How to download a bulk sheet from Amazon

The starting point for every bulk operation

Every bulk-sheet workflow begins with a download. You can't optimize what you can't see, and the bulk sheet is the only way to see your full account state in one place. This article walks through the download process: the form options, the date range trade-offs, what to do with the file once you have it, and a few quirks worth knowing.

If you haven't found the Bulk Operations page yet, the previous article covers the navigation. This article assumes you're already there.

The download form, field by field

The "Custom spreadsheet for bulk operations" section has four main settings:

• Date range. The period for which performance data (impressions, clicks, spend, sales) is included with each row. The default is usually 30 days, with options for 7, 30, 60, and sometimes 90 days. Structural data (campaign names, bids, states) is current regardless of range — only the performance columns are date-dependent.
• Ad products. Which ad types to include — Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, or all of them. Each ad type lives on its own worksheet in the downloaded file.
• Include archived entities. Whether to include campaigns, ad groups, or keywords you've previously archived. Default is off; turn on if you want to see your full history.
• Include performance metrics. A toggle for whether to include the performance columns at all. Off means structural-only (smaller file, faster generation). On means full data.

For the typical optimization workflow, you want: 30-day date range, all ad products, performance metrics on, archived off. For a structural review where you don't care about recent performance, you can speed things up by turning performance metrics off.

Choosing the right date range

The date range trade-off is signal vs. noise:

• 7 days: Recent and responsive, but small sample sizes mean lots of noise. A keyword with 5 clicks and 0 orders in a week tells you almost nothing — it could be a converter that happened to have a bad week. Use 7-day data only for very high-volume keywords where 7 days of data is statistically meaningful.
• 30 days: The default for most optimization work. Large enough that performance averages stabilize, small enough that the data reflects current behavior.
• 60 days: Useful for stable, mature campaigns where you want a longer view. Less useful for new campaigns or recently-changed bids — your performance reflects two different bid strategies averaged together.
• 90 days (when available): Strategic reviews — "is this campaign worth keeping at all?" — rather than tactical adjustments.

For most monthly optimization cycles, 30 days is right. If you find yourself adjusting bids based on 7-day data and then re-adjusting two weeks later because the data shifted, you're moving too fast on too little signal.

The download process itself

After filling in the form, click Create spreadsheet. Amazon queues your request and begins generating the file. The generation step can take anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes depending on:

• How big your account is (more campaigns = more rows = longer generation)
• How much performance data is included (longer date range = more aggregation)
• Current load on Amazon's servers (slower during peak hours, weekdays mid-morning especially)

The page refreshes automatically; you'll see "Generating..." or a similar status next to your request. When it's ready, a download link appears. Click to download.

The file is in .xlsx format, which Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers, and any modern spreadsheet tool can open. File size depends on account scale — typical accounts produce files in the 500KB to 5MB range. Very large accounts (thousands of campaigns) can produce files up to 50MB.

The contents of the downloaded file

When you open the file, you'll see multiple worksheets at the bottom (the tabs). For a full download:

• Sponsored Products Campaigns — all SP campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords, product targets, and negatives in one sheet.
• Sponsored Brands Campaigns — SB campaigns with the older single-ad-group format.
• SB Multi Ad Group Campaigns — newer SB campaigns that support multiple ad groups.
• Sponsored Display Campaigns — SD campaigns.
• Portfolios — your portfolio structure.
• Config — Amazon's reference sheet documenting valid values for State, Match Type, etc. Useful as a quick lookup.

Each sheet has 30+ columns, most of which are blank in any given row. That's normal — different entity types use different columns, so a Keyword row has columns filled in that a Campaign row doesn't, and vice versa. See the anatomy article for what each column means.

