How to use Helium 10 Magnet for Amazon keyword research (2026 guide)

Magnet is Helium 10's forward-facing keyword research tool. Where Cerebro reverse-engineers a competitor's keyword strategy from their ASIN, Magnet starts from a seed keyword and expands outward — surfacing thousands of related terms, their search volumes, and how competitive each one is. Together, Cerebro and Magnet form the most comprehensive keyword research workflow available for Amazon sellers in 2026. This guide covers how to use Magnet step by step, which filters matter, and how to combine it with Cerebro for maximum impact.

Magnet vs. Cerebro — when to use each

This is the question most sellers have when starting with Helium 10's keyword tools. The short answer: use both, in sequence.

The most effective workflow: use Magnet first to build your broad keyword universe, then use Cerebro on your top 5 competitors to validate which keywords actually drive traffic and sales. The overlap between your Magnet list and Cerebro's results is your priority target list.

Step-by-step: your first Magnet search

Step 1: Choose your seed keyword

Open Magnet in your Helium 10 dashboard. Enter a seed keyword — the broadest term that describes your product. If you sell silicone ice cube trays, start with "ice cube tray." Don't start too specific (you'll miss opportunities) or too broad (you'll get irrelevant noise).

Tips for choosing the right seed:

• Use what a customer who doesn't know your brand name would type to find your product
• Start with 2-3 word phrases — single words are often too broad, 5+ word phrases too specific for seeding
• Run 3-5 different seeds per niche — "silicone ice tray," "large ice cube mold," "whiskey ice ball maker" will each surface different keyword clusters

Step 2: Read the results

Magnet returns up to 15,000 keywords per search. For each keyword you see:

• Search volume — estimated monthly Amazon searches
• Magnet IQ Score — demand-to-competition ratio (higher = better opportunity)
• Word count — number of words in the phrase
• Competing products — how many ASINs are indexed for this keyword
• CPR (8-Day Giveaway) — estimated units to give away in 8 days to reach page 1
• Sponsored ASINs — how many products are running paid ads on this keyword

Step 3: Apply the right filters

Raw Magnet results include thousands of irrelevant or unwinnable keywords. Apply these filters to find the actionable ones:

• Search volume minimum: 300–500/month — eliminates keywords with negligible traffic. Don't go too high or you'll miss valuable long-tail terms.
• Word count minimum: 2–3 words — single-word keywords are almost always too competitive for new sellers.
• Magnet IQ Score minimum: 25 — filters for keywords where demand meaningfully exceeds competition. Adjust up to 50 if you want only the clearest opportunities.
• Exclude irrelevant terms — use the "Exclude" filter to remove brand names, competitor product names, or unrelated terms that keep appearing.

After filtering, you typically work with 100-300 high-quality keywords. That's your research set.

Step 4: Segment your keyword list

Sort your filtered results into three tiers based on how you'll use them:

• Tier 1 — Title and bullet points: highest volume, highest IQ Score keywords that directly describe your product. These go in your listing title and first two bullet points.
• Tier 2 — Backend search terms: relevant but secondary keywords — synonyms, alternate phrasings, slightly lower volume. Amazon's backend search term field holds up to 250 bytes; fill it with Tier 2 keywords that don't appear in your visible listing.
• Tier 3 — PPC targets: exact-match keywords with high commercial intent. These become your manual PPC campaign targets — terms with enough volume to generate impressions but specific enough to convert.

The Magnet IQ Score — what it actually means

The Magnet IQ Score is a demand-to-competition ratio. It compares a keyword's monthly search volume against the number of products competing for it. A keyword with 5,000 monthly searches and 200 competing products has a much higher IQ Score than one with 5,000 searches and 50,000 competitors.

Advanced technique: multi-seed research

Running Magnet on a single seed only shows one slice of the keyword universe. Professional sellers run 5-10 seeds per product and merge the results. Here's the workflow:

1. Run Magnet on your primary seed keyword — export filtered results
2. Run Magnet on 4-5 synonym and related seeds — "ice cube mold," "ice ball maker," "cocktail ice tray," etc.
3. Import all exports into Helium 10's Frankenstein tool
4. Frankenstein de-duplicates the combined list and gives you frequency scores — keywords that appear across multiple seeds are your highest-priority targets
5. Feed the deduplicated master list into Scribbles when building your listing

This workflow surfaces keywords that a single-seed approach misses entirely — often the most valuable long-tail opportunities are only found through multiple entry points.

Combining Magnet with Cerebro: the complete workflow

The most powerful keyword research workflow pairs both tools:

1. Magnet first: run 3-5 seeds, build your keyword universe, identify high-IQ opportunities
2. Cerebro second: paste in your top 5 competitors' ASINs, see exactly which keywords they rank for
3. Find the overlap: keywords that appear in both your Magnet list AND your Cerebro results are proven — customers search for them and competitors rank for them. These are your top priority.
4. Find Cerebro-only keywords: terms your competitors rank for that Magnet didn't surface. These are opportunities you would have missed without both tools.
5. Find Magnet-only keywords: terms with search volume that competitors haven't targeted yet. These are your differentiation opportunities.

Read our complete Cerebro guide for the reverse-ASIN side of this workflow.

Magnet pricing — what plan you need

The free plan's 2 daily searches are enough to explore a niche before committing. Once you're actively launching a product, unlimited Magnet access is worth the Platinum subscription — a single well-identified keyword opportunity typically returns more than the monthly cost.

Use code 26MAR30OFF6M3 for 30% off your first 6 months on Platinum or Diamond.