Amazon PPC Automation Guide: How to Automate Your Ads The Right Way
- Sravanthi Munagapati
- Jul 31
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 12
Like it or not, managing Amazon PPC campaigns manually is a full-time job.
You want to scale your ads, or fix your ACoS, or lower bids, but it takes hours to see results.
This is precisely when you need automation.
In this guide, you'll learn:
Feel free to skip to the part you want to read. Let’s dive in.
What is Amazon PPC Automation, and how it works
Amazon PPC automation is the process of using software to manage and optimize your ad campaigns automatically, based on pre-defined rules or AI logic.
Instead of manually adjusting bids, pausing poor-performing keywords, or reallocating budgets, automation handles these tasks in real-time. It continuously monitors your campaign performance and makes data-driven changes to improve results, saving you time and reducing costly errors.
Simply put, it’s a smart VA/system that ensures your ads run efficiently 24/7.
But here’s the catch: automation is not “set it and forget it.”
It’s not replacing your strategy; it’s scaling it.
Here's how Amazon PPC automation works:
You set the rule.
Example: “If ACOS > 25% for 7 days, reduce bid by 20%.”
The system monitors performance constantly.
While you sleep or work on your next launch, it tracks campaigns, keywords, and spend.
The action happens automatically.
As soon as the condition is met, the system adjusts instantly.
You stay in control.
The automation tool you choose should give you complete visibility of rules, alerts, etc., in one place.
For instance, if you prefer Amazon PPC tools like SellerMate.AI, you’d get full visibility in the Automation & Alerts feature of the dashboard.
In short, it’s the same brain, but with more bandwidth.
Rule-Based vs AI Automation: What is right for you?
Not all automation works the same. You have two approaches to choose from:
1. Rule-Based Automation
This is the most transparent approach.
You create the rule. Something like:
“If ACOS > 30% AND spend > $50 AND conversions = 0 for 14 days → pause the keyword.”
The system follows it exactly to the T.
Why it works:
Total control over decisions
Easy to predict, explain, and adjust
Customizable to your business logic
Easy to troubleshoot when performance shifts
The tradeoff?
You need to think through the logic upfront.
Conflicting rules can overlap if not planned
Setup takes a bit of time, but pays off fast
2. AI-Driven Automation (aka the Black Box)
AI-based automation uses machine learning to identify trends and make predictions for your Amazon PPC campaigns.
Here, you don’t set rules — the system decides.
Example:
The AI sees that your ROAS spikes on Thursdays between 2–4 PM for a product. It raises bids automatically during that window.
Why it works:
Can spot patterns humans might miss
Reacts quickly to changing data
Minimal setup
But here's the problem:
You can’t always explain its decisions
It might not align with your business goals
Hard to fix when things go wrong
Needs lots of data to work well; otherwise, it’s just a waste of time & money.
Types of Automation Rules You Can Schedule and What to Choose
For most Amazon sellers, rule-based automation is the best place to start.
Why, you ask?
Because you bring the strategy, and automation follows your lead.
You know your margins, seasonality, and business goals. Rules let you embed that insight into how your campaigns run.
You stay in control, but stop wasting time on repetitive tasks.
Second, Amazon ad campaigns follow patterns.
High ACoS? Your bids are likely too aggressive.
Low impressions? Your bids may be too low, or your targeting is off.
Rule-based automation handles these predictable patterns at scale.
And the best part? You don’t need to do everything at once.
Start with Core Rules, Like:
Bid Rules: Lower bids when ACoS goes too high; raise bids when you're profitable but underexposed.
Pause Negatives: Pause keywords that spend without converting.
Boost ROI: Scale keywords with strong ACoS and low impression share.
Then, Layer in on With Advanced Automation Rules:
Budget Management: Adjust daily budgets based on pacing. Spend more when campaigns are winning, pull back when they’re not.
Search Term Harvesting: Promote high-converting search terms from auto campaigns into exact match automatically.
Placement Strategies: Bid more for top-of-search if it performs better; dial back on underperforming product pages.
Dayparting Rules: Boost bids during peak shopping hours and reduce during slow hours.
Inventory Protection: Lower bids or pause campaigns when stock runs low to avoid waste.
Defensive Rules: Monitor branded term performance and adjust bids if competitors start creeping in.
You can do all of these with SellerMate.AI. However, you don’t have to use all of these at once. Just start with 3–4 simple rules that match your current goals, and build from there.
The real win? You create a system that works with your Amazon PPC strategy, not against it.
Why Automate Your Amazon Ads (And When You Shouldn’t)
If you still don’t know the benefits of automating your campaigns, here’s why you should consider it.
You’re missing chances every day.
While you're focused on other things, keywords that could be scaled are left untouched — and poor-performing ones keep draining your budget.
Manual optimization works on your time.
Automation works on real-time market changes. That's the edge your competitors already have.
Consistency beats timing.
You might forget to check your campaigns or delay decisions. Automation doesn't — it applies your rules consistently every day.
