What are automatic campaigns?

With an automatic campaign (auto campaign), you leave it to Amazon to decide which search queries and product pages your ad appears on. You only set the budget and a default bid. Amazon analyzes your listing (title, bullet points, backend keywords, product category) and independently decides which search terms and products are relevant.

Definition

An automatic campaign is a Sponsored Products campaign type where Amazon's algorithm determines, based on your listing, which keywords and products are used as targeting targets. You control only budget and bids, not the individual targets.

The four targeting groups in auto campaigns

Amazon internally divides automatic campaigns into four groups that you can control separately in the campaign settings:

  • Close Match: your ad is served on search queries closely related to your product. Example: for a stainless steel water bottle, Amazon shows your ad for "stainless steel water bottle 750ml."
  • Loose Match: here broader search queries are included too. Example: "sports water bottle" or "bottle for the gym" could trigger your ad.
  • Substitutes: your ad appears on the detail pages of products considered substitutes for your product. These are typically competitor products in the same category.
  • Complements: here Amazon shows your ad on the detail pages of complementary products. Example: your water bottle is shown on the page of a sports bag.
Practical tip

You can set a separate bid for each of the four groups or deactivate individual groups entirely. In practice, it makes sense to bid higher on Close Match and Substitutes than on Loose Match and Complements, because relevance there is usually higher.

Advantages of automatic campaigns

  • Quick to set up: you don't need keyword research. An auto campaign can be created in less than five minutes.
  • Keyword discovery: Amazon automatically tests a wide range of search terms. This helps you find keywords you'd never have thought of yourself.
  • Broad coverage: with new products in particular, you don't yet know which keywords convert. Auto campaigns deliver this data.
  • Low maintenance: the campaign runs without constant keyword adjustments. You only check the search term reports regularly.
  • ASIN targeting included: through Substitutes and Complements, you automatically reach customers on competitor detail pages.

Disadvantages of automatic campaigns

  • Little control: you can't determine which keywords your ad appears for. Amazon decides.
  • Wasted spend: the Loose Match group and Complements can produce irrelevant placements that burn budget.
  • Uniform bid per group: you can't set different bids for individual keywords. If a particular keyword performs especially well, you can't specifically bid it up in an auto campaign.
  • No match-type control: unlike manual campaigns, you have no influence over whether a keyword is triggered as broad, phrase or exact.

What are manual campaigns?

In manual campaigns, you decide for yourself which keywords or ASINs you want to advertise. You choose the match type (broad, phrase or exact) for each keyword and set an individual bid. Amazon shows your ad only for the targets you define.

Definition

A manual campaign gives you full control over targeting. You deliberately select keywords or product ASINs, set match types and control bids at the keyword level. Amazon serves your ad only for these defined targets.

Targeting options in manual campaigns

Manual campaigns offer you two targeting types:

Keyword targeting: you enter a list of keywords with the match types broad, phrase or exact. You set an individual bid for each keyword. This lets you precisely control which search queries your ad appears for.

Product targeting: you deliberately select ASINs or entire product categories as a target. Your ad then appears on the detail pages of the selected products. This is especially useful for advertising on competitor products or complementary items.

Advantages of manual campaigns

  • Full control: you decide which keywords or ASINs are advertised and how high the bid is.
  • Individual bids: high-converting keywords get a higher bid. Weak keywords are reduced or paused.
  • Match-type control: you combine broad, phrase and exact strategically to find the right balance between reach and precision.
  • Better ACoS control: through targeted keyword selection and individual bids, you usually achieve a lower ACoS than with auto campaigns.
  • Scalability: once you know which keywords are profitable, you can channel budget specifically toward those keywords.

Disadvantages of manual campaigns

  • Higher effort: you need solid keyword research and have to optimize the campaign regularly.
  • Blind spots: you only advertise on the keywords you know. Relevant search terms that aren't on your radar aren't covered.
  • Time-consuming: adjusting bids, adding new keywords, pausing weak keywords. This requires regular maintenance.

