How the Signal Score Works: A Technical Overview

When you view a product in Shimm, it gets a score from 0 to 100. This post explains what goes into that number and why it matters for creators.

The Problem With Guessing

Most Amazon creators pick products based on intuition: what looks interesting, what brands send them, or what they see other creators promoting. By the time you notice a trend, the competition is already stiff. And making a video for a product with 50 other creator reviews means your content gets buried.

Shimm replaces guessing with data. Every product is scored in seconds based on signals that predict whether it's worth your time.

What Goes Into the Score

The Signal Score combines several factors:

• Rising demand: Is the Best Seller Rank improving? Rising demand means more people searching for and buying this product, and more potential viewers for your content.
• Competition level: How many creators are already promoting this product? Fewer creators means more visibility for your video.
• Commission rate: Higher commission categories mean more earnings per conversion. We factor this into the overall score.
• Review signals: Review count and velocity indicate product maturity. Products with strong reviews convert better from creator content.
• Category context: A BSR of 5,000 means very different things in Electronics vs. Beauty. Scores are category-adjusted.

What We Don't Do

Shimm does not scrape Amazon product pages. All marketplace data comes through Amazon's official Product Advertising API (PA-API). The score reflects the opportunity based on available data. It's a signal, not a guarantee.

Continuous Improvement

The scoring model improves over time as we collect user feedback. When you mark a product as worth promoting or skip it, that signal helps us calibrate future scores. The more you use Shimm, the better it gets at surfacing products you'd actually want to make content about.