Top of search is the placement for Sponsored Products ads that appear in the first row of results on an Amazon search page, above the organic listings. The top of search bid adjustment is a percentage, from 0% to 900%, by which Amazon raises your base bid when it competes for that placement, because those slots usually get the most clicks and the best conversion rate.
Every Sponsored Products campaign has a base bid per keyword or target and, in campaign settings, an adjust bids by placement section with three rows: top of search (first page), rest of search and product pages. The percentage you enter for top of search multiplies the base bid whenever the auction is for a top-of-search slot. A ₹10 keyword bid with a 50% adjustment competes at ₹10 x 1.5 = ₹15 for the first row, and still at ₹10 elsewhere.
Dynamic bidding stacks on top of that. With dynamic bids up and down, Amazon can raise the top-of-search bid by a further 100% if it expects a sale, so the same keyword can compete at ₹30. This stacking is the usual answer to why a CPC is far above the bid you remember setting.
Flipkart has an equivalent: PLA campaigns carry a bid multiplier per placement, and sellers report top-of-search premiums of 30% to 50% during Big Billion Days (reported by seller posts, not Flipkart documentation).
The first row is where shoppers who have just typed a search look first, so it typically carries the highest click-through rate and conversion rate of the three placements. Amazon's placement report shows the split, and many sellers find that top of search produces most of a campaign's orders from a minority of its impressions.
That is also why it costs more. Competition for the first row is heaviest, and the adjustment is how you choose to pay a premium there for some keywords but not for others. Set it too high across a whole campaign and every keyword, including the ones that do not convert, pays the premium.
See what a base bid becomes at top of search after the adjustment and dynamic bidding.
Learn more →How much of the first row on a term your ad owns.
Learn more →The strategy that can double the top-of-search bid again.
Learn more →Filter keywords by ACoS or CVR, compare with suggested bids and update hundreds of bids at once.
Learn more →It is the placement for sponsored ads in the first row of an Amazon search results page, above organic results. Amazon reports it separately from rest of search and product page placements.
A percentage in campaign settings, from 0% to 900%, that raises your base bid when the auction is for a top-of-search slot. A ₹10 bid with a 50% adjustment competes at ₹15 there.
Base bid x (1 + placement adjustment), then dynamic bidding on top. ₹10 with a 50% adjustment is ₹15; with dynamic bids up and down, Amazon can raise that by up to 100% more, to ₹30.
Usually not. Auto campaigns contain untested targets, so a placement premium multiplies spend on terms that may never convert. Reserve it for exact match keywords with a proven conversion rate.
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