What to do with the file once you have it

Five steps to make the file actually useful:

1. Save a backup copy. Before you edit anything, make a copy of the file with today's date in the filename — e.g., backup-2026-05-16.xlsx. If your edits go badly, the backup is your rollback. Bulk sheets are how account state is captured; backups are how you protect against your own mistakes.
2. Decide what you're doing. Adjusting bids? Adding negatives? Building new campaigns? The same sheet can do all of these, but each requires a different filter and a different set of cells to edit. Know your goal before you start.
3. Filter to the rows you care about. Click any column header, then Excel's filter button (or Data → AutoFilter). Filter the Entity column to just "Keyword" if you're doing a bid review. Filter further by Campaign Name if you want to focus on a specific campaign. Filtering doesn't delete rows; it hides them visually so you can work on a manageable subset.
4. Make changes only to filtered, visible rows. When you edit cells with a filter applied, only the visible rows are affected. This is the killer feature for safe bulk edits. Type, drag-fill, or paste — your changes only touch the rows that matched the filter.
5. Set Operation to Update (for modifications) or Create (for new rows) on every row you changed. The Operation column is what tells Amazon to actually do something. Leaving it blank means "no change," which silently undoes your edit even if the Bid cell now has a new value.

Common questions about the download

How fresh is the data? The structural data (campaign names, bids, etc.) is real-time. The performance data is typically delayed by 12–24 hours — yesterday's clicks may not be included in today's download. For most decisions, this delay is irrelevant. For same-day reactions to a sudden spike or drop, look at the UI's real-time dashboards instead.

Can I download just one campaign? No, downloads are account-wide. You get every campaign across the selected ad products. Filter within the file if you want to work on a specific campaign.

Can I generate a fresh download every day? Yes, no daily limit. Each download is independent. Some sellers download daily to track changes over time; most download weekly or monthly tied to their optimization cycle.

Does downloading affect my live campaigns? No. Downloading is read-only. Nothing about your account changes from a download — it's pure inspection. Only an upload changes anything.

How do I download just performance data without the structural data? Use the Performance Reports section instead (separate from Bulk Operations). Performance reports give you cleaner data for analysis but can't be modified and re-uploaded. Bulk operations are for the edit cycle; performance reports are for read-only analysis.

The Custom Spreadsheet vs the Daily Spreadsheet

The Bulk Operations page sometimes shows a "Daily spreadsheet" option alongside the Custom one. Worth knowing the difference:

• Daily spreadsheet: Amazon pre-generates a snapshot of your account once per day, fixed format. You download it as-is. Fast (no waiting for generation) but inflexible (you can't pick the date range or filter).
• Custom spreadsheet: What this article has been describing. You configure it, Amazon generates it, and you download. Slower per request but tailored to your needs.

For most workflows, the Custom spreadsheet is what you want. The Daily spreadsheet is useful when you need something quick and don't care about specific options.

Quirks and gotchas

• The download URL expires. Once your file is generated, the download link is valid for a limited time (usually 24 hours). After that, the link 404s and you need to regenerate.
• Multiple downloads queue. If you click Create spreadsheet twice in a row, the second request waits behind the first. You can have several files in your downloads list at once if you've been generating multiple.
• Old downloads stay accessible until you delete them. The Bulk Operations page shows a history of recent downloads. You can re-download any of them as long as the link hasn't expired, which is useful for sharing files with a teammate or for forgetting where you put the original.
• Performance columns can include zeros that look like real data. A keyword with 0 impressions for the date range shows up with all zeros across the performance columns. Don't conclude it's a non-converter — it may simply have been paused during the period. Cross-check with the State column.

Now you have a sheet — what next?

The download is the easy part. What you do with the file is where the value is. Three natural directions:

• If you're new to bulk sheets, open the file and look at it. Browse the columns. Find the Entity column and notice the different types. Look at the Bid column. Get familiar with how it's organized before you try to change anything. The anatomy article is the structured walkthrough.
• If you're optimizing, jump to adjusting bids in bulk or one of the other operations articles. Each one assumes you have a downloaded sheet to work with.
• If you're building new campaigns, you may not need the download at all — the template generator produces blank campaign templates from scratch. Use those instead.

And if you find yourself downloading the sheet to make the same kinds of changes every cycle, BulkSheet Pro reads the downloaded file and applies the optimization rules for you — entirely client-side, with no data ever leaving your browser. Try it free →