How to Track Competitor Branded Search Volume on Amazon

Competitor branded search volume tells you how many shoppers arrive on Amazon already looking for someone else's product. That is among the most commercially valuable demand on the marketplace – and among the hardest to measure without knowing where to look in Brand Analytics.

This guide covers two Seller Central methods – Search Query Performance and Top Search Terms – plus how to read the output and what to do when your competitor never appears in your own SQP export.

Why Competitor Branded Search Volume Matters

Branded search is high-intent traffic. Shoppers typing a competitor's product name know what they want – they just have not chosen you yet. Tracking that volume over time shows whether a rival is building mindshare, whether conquest campaigns are worth the CPC, and whether category demand is shifting faster than your catalogue strategy.

It also contextualises your own branded defence. If competitor branded volume is rising while your branded purchase share softens, the problem may be market share erosion – not just a listing tweak.

Method 1: Filter the SQP Report by Competitor Brand

Navigate to Brand Analytics → Search Analytics → Search Query Performance and download the report for your target month.

In Excel or the browser filter, search the Search Query column for your competitor's brand name. You will see queries where your products received impressions alongside that branded term – including search volume proxies, clicks, and purchases attributed to the query.

When this works best: your catalogue already appears on the competitor's branded queries – Amazon includes those rows in your brand-scoped SQP export. You see volume, click behaviour, and whether you are winning any share of that demand.

Limitation: if Amazon never shows your ASINs on a competitor branded query, that query may not appear in your SQP data at all. Use Method 2 for those gaps.

Method 2: Top Search Terms Report

When SQP does not surface a competitor's branded terms, switch to Brand Analytics → Top Search Terms. This report is market-wide – it shows the top clicked products for high-volume queries regardless of whether your brand participated.

Filter by entering the competitor's brand name in the search field. The report returns branded queries with the top three clicked ASINs per term – useful for seeing who actually captures the click on searches for their name.

Reading Search Frequency Rank and Top Clicked Brand

In Top Search Terms, prioritise queries with a low Search Frequency Rank (SFR) – lower rank means higher search volume. A competitor branded term at SFR 5,000 is a different strategic target than one at 500,000.

Use the Top Clicked Brand filter to surface additional branded variants: enter the competitor name and review which ASINs Amazon associates with their branded demand. This is reconnaissance for conquest creative – which product formats shoppers expect when they search that name.

What Brand Analytics Cannot Show You

Both methods require Brand Registry. Neither gives perfect absolute search volume – Amazon exposes ranks and shares, not always raw query counts. Third-party tools estimate volume from rank, but the Seller Central workflow is sufficient for prioritisation: which competitor branded terms matter this quarter.

Also remember policy constraints: conquest bidding is allowed in most markets, but ad copy using competitor trademarks may not be. Volume intelligence informs strategy; legal and policy review informs execution.

What to Do With Competitor Branded Insights

Three practical uses:

1. Conquest prioritisation: sponsor on high-SFR competitor branded terms only where your product is a genuine substitute – measure NTB and ROAS, not just impressions.
2. Content positioning: if shoppers click a competitor ASIN but your substitute appears in the top three, study the gap in title, image, and price that explains the click split.
3. Category monitoring: track month-over-month SFR on key competitor branded terms as a leading indicator of their marketing momentum.

Pair competitor branded tracking with your own branded SQP workflow in SQP keyword optimization – defend your name while you decide where conquest spend earns its keep.