Amazon Search Term Honeymoon Period - What it is and how to take advantage of it

Heath Thompson
Apr 29
3 min read

Amazon PPC Management - Launching Keywords

So, I was answering some questions on an Amazon Reddit group a moment ago, and I mentioned the Search Term Honeymoon period that I discovered a few years ago, and it seemed that people don't know about it.

Honeymoon Periods are for Launch Products, right? Yes and No...

While a newly launched product will enjoy a 2-3 week honeymoon period, where the algorithm tests to see if it will sell well with improved visibility, more established ASINs also enjoy honeymoon periods. Shorter ones, and for single Search Terms.

The job of the algorithm is to identify products that buyers will like. Its sole purpose is to retrieve results that people will buy. Your product might be the next best thing. The algorithm isn't able to assess that unless it puts your product before the eyes of shoppers.

If your product sells well (against Amazon's historical benchmarks), it will benefit from the increased rank during the honeymoon period, and if it doesn't, the ranking will drop sharply.

To my knowledge, Manny Coats of Helium 10 fame was the first to discuss this around seven years ago.

The more I understood the algorithm, the more I began to measure what it was doing to confirm my suspicions.

What the Algorithm is Doing when Mapping Search Terms to ASINs

Most sellers will know that when first launching a product, the algorithm apportions a small number of search terms to it, and they will likely have a low rank.

When a shopper buys your ASIN for a search term that hasn't had sales before, the algorithm tests to see if it will sell more with increased visibility, meaning an improved organic rank. Quite like the launch Honeymoon Period, but with a smaller window of opportunity.

In my tests, a new search term would receive a boost in organic rank for 7-10 days. Therefore, if you haven't noticed an order for a new search term, you will likely miss this opportunity to leapfrog in rank.

What Can You Do to Take Advantage of This?

Look through your search term reports, or the search term tab in your ad group to identify any search terms that have led to sales and that aren't targeted as keywords - then target them as an Exact match either within the same ad group or in a new campaign to ensure that the whole campaign budget will go to pushing this keyword.
Use software to create new keywords from converting search terms and give them specific campaigns to do that in, so that you can easily keep track of them
Track the keyword to observe the fluctuations in rank
Target close family search terms in Exact match campaigns, where the rank can be boosted collectively
Look to how the search term is performing as a keyword in other ad campaigns - if it isn't seeing enough of the campaign budget, give it its own ad campaign - and if you can target it in other ad types too, such as Video and Banner ads.