Keyword tiers and classification
Tier 1/2/3 priority for the whole seller account, plus conviction/proven/opportunity per ASIN — how RankASIN decides what matters.
RankASIN tags every keyword in two dimensions: a seller-account-wide tier that reflects how important the keyword is across your entire catalog, and a per-ASIN class that reflects the keyword's strategic role for one specific ASIN. These live in asin_keyword_map as separate columns — tier and keyword_class — and they coexist independently.
Seller-account tier (tier_1 / tier_2 / tier_3)
Tiers represent keyword priority at the seller-account level. A keyword's tier applies across all your ASINs — if "exfoliating toner pads" is tier_1, it's tier_1 everywhere in your account.
Tiers are auto-assigned by refreshKeywordMaster, which runs whenever you save a diagnostic or upload a new Brand Analytics report. The engine scores each keyword based on:
- SQP search query score — Amazon's own relevance signal
- Impressions — how much traffic is available for this term
- CTR — whether the market is actually clicking when shown this term
What each tier means in practice:
| Tier | Meaning |
|---|---|
| tier_1 | High-priority. In title, in primary PPC campaigns. Non-negotiable for any ASIN targeting this term. |
| tier_2 | Mid-priority. In bullets or backend search terms. Worth testing with PPC. |
| tier_3 | Low-priority or long-tail. Backend keywords only. Include when you have room; don't chase at the expense of tier_1. |
You can manually promote or demote a keyword's tier from the Keyword Master table. Manual edits are sticky — the engine won't overwrite them on the next harvest.
Per-ASIN class (conviction / proven / opportunity / none)
While tier is seller-wide, keyword_class is per-ASIN. The same keyword can be "conviction" for one ASIN and "none" for another. The four classes:
conviction — You've manually decided this keyword is a strategic must-have for this ASIN. The engine never writes or overwrites conviction. It's set only by you. Use it for terms that define the product's positioning — the keywords you'd put in the title even if the data isn't there yet.
proven — The engine assigned this. The keyword has SQP data showing it generates clicks and purchases for this ASIN. It's performing; the priority is to protect and scale it.
opportunity — The engine assigned this. The keyword shows up in TST or SQP cross-reference but isn't converting yet. It's in the funnel but not winning. The priority is to improve the listing for this term (title, image, price) and test with PPC.
none — No class assigned. The keyword is in the master list but doesn't have a signal strong enough to classify, or hasn't been evaluated for this ASIN yet.
Manual override
When you manually set a keyword's class on an ASIN (via the Keyword Master or ASIN strategy panel), RankASIN sets keyword_class_manual_override = true on that row. Rows with the override flag are never touched by the classification engine — your decision stands regardless of what future data shows.
To hand the keyword back to the engine, clear the manual override. The engine will re-evaluate it on the next recompute cycle.
When the engine recomputes
The classification engine (listing-classification-engine.ts) runs automatically in several situations:
- After keyword harvest (when you save a diagnostic)
- After you save a strategy update for an ASIN
- After you add or remove a conviction keyword
- After a 5-second debounce window following a field edit in the listing editor
The debounce is client-side — it lives in a timer inside the listing editor, not in any server process. This means it fires once per editing session, not on every keystroke.
The engine writes only to keyword_class. It never touches tier, priority_1_to_5, or any column flagged with keyword_class_manual_override = true.