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Keyword Infighting Theory

info

Just to be clear, much of this is postulation. Amazon does not publish the details of their auction system. This is our best guess based on our experience and research.

Keyword infighting is a situation where we have two keyword targets in multiple locations which may match for the same search term. This can happen in a few different ways:

  • Two identical keywords with the same match type in different ad groups (this would just be poor planning)
  • Broad or Phrase match keyword competing with an Exact match keyword (very common scenario)

Let's say for example we have the following keywords:

  • jogging shoes (broad) (bid: $2)
  • running shoes (exact) (bid: $1)

And the user searches for running shoes. Which keyword will win the auction? (assuming no other factors)

If the answer is that the broad match keyword wins here, we have a real problem. That would mean that our discovery campaigns are stealing auctions from our exact match campaigns. To solve this issue we would have to ensure that our bids for all exact match keywords are higher than the bids for all broad and phrase match keywords, which would require an enormous effort.

To further complicate this, we have to consider that exact match keywords are given a higher quality score than broad match keywords generally. So then given the following scenario:

  • jogging shoes (broad) (bid: $1)
  • running shoes (exact) (bid: $1)

If the user searches running shoes it is generally accepted that the exact match keyword will win the auction. It is most likely not because exact match keywords are inherently chosen over broad match keywords, but because the exact match keyword is given a higher quality score, which then results in a higher auction score.

tip

If you are unfamiliar with the concepts of quality score and auction score, please see Advanced > Auction System Theory.

Takeaways​

  • Exact match keywords are given a higher quality score than broad match keywords
  • This results in exact match keywords winning auctions over broad match keywords if the bids are equal or very close
  • Broad match keywords can win auctions over exact match keywords if the bids are significantly higher
  • It is recommended to keep bids for exact match keywords equal or greater than broad match keywords to avoid keyword infighting
caution

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