What is Top of Search?

Top of search, reported by Amazon as top of search (first page), is the placement group covering sponsored slots that sit above the organic results on the first page for a query. It is one of three placement groups a Sponsored Products campaign can price separately, alongside rest of search and product pages.

Why it behaves differently

Two structural facts explain most of what sellers observe here. First, the slots are few and every advertiser bidding on the query wants them, so the auction tends to clear higher than it does further down the page. Second, the shopper has typed a query and has not yet seen the organic results, so the ad is the first answer offered rather than an interruption to a choice already being made.

That combination is why top of search is the placement most associated with ranking pushes, and why it is also the fastest way to spend a budget without noticing.

Pricing it

There is no separate top of search bid. There is a base bid and a modifier that multiplies it.

Effective top of search bid = Base bid × (1 + Top of search modifier)

Suppose, hypothetically, a base bid of 0.80 pounds and a top of search modifier of 150 per cent. Auctions in that placement start from 2.00 pounds, before Amazon's dynamic bidding is considered and before any change an hourly schedule has made to the stored bid.

The house rules

Check inventory cover before any top of search aggression. This one is binding in Shurq's doctrine rather than advisory. Winning the most expensive slots for a product that runs out of stock converts spend into a rank you cannot hold.

Judge it on relative conversion rate, not on placement ACOS. A high ACOS at top of search usually means the bid was raised, not that the placement is weak. Compare its conversion rate with the other placements in the same campaign, and let the base bid carry ACOS control.

Read the compounding. A placement modifier, an hourly schedule and Amazon's own dynamic bidding all multiply. It is easy to assemble a stack that triples an effective bid while every individual setting looks conservative.

Remember the modifier only goes up. If top of search is your strongest placement, the way to favour it is to price the base bid for your weakest placement and lift top of search above it. There is no setting that bids the weak placements down.

Reading the data

The placement report separates the three groups, which is what makes any of this measurable. Compare placements within one campaign rather than across campaigns, since different campaigns carry different bids and different targeting.