid will just burn the budget faster. Raise the budget first.
2. Record current TOS IS, top-of-search ACoS and conversion rate for the last 14 days.
3. Increase the top-of-search adjustment by 20 to 30 percentage points (for example, from 30% to 55%).
4. Wait 7 to 14 days. Do not change other bids in the campaign at the same time, or you will not know what caused the result.
5. Compare TOS IS, top-of-search ACoS and total campaign orders.
6. If ACoS stayed under target and TOS IS rose, repeat. If ACoS rose above target, step back to the previous level.

Expect diminishing returns. Moving from 10% to 25% share may be affordable; moving from 50% to 70% usually costs much more per extra impression because you are outbidding the most determined competitors.

Isolating keywords for cleaner TOS control

Placement adjustments apply to the whole campaign. If one campaign holds a strong converter and ten weaker keywords, a big top-of-search adjustment lifts all of them. Many advertisers move their top keywords into their own campaigns so the adjustment applies only where it pays off. The keyword isolation guide explains how.

Using TOS IS for branded keywords

For your own brand terms, high TOS IS is often worth paying for even at modest efficiency, because competitors bidding on your name can intercept shoppers who were already looking for you. Watch TOS IS on branded campaigns weekly. A sudden drop usually means a competitor started bidding on your brand. See defend your brand on Amazon ads.

Tracking TOS IS over time

Record TOS IS for your top 10 campaigns every two weeks in the same sheet where you log bid changes. Over a few months, patterns appear: share that drops every Q4 as competitors raise budgets, share that rises after you isolated a keyword, or share that falls after a new competitor launched. These patterns help you set realistic expectations before peak seasons and tell you whether a drop is your doing or the market's. Pair the share numbers with top-of-search ACoS so you can see what each point of share is costing you.

Common misreadings

• Low TOS IS is not automatically bad. A campaign can be profitable mostly from rest-of-search and product page traffic.
• TOS IS is a campaign-level average. One keyword may win most top slots while others win almost none.
• Changes in competition move the number even when you change nothing. A new competitor or a seasonal surge can cut your share overnight.
• Impression share shows wins out of eligible impressions. If your keyword list is too narrow, you can have high share of very little volume.

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