Comparison: automatic vs. manual at a glance

Criterion Automatic campaign Manual campaign
Setup effort Low (5 minutes) Medium to high (keyword research needed)
Keyword control None (Amazon decides) Full control
Bid control Per targeting group Per keyword / ASIN
Match types Not selectable Broad, phrase, exact
Keyword discovery Strong (finds new keywords) Limited (only chosen keywords)
Typical ACoS Tends to be higher Tends to be lower
Maintenance effort Low Medium to high
Scalability Limited High

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The harvest-and-refine workflow

The most successful Amazon sellers don't use automatic and manual campaigns in isolation but connect them in a systematic process. This approach is called "harvest and refine."

How the workflow works

Step 1: The auto campaign starts the discovery phase. You create an automatic campaign for your product with a moderate daily budget (for example $15 to $25). The campaign runs and collects data on which search terms and which competitor ASINs lead to clicks and sales.

Step 2: Evaluate the search term report. After 7 to 14 days (or as soon as enough data is available), you download the search term report. There you see exactly which search terms generated impressions, clicks and conversions.

Step 3: Move profitable keywords into a manual campaign. Keywords with a good conversion rate and acceptable ACoS move into a manual campaign as exact match or phrase match. There you can control the bid individually and scale these keywords deliberately.

Step 4: Set negative keywords in the auto campaign. The keywords you moved into the manual campaign, you add as negative exact in the auto campaign. This prevents both campaigns from competing for the same keyword. At the same time, you set keywords that generate clicks but no sales as negative.

Step 5: Repeat the cycle. The auto campaign keeps running and finds new keywords. Every few weeks you repeat the process: check the report, move good keywords into the manual campaign, set bad keywords as negative.

Practical tip

In Sellantica, this harvest-and-refine process is automated. The tool continuously analyzes the search term reports, identifies profitable keywords and moves them into the appropriate manual campaign. At the same time, poorly performing search terms are set as negative keywords.

Why this workflow is so effective

Combining both campaign types unites their respective strengths. The auto campaign acts as a permanent discovery machine and finds keywords you'd never have identified manually. The manual campaign takes over scaling and uses the insights gained with maximum precision. The cycle ensures your keyword set continuously grows while your ACoS falls at the same time.

When is an auto campaign alone enough?

There are situations where an automatic campaign without a manual counterpart can make sense:

  • Product launch without data: when you're launching a completely new product and don't yet know any keywords, an auto campaign is the fastest way to collect first data.
  • Very small budget: with less than $10 daily budget, it sometimes isn't worth splitting the budget across several campaigns. A well-maintained auto campaign can then be enough.
  • Niche products with few keywords: in very narrow niches with only a handful of relevant search terms, an auto campaign often delivers similar results to a manual campaign.
  • Limited management time: if you do everything alone as a seller and PPC is only a small part of your work, an auto campaign is better than no advertising at all.

When should you switch to manual campaigns?

In the following situations you should definitely use manual campaigns:

  • You have enough data: as soon as you know from the search term report which keywords convert, you should advertise them deliberately in manual campaigns.
  • Your ACoS is too high: if the auto campaign generates profitable clicks but the overall ACoS is too high, you need bid control at the keyword level.
  • You want to scale: beyond a certain budget, it's inefficient to run everything through an auto campaign. Manual campaigns let you channel budget specifically toward top keywords.
  • You need placement control: in manual campaigns you can set bid adjustments for top of search and product pages. That's not possible in auto campaigns.
  • Highly competitive keywords: for heavily contested keywords, you need individual bids and precise match types to stay profitable.

Budget split: how much for which campaign type?

The right budget split depends on your situation. Here are guideline values for typical phases:

Phase 1: Product launch (first 4 weeks)

In the launch phase, the main goal is to collect data. A sensible split is 60 to 70 percent of the budget for the auto campaign and 30 to 40 percent for a first manual campaign with the most obvious keywords.

