Finding Amazon keywords successfully and advantageously means having a handle on the two types of search terms that buyers use to find products:

• The Must-Haves: These are core terms that shoppers perennially use to search for your products and similar ones. Your competitors are also using them so it’s a matter of winning by optimizing your listings and running effective ad campaigns.
• The Winners Beyond: These are less-obvious keyword gems that you find but your competitors don’t. Finding these requires some digging, but when you hit upon them, you’ve got an incredibly powerful edge.

So where can you find and mine these above-mentioned keyword gems?

Here are 8 spots to help you find Amazon keywords that go beyond the basics and can deliver the difference between good visibility and great visibility.

1. The User Search Term Report: This is literally a list of words and phrases that shoppers are inputting to find your product. You’ll see surprises and opportunities. You’ll also get a crash course in the language that shoppers use when describing what they’re looking for.
2. ASINs in the User Search Term Report: Look for terms that start with B followed by a string of numbers and letters. These are ASINs and their presence in this report indicates that your product appeared on another product’s detail page and was clicked. When the user clicked on your product, Amazon associated the click with the original ASIN rather than a keyword. This means that there is something in your listing and that other ASIN’s listing that Amazon’s algorithm has linked. That’s a powerful connection, but how do you leverage it? Check out the other ASIN’s product information to see what’s going on. If the connection with your product makes sense, revise and/or optimize your listing based on this so that you become the match rather than your competitor.
3. Auto-Target Sponsored Products Ads Campaigns: Amazon’s auto-target PPC campaigns are sure to pick up something you missed, so always keep them running with low budgets. You’ll get some sales from there, but more valuable will be the Amazon keywords you find.
4. PPC Campaign Suggestions: Use the Seller Labs Pro Advertising Center powered by Ignite to find intelligent Amazon keyword suggestions (as well as bid recommendations) based on historical data. Set the confidence and importance levels of these suggestions so that you control your suggestions based on your goals and risk tolerance.
5. Product Reviews — Yours and Your Competitors’: In product reviews, not unlike in search terms, buyers often describe your products in ways that you’ve never considered. Look at the language of your reviews and of the reviews left for your competitors’ selling rival products. You’ll find Amazon keywords galore as well as ideas for how to improve your products going forward.
6. Top-Selling Competitor Listings: Look at the listings for top-ranking competitor products in your category. Perform a gap analysis and look for what these brand owners are saying and doing that you aren’t. What in their listing holds more appeal than what’s in your listing?
7. Channels Other Than Amazon: Search for your product and competing products on sites like Walmart, eBay, and Target. You’ll find different Amazon keywords for those different audiences. Try incorporating what you find into your Amazon keywords and vice versa.
8. Friends and Family: Run a mini-focus group exercise. Demo your product and ask friends and family to describe not only what it is, but what it does and the benefits it provides. This can spark a discussion full of potential keywords.

Once you unlock a whole new world of powerful Amazon keyword finds, you can supercharge your product listings and your PPC campaigns. Read Amazon’s suggestions for using keywords effectively so that you can maximize your impact without wasting a single byte or a single buck.

If you’re ready to do it yourself, try Seller Labs Pro FREE for 30 days and get all of the tools mentioned (and more) all in a single powerful money-saving package.