Creating Rules & Automation for your PPC

Rules & Automation lets you define actions that run automatically against your Amazon PPC data on a recurring schedule. Instead of manually reviewing every keyword and bid, you set conditions — and the system either suggests changes for your approval or applies them directly. This guide walks you through creating all three rule types: Bid Rules, Keyword Harvest, and Negative Targeting.

Note: You need an active Amazon Ads Optimiser subscription and at least one synced Amazon Ads account to use Rules & Automation. The rule engine evaluates all active rules daily against fresh report data.

Before you begin

There are a few important concepts that apply across all rule types:

• AND logic within a criteria block. When you stack multiple conditions inside a single block, all of them must be true for the rule to fire. For example, "IF ACoS >= 50% AND Spend >= ₹500 AND Orders = 0" only triggers when all three conditions are met simultaneously.
• OR logic between blocks. You can add multiple criteria blocks. The rule fires if any one block's conditions are fully satisfied. This gives you flexibility for complex scenarios without creating separate rules.
• Manual vs Automate mode. Every rule can run in one of two modes. Manual generates suggestions inside the Ads Optimiser for you to review and approve before anything changes. Automate applies changes directly to your Amazon campaigns without waiting for approval. Start with Manual if you are new to automation.
• Lookback window. This controls how far back the rule looks at performance data when evaluating conditions. Options are 7, 14, 30, 60, or 90 days. A shorter window reacts faster to recent performance; a longer window smooths out daily fluctuations.
• Frequency. Choose how often the rule evaluates — Daily or Weekly. Daily rules check every run cycle; weekly rules check once per week.

How rules interact with the PPC engine

When you activate a rule on specific campaigns, the PPC engine respects those rules and avoids generating conflicting suggestions. Specifically:

• Campaigns with active Bid Rules will not receive REDUCE or INCREASE bid suggestions from the engine.
• Campaigns with active Negative Targeting rules will not receive NEGATE suggestions from the engine.

This prevents the engine and your rules from issuing contradictory actions on the same campaigns. Your rules take priority.

Create a Bid Rule

Bid Rules automatically increase or decrease keyword bids based on performance conditions you define. Use them to scale up profitable keywords or pull back spend on underperformers.

1. Navigate to Dashboard → Ads → Rules & Automation.
2. Click Create Rule (or the equivalent button to add a new rule).
3. Select Bid Rule as the rule type.
4. Under the campaign selector, choose one or more campaigns this rule should apply to. You can select individual campaigns or multiple campaigns at once.
5. Define your first criteria block. Choose a metric (such as ACoS, Spend, Orders, Clicks, or Impressions), an operator (such as >=, <=, or =), and a value. For example: ACoS >= 50%.
6. To add more conditions within the same block, click the option to add another condition. These stack with AND logic — all conditions in the block must be true.
7. If you need an alternative set of conditions, add a second criteria block. The blocks are connected with OR logic — the rule fires if either block is fully satisfied.
8. Set the Action: choose either Decrease Bid by X% or Increase Bid by X%, and enter the percentage amount.
9. Set the Lookback window to the number of days of performance data the rule should evaluate (7, 14, 30, 60, or 90).
10. Set the Frequency to Daily or Weekly.
11. Set your Timezone so the rule runs at a time that aligns with your reporting cycle.
12. Choose the Mode: select Manual to receive suggestions for approval, or Automate to let changes apply without approval.
13. Click Save.

Tip: A conservative starting configuration for reducing wasted spend is: IF ACoS >= 50% AND Spend >= ₹500 AND Orders = 0 THEN Decrease Bid by 15%, with a 30-day lookback, running daily in Manual mode. Review the suggestions for a week or two before switching to Automate.

Result

Your Bid Rule appears in the Rules & Automation list as active. If set to Manual, matching keywords will appear as suggestions in the Ads Optimiser at the next evaluation cycle. If set to Automate, bid changes will be applied directly.

Create a Keyword Harvest Rule

Keyword Harvest promotes profitable search terms from discovery campaigns (Auto, Broad, or Phrase match) into a specific destination campaign and ad group — typically as Exact or Phrase match keywords. This is the automated version of the manual harvest workflow most Amazon sellers do weekly.

