Shelf Intelligence is the Cobalt module you use to understand how your brand shows up on Amazon search results. It centers on Share of Voice, keyword tracking, and keyword research, so you can see which keywords matter to your brand, how you rank for them over time, and how much of the page you own compared to your competition.
This article covers what Shelf Intelligence includes, how to track your first keywords, how each tab works, and how to use Shelf Intelligence data inside Dashboards.
What you can do with Shelf Intelligence
Shelf Intelligence gives you the data you need to answer questions about visibility, competition, and keyword opportunity on Amazon. Use it to find:
- Share of Voice percentages for your brand and competitors
- Average search rank for tracked keywords
- Average review scores
- Best Seller and Amazon's Choice placement percentages
- Related keywords for an ASIN
- Keyword search volume and competition
Why Shelf Intelligence matters
See your visibility against the competition. Measure how much of the first page of Amazon your brand owns for the keywords that matter most, compared to every other brand competing for the same terms.
Track performance over time. With 12 data collections per day, you can see how your rank, Share of Voice, and sponsored placements shift across days, weeks, and promotional events.
Find the keywords worth investing in. Use Keyword Research to surface the search terms driving traffic in your category, then track the ones that align with your strategy.
Getting started
From the left-hand navigation, select Shelf Intelligence. The landing page opens with four tabs: Share of Voice, Keyword Performance, Tracked Keywords, and Keyword Research.
Note: Share of Voice and Keyword Performance are populated by the keywords you track. Before you see data on those tabs, add keywords on the Tracked Keywords tab.
How to add tracked keywords
1. Open the Tracked Keywords tab. From Shelf Intelligence, select Tracked Keywords, then click + Add new Keyword.
2. Enter your keywords. In the pop-up, add each keyword on its own line, then click the + button to confirm the list.
3. Set the platform, region, and state. For each keyword, choose a Platform (Desktop or Mobile), Region, and State (Enabled or Disabled).
4. Save your keywords. Click Add Keywords. Your keywords appear in the Tracked Keywords table and begin populating the Share of Voice and Keyword Performance tabs.
Tip: You can also add keywords to tracking directly from the Keyword Research tab. For more detail on managing your tracked list, see Shelf Intelligence - Tracked Keywords.
Shelf Intelligence tabs
Shelf Intelligence opens with four tabs. Each one is designed for a different type of question, from high-level brand visibility to detailed keyword research.
Share of Voice
Share of Voice shows how your brand is performing compared to others for the keywords you're tracking. Filters at the top let you view the data by fold, rank, platform, country, and more. Use this to see how much of the page your brand owns in a specific niche and how that changes over time.
For example, if your brand focuses on women's sunglasses, filter to the keyword women's sunglasses to see how your brand is doing compared to others in the same niche. The chart breaks down the top five brands by Share of Voice, with all brands holding less than 6% grouped as Others. You can change Show Top to see the top 10 or 20 brands instead.
Keyword Performance
Keyword Performance gives you a brand-specific view of Share of Voice across all your tracked keywords. Use this to quickly see how your brand (or a competitor's brand) is performing across a set of keywords, or even all of them.
Select a Featured Brand at the top right to populate the Brand SOV %, Brand SOV % - PW (Position Weighted), and Brand SOV % - VW (Visibility Weighted) columns. The Featured Brand selector tells Cobalt which brand to calculate the percentages against, and you can switch between brands to compare performance.
Tip: When you're looking at performance keyword by keyword, use the Brand SOV columns paired with a Featured Brand. They're designed for this view. To compare share of voice across all brands or ASINs on a single keyword, use Share of Voice instead.
Tracked Keywords
Tracked Keywords is where you tell Cobalt which search terms to monitor. Once added, each keyword is collected 12 times per day and feeds the Share of Voice and Keyword Performance tabs. Use this to build a watch list of the keywords that drive your category. See How to add tracked keywords above for setup steps.
Keyword Research
Keyword Research surfaces search volume, competition, and related terms for any keyword or ASIN you query, without needing to track it first. Use this to find new keyword opportunities, validate assumptions about your category, or decide which terms to add to your Tracked Keywords.
Weighting methodologies
Share of Voice can be calculated three different ways. Each methodology values placements differently, so each one tells you something different about how your brand is showing up on the page. You'll see all three available as columns in the Keyword Performance tab and as fields you can use in Dashboards.
The weighting methodology selector in Share of Voice. Switch between Equal Weighted, Position Weighted, and Visibility Weighted to see how each one values placements differently.
Equal Weighted
Every search result on page 1 gets the same weight, regardless of where it appears or what type it is. If there are 20 results and Brand A has the first result while Brand B has the last, both brands receive 5% (1/20) Share of Voice.
Use this when: You want a simple count of presence on the page without any positional bias. Useful for understanding overall page coverage.
Position Weighted
Results higher on the page receive more weight than results lower on the page. The methodology doesn't consider what type of placement it is or how much visual space it takes up - just position. An ASIN in the 4th slot carries more weight than an ASIN in the 5th slot, and so on.
Use this when: You want a position-based view of competitive ranking, similar to how SEO ranking is traditionally measured.
Visibility Weighted
Combines two factors to reflect how visible a placement actually is to a shopper:
- Vertical prominence (fold): How high on the page the placement appears. Higher placements get more weight.
- Visual footprint (size): Whether the placement is a standard tile or a full-width module like a Sponsored Brand Headline or Video. Larger placements get more weight.
Placements that appear higher on the page and take up more visual space contribute more to Share of Voice. This is the most accurate reflection of which brands are visually dominating the page.
