Top of search is the Sponsored Products placement at the very top of the first page of Amazon search results, above the first organic listings. Amazon reports it as "Top of search (first page)" in the Placement report. It is the most visible position an ad can hold and the one most sellers mean when they talk about "being on page one" for a paid term.
Why it matters
Shoppers act on what they see first, especially on mobile where the top row fills the screen. Top-of-search placements generally show the highest click-through rate and the highest conversion rate of the three Sponsored Products placements, because the shopper's intent is freshest and there is no scrolling involved. They also cost the most per click, since every advertiser on the keyword wants them.
Top of search matters for rank as well as for direct sales. Sales that come through a search for a keyword, paid or organic, feed the relevance signal Amazon uses for organic rank on that keyword. A sustained top-of-search presence on a high-intent term is one of the more reliable ways to move organic rank, which is why launch and ranking strategies pay a premium for it on purpose.
What moves it
- Bid plus the top-of-search modifier, which can raise the effective bid for this placement by up to 900%.
- Relevance and expected click-through, which Amazon weighs alongside the bid when choosing which ads to show.
- Number of sponsored slots, which varies by query and device.
- Budget pacing. A campaign that runs out of budget by midday loses the evening's top-of-search impressions.
How we use it
We treat top of search as a purchase with a purpose. On ranking campaigns for a short list of attainable keywords, we hold it deliberately and accept a higher ACoS for a defined period. On profit campaigns, we pay for it only where the Placement report shows it converts well enough to cover the premium. Either way the decision is made per keyword group, not account-wide.