1. Navigate to Dashboard → Ads → Rules & Automation.
2. Click Create Rule.
3. Select Keyword Harvest as the rule type.
4. Under Source campaigns, select the Auto, Broad, or Phrase match campaigns where new search terms are being discovered.
5. Under Destination, choose the destination campaign and the specific ad group where promoted keywords should be added.
6. Decide whether to enable the Negate in source checkbox. When ticked, any search term that gets promoted to the destination is also added as a negative keyword in the source campaign. This prevents both campaigns from bidding on the same search term (double-bidding), which wastes budget.
7. Define your criteria. A typical configuration is: IF Orders >= 2 AND ACoS <= 30% THEN Promote to Exact Match. Adjust the thresholds to match your profit margins.
8. Choose whether to promote as Exact Match or Phrase Match.
9. Set the Lookback window, Frequency, Timezone, and Mode (Manual or Automate) using the same options described in the Bid Rule section above.
10. Click Save.

Tip: Enabling Negate in source is strongly recommended for most sellers. Without it, your Auto or Broad campaign continues to match and bid on the same search term you have just added to your Exact campaign, splitting your budget and muddying your performance data.

Result

When the rule evaluates and finds search terms in your source campaigns that meet your criteria, it either suggests promoting them (Manual mode) or adds them directly to the destination ad group (Automate mode). If Negate in source is enabled, those terms are simultaneously added as negatives in the source campaign.

Create a Negative Targeting Rule

Negative Targeting rules automatically negate search terms that are spending your budget without converting. This is the automated equivalent of reviewing your search term report and adding negatives manually.

1. Navigate to Dashboard → Ads → Rules & Automation.
2. Click Create Rule.
3. Select Negative Targeting as the rule type.
4. Select the campaigns this rule should apply to.
5. Choose the negative level using the radio options: - Ad Group Level — the negative keyword is added to a specific ad group only. Other ad groups in the same campaign can still match on that term. - Campaign Level — the negative keyword is added campaign-wide. No ad group in that campaign will match on the term.
6. Define your criteria. A common starting point is: IF Spend >= ₹300 AND Orders = 0 THEN Add as Negative Exact.
7. Choose the match type for the negative: Negative Exact or Negative Phrase.
8. Set the Lookback window, Frequency, Timezone, and Mode (Manual or Automate).
9. Click Save.

Tip: Use Ad Group Level negation when you have a well-structured campaign with multiple ad groups targeting different product themes. A search term that wastes spend in one ad group might still be relevant in another. Use Campaign Level negation when the search term is clearly irrelevant to everything in that campaign.

Result

The rule identifies search terms meeting your spend-without-conversion criteria and either suggests them as negatives (Manual) or adds them directly (Automate). The PPC engine will stop generating its own NEGATE suggestions for campaigns covered by this rule.

Editing an existing rule

You can modify any rule after creation. Open the rule from the Rules & Automation list, and all fields — campaigns, criteria, values, operators, advanced settings, and mode — will be pre-populated. Make your changes and click Save. The updated rule takes effect from the next evaluation cycle.

Choosing the right lookback window

Lookback	Best for
7 days	High-volume campaigns with enough data in a single week. Reacts quickly to performance shifts.
14 days	A balanced choice for most campaigns. Smooths out daily variance without being too slow to react.
30 days	Standard recommendation for moderate-volume campaigns. Gives a reliable picture of keyword performance.
60 days	Lower-volume campaigns or seasonal products where you need more data before making changes.
90 days	Very low-volume campaigns or long-consideration-period products.

Features not yet available

The following rule types are visible in the interface but are not yet functional. Attempting to create them will display a notification indicating they are coming soon:

• Budget rules
• Dayparting
• Placement adjustments
• Share of Voice

Troubleshooting

Rule is active but nothing is happening

• Check that the lookback window covers enough data. If you set a 7-day lookback but your campaigns have very few clicks per week, the criteria thresholds may never be met.
• Verify the criteria values are realistic. An "Orders >= 5 AND ACoS <= 10%" condition may be too restrictive for most keywords.
• Confirm the rule is set to the correct campaigns. Open the rule in edit mode and verify the campaign selection.

Suggestions are not appearing in the Ads Optimiser

• Confirm the rule is in Manual mode. Automate mode applies changes directly and does not generate suggestions.
• The rule engine evaluates once daily. Allow at least one full evaluation cycle before expecting results.

I see conflicting suggestions from the engine

• This should not happen if your rules are active. Verify the rule status is active (not paused or in draft). Active Bid Rules suppress the engine's REDUCE/INCREASE suggestions, and active Negative Rules suppress NEGATE suggestions for the affected campaigns.

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