Use this when: You want to understand which brands shoppers are most likely to actually see and engage with on the page. This is the recommended default for most competitive visibility analysis.
What's changed and what's stayed the same
If you've used Shelf Intelligence before, here's a quick reference for how today's methodologies map to the older names:
| Previous name | Current name | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Weighted | Equal Weighted | Renamed for clarity. Calculation is unchanged. |
| Position Weighted | Position Weighted | No change. Same name and calculation. |
| Fold and Area Weighted (FAW) | Visibility Weighted (VW) | Replaced with a new methodology. Visibility Weighted uses fold and module footprint instead of pixel-area calculations, giving more stable and intuitive results. |
Heads up about historical reporting: Visibility Weighted is the new methodology and is available for reporting periods on or after January 1, 2026. For reporting periods before January 1, 2026, Visibility Weighted results reflect the previous Fold and Area methodology. You may also notice some differences in SOV distribution under the new methodology. Equal Weighted and Position Weighted are unaffected.
Using Shelf Intelligence in Dashboards
In addition to the standalone Shelf Intelligence page, you can use Shelf Intelligence as a data source when building Dashboards. This lets you visualize the same data in formats that fit your workflow, like time-series charts, brand comparison tables, or keyword performance grids.
To create a widget using Shelf Intelligence data, choose Shelf Intelligence as the widget data source under the Market Intelligence data set.
A common use is a search results widget for a tracked keyword, which shows you which brands rank highest in Share of Voice and how many clicks they're receiving.
Another common use is a Time Series Chart that tracks your brand's search results and Position Weighted SOV over a period of time.
Tip: To learn more about Dashboards and how to build widgets, see Dashboards - Feature Overview.
Marketplace availability
Shelf Intelligence includes two core toolsets with different marketplace coverage: Share of Voice and Keyword Research.
Share of Voice supports:
- The Americas: United States (US), Canada (CA), Mexico (MX), Brazil (BR)
- Europe: United Kingdom (UK), Germany (DE), France (FR), Italy (IT), Spain (ES), Netherlands (NL), Poland (PL), Sweden (SE), Turkey (TR)
- Asia-Pacific: Japan (JP), India (IN), Australia (AU)
- Middle East: United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia (SA)
Keyword Research supports:
- The Americas: United States (US), Canada (CA), Mexico (MX)
- Europe: United Kingdom (UK), Germany (DE), France (FR), Italy (IT), Spain (ES)
- Asia-Pacific: Japan (JP), India (IN)
Current limitations
- Page one only. Share of Voice metrics reflect data from page 1 of Amazon search results.
- "Other" widgets aren't counted. Widgets that sometimes appear in search results, like Editorial recommendations, aren't currently included in Share of Voice calculations. Including these is on our roadmap.
- No differentiation between single-column and grid search pages. Some search terms return a single column of results and others return a grid. Grids often fit more ASINs into a fold, but Shelf Intelligence doesn't apply special weighting based on layout.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shelf Intelligence available in all marketplaces?
Shelf Intelligence includes two core toolsets with different marketplace coverage. See the Marketplace availability section above for the full list of countries supported for Share of Voice and Keyword Research.
How long does it take to start gathering data for a new tracked keyword?
It takes about 36 hours for Cobalt to begin gathering and displaying data for a newly tracked keyword.
How often is Share of Voice data updated?
Data for tracked keywords is gathered 12 times per day, or once per hour. Data collected today is aggregated and available the following day.
What are the different weighting methodologies?
Share of Voice offers three weighting methodologies: Equal Weighted, Position Weighted, and Visibility Weighted. Each one shows a different view of how your brand is positioned on the search results page. See the Weighting methodologies section above for full definitions, when to use each one, and a reference for how the current names map to previous ones.
What is a fold?
A fold is a horizontal slice of the search results page. You can think of each fold as roughly one screen's worth of content on your device. Placements that sit in higher folds (closer to the top of the page) are more visible to shoppers and carry more weight in Visibility Weighted Share of Voice.
You can use the Fold filter in Share of Voice to limit metrics to a specific part of the page. For example, filter to the top 2 folds to see how your brand performs at the very top of search results, or choose "all folds" for a whole-page view.
How do Tracked Keywords count against my keyword limit?
Your organization has a contractual limit for the number of Shelf Intelligence keywords you can track at any one time. A keyword is defined as a unique combination of keyword text, country, language, and platform.
For example, "iPhone case" in US/English/Desktop and "iPhone case" in US/English/Mobile count as two keywords, because one is on Desktop and one is on Mobile. To increase your tracked keyword limit, reach out to your Customer Success Manager or email cobaltsupport@junglescout.com.
What is the Featured Brand selector?
The Featured Brand selector tells Cobalt which brand to use as the reference point for brand-specific calculations. Selecting a featured brand does two things:
Emphasizes that brand in visualizations. The brand is highlighted with stronger color and more prominent placement in Share of Voice charts.
Populates brand-specific metrics. Many metrics on the Keyword Performance tab, like Brand SOV %, require a selected brand to calculate. You can use this to view your own brand's percentages or switch to a competitor to see theirs.
Why does Share of Voice sometimes show "Unknown Brand" and then update later?
When data is first ingested, the brand for some listings isn't yet recognized. As Cobalt processes that data, it matches the listings to their correct brands, and the "Unknown Brand" entries are replaced with specific brand names.
We're always here to help! If you have questions, please reach out to us at cobaltsupport@junglescout.com.