You can scale without burning out.
Managing 10 campaigns manually is fine. Managing 100? Not so much. Automation helps you handle scale with the same effort.
When You Can Automate Your Amazon Ads
You should consider automating Amazon ads when:
You're spending over $2,000/month on ads
You have 30+ days of campaign data to base decisions on
You know your target ACoS, margins, and business goals
When You Shouldn’t Automate (Yet)
During product launches — New listings need close attention
While testing new markets or keywords — Exploration needs human judgment
If you’re not tracking performance — Automation without oversight = wasted ad spend
When your business model is complex — Frequent pricing/inventory changes need tight control
During major strategic shifts — Always stabilize your account before automating
How to Automate Amazon Ads: Step-by-Step with SellerMate.AI
Let me walk you through setting up your first automation rule with SellerMate.AI.
Step 1: Go to the Smart Automation
After logging into your SellerMate dashboard, look for "Smart Automation" in the left panel.
Click "Create Automation Rule," and you'll see the rule builder interface.
You can automate for one of the following: Keyword Targets, Search Terms, Placements, Inventory, Ad Products, Campaign & Budget, and more.
Step 2: Choose What You Want to Automate
Let's start with something simple but powerful – a bid reduction rule for underperforming keywords.
Select "Keyword Targets" as your automation focus. This tells SellerMate you want to create rules that will affect the keywords in your campaigns.
Step 3: Set Your Trigger Conditions
In this step, you're going to tell the system: "IF these conditions are met, THEN take this action."
For our example, let's create a rule that reduces bids when keywords are underperforming:
Condition 1: ACOS is greater than 35%
Condition 2: Spend is greater than $25
Notice how you can add multiple conditions with the "AND" logic. This prevents the rule from making changes based on insufficient data or temporary fluctuations.
Step 4: Define the Action
In the "Then" section, select your action type. For our example, choose "Reduce Bid by 20%."
With SellerMate's system, you can see exactly what will happen before you activate the rule.
Step 5: Configure Safety Settings
This is where SellerMate protects you from automation gone wrong.
Lookback Period: Set this to 15 days. This means the system will only consider performance data from the last 15 days when evaluating your conditions. This prevents old, irrelevant data from triggering inappropriate actions.
Skip Days (Avoid Attribution): Set this to 3 days. This excludes the most recent 3 days of data, accounting for Amazon's attribution delays. You don't want to make decisions based on incomplete conversion data.
Choose the days you want to perform actions.
Step 6: Select Your Campaigns
Use the "Select Campaigns" feature to choose which campaigns this rule applies to. Start with your highest-spend campaigns – they'll give you the most impact from automation.
You can also toggle "Include Adgroups" if you want the rule to apply at the ad group level as well.
Step 7: Set Your Schedule
Choose the days you want to perform actions.
For most sellers, running automation Monday through Friday works well, giving you weekends to review changes.
You can also enable email alerts so you're notified every time the rule executes.
Step 8: Test and Activate
Before you turn on "Auto Execute," run the rule manually a few times to see what changes it would make. SellerMate shows you exactly which keywords would be affected and by how much.
Once you're comfortable with the results, enable "Auto Execute" and your rule will run automatically according to your schedule.
Automation & Alerts
If you’re not a SellerMate.AI user, you can skip this part and move on to the next.
In the "Automation Alerts & Logs" section, you can see exactly what happened, when it happened, and why. Every bid change, every keyword pause, every budget adjustment is logged with the performance data that triggered the action.
This isn't just for troubleshooting – it's for learning. You can see what rules are having the biggest impact on your performance and double down on what's working.
The logs also help you refine your rules over time. If you notice a rule is making changes you don't agree with, you can adjust the conditions or thresholds to better match your strategy.
Monitoring Your Automated Campaigns
Setting up automation is one part of the puzzle; the other is monitoring and optimizing your Amazon ad automation. Luckily, you don’t have to spend much time here if done the right way.
Here's your action plan:
This Week: Sign up for SellerMate and connect your Amazon account. Spend time exploring the interface and understanding your current campaign performance.
Week 1: Implement your first basic rule, say high ACOS bid reduction for underperforming keywords. Start with conservative thresholds and monitor results closely.
Week 2: Add opportunity rules– bid increase for winning keywords and budget increase for maxed-out campaigns.
Week 3: Implement keyword harvesting automation to discover new opportunities from your search term reports. You can use SellerMate’s free Amazon Search term analyzer for identifying the keywords.
Week 4: Review all automation performance and refine rules based on results. Add more rules as you build confidence. If you’re an avid SellerMate user, the graphs and heatmaps make the job easier for you.
However, you also need to look at the existing campaign structure and perform an audit before you get into automation. Remember, these tasks and rules compound your ROI and sales over time while giving you back the time to focus on growing your business.
In case you need help with automating your Amazon ad campaigns, you can talk to our team by scheduling a call here. We’d be happy to help!