Phase 2: Data evaluation (weeks 5 to 8)

Once you have first data, you shift the focus. Plan 40 percent for the auto campaign and 60 percent for manual campaigns. The auto campaign stays active but with a reduced budget.

Phase 3: Optimized steady-state operation

In established operation, 20 to 30 percent for auto campaigns (as an ongoing discovery engine) and 70 to 80 percent for manual campaigns (where your most profitable keywords run) is recommended.

Practical tip

These percentages are guideline values. What matters is performance. If your auto campaign delivers a better ACoS than the manual campaign, you may give it more budget too. Let the data guide you, not rigid rules.

Common mistakes when using both campaign types

Mistake 1: Auto and manual campaign compete against each other

If you have a keyword running as exact match in the manual campaign but the same keyword is still being served in the auto campaign, you're bidding against yourself. Solution: set the keyword as negative exact in the auto campaign.

Mistake 2: Letting the auto campaign run without evaluating

An auto campaign is not a "set and forget" instrument. If you don't check the search term reports regularly, you burn budget on irrelevant search terms while missing profitable keywords at the same time.

Mistake 3: Switching to manual campaigns too early

Some sellers create a manual campaign with three keywords after a few days and switch off the auto campaign. That's too early. You need at least 1,000 to 2,000 clicks in the auto campaign to get a meaningful picture of which keywords really work.

Mistake 4: Using only one campaign type

Anyone working exclusively with auto campaigns forgoes precision. Anyone using only manual campaigns misses out on continuous keyword discovery. The combination is almost always the better strategy.

Advanced tactic: segmenting multiple auto campaigns

Experienced sellers don't just create a single auto campaign but segment the four targeting groups into separate campaigns or ad groups:

  • Campaign 1: Close Match. The focus here is on keywords with high relevance. This campaign usually gets the highest bid.
  • Campaign 2: Loose Match. This campaign serves broad discovery. The bid is lower because relevance is lower.
  • Campaign 3: Substitutes. This campaign serves your ad on competitor detail pages. Performance varies greatly by product.
  • Campaign 4: Complements. This campaign is often started with a low bid, because the conversion rate on complementary products is frequently lower.

The advantage of this segmentation: you can control the budget for each group separately and evaluate performance individually. If, for example, Substitutes performs especially well, you can raise the budget there without also pushing more money into Loose Match.

Combining both types: a concrete example

Let's say you sell a stainless steel water bottle with a selling price of $24.99 and a margin of $10. Your target ACoS is 30 percent (a maximum of $7.50 in advertising costs per sale).

Weeks 1 to 2: you start an auto campaign with a $20 daily budget. The campaign generates impressions for hundreds of different search terms.

Week 3: you evaluate the search term report. You find 15 search terms with conversions. Five of them have an ACoS under 25 percent: "stainless steel water bottle," "thermos flask 750ml," "bpa free water bottle," "insulated sports bottle" and "leakproof stainless steel bottle."

Weeks 3 to 4: you create a manual campaign and add the five top keywords as exact match. In the auto campaign, you set these five keywords as negative exact. At the same time, you identify eight search terms with many clicks but zero conversions and set them as negative keywords.

From week 5: the manual campaign gets 60 percent of the budget, the auto campaign 40 percent. Every two weeks you repeat the harvest cycle. After three months you have 25 profitable keywords in the manual campaign and an ACoS significantly below that of the auto campaign.

Conclusion: not either-or, but both

The question "automatic or manual?" is misleading. Both campaign types fulfill different jobs and complement each other optimally. Automatic campaigns are your discovery tool: they find keywords and placements you wouldn't have identified on your own. Manual campaigns are your control instrument: they scale the insights gained with maximum control and efficiency.

The harvest-and-refine workflow connects both types into a continuous optimization loop. Auto campaigns deliver the data, manual campaigns deliver the performance. If you carry out this cycle consistently, your profitable keyword set grows steadily and your overall budget is used ever more efficiently.

Start with an auto campaign, evaluate regularly, build manual campaigns and let both run in parallel. That's how you get the maximum out of your Amazon PPC budget.