PPC Tools
beginner
Strategy
Auto Campaigns vs Manual Campaigns: Which Should You Use?
PPC Tools Team
8 min read
3/27/2026
Most successful Amazon sellers use both auto and manual PPC campaigns together. Auto campaigns let Amazon find relevant search terms for your product, acting as a discovery tool. Manual campaigns let you target specific keywords with individual bids, giving you more control over your budget. The best approach is to start with auto, harvest converting search terms, move them to manual campaigns, and repeat.
This is one of the most common questions new Amazon sellers ask, and the short answer is: you should probably use both. But understanding what each one does and when to use it will save you a lot of wasted ad spend.
How Auto Campaigns Work
When you create an automatic targeting campaign, you're handing the targeting decisions over to Amazon. You pick the product you want to advertise and set a bid and budget, and Amazon's algorithm decides which search terms and product pages to show your ad on.
Amazon uses your listing content, title, bullet points, description, and backend keywords to figure out what your product is and match it with relevant shopper searches. You don't choose any keywords yourself.
There are four targeting groups within an auto campaign. Close match shows your ad to shoppers searching for terms closely related to your product. Loose match casts a wider net with more broadly related terms. Substitutes shows your ad on the product pages of similar items. And complements shows your ad on pages of products that are frequently bought together with yours.
How Manual Campaigns Work
A manual campaign puts you in the driver's seat. You choose the specific keywords or product ASINs you want to target, and you set individual bids for each one.
Within manual campaigns, you'll work with three keyword match types. Exact match means your ad only shows when a shopper searches for that precise phrase or very close variations. Phrase match triggers your ad when the search includes your keyword phrase in order, with potentially other words before or after it. Broad match is the loosest, showing your ad for searches that include your keywords in any order along with related terms.
Manual campaigns also let you run product targeting, where you bid on specific competitor ASINs or product categories so your ad appears on their product pages.
The Case for Auto Campaigns
💡 Pro Tip: Not sure which targeting groups are working best? Our analytics break down performance by targeting type so you can see exactly where your money is going.
Auto campaigns are the best starting point for new sellers because they require no keyword research. Amazon does the work of figuring out which searches are relevant to your product. This makes them a powerful discovery tool.
The search term data you collect from auto campaigns tells you exactly what shoppers are typing when they find and buy your product. Some of these terms will surprise you. Shoppers often use words and phrases you wouldn't have thought to target, and that data is incredibly valuable.
Auto campaigns also tend to pick up long tail keywords, those very specific three to five word searches that often convert at a higher rate because the shopper knows exactly what they want.
The downside is that you have less control. Amazon will inevitably show your ad for some irrelevant searches, and you can't set different bids for different keywords within the auto campaign. You're setting one default bid that applies across everything.
The Case for Manual Campaigns
Manual campaigns give you precision. Once you know which keywords actually drive sales (from your auto campaign data or keyword research), you can create manual campaigns that focus your budget specifically on those winners.
You can bid more aggressively on high converting keywords and more conservatively on ones you're still testing. You can use exact match to lock in on your best performers and broad match to find variations you might be missing.
Manual campaigns are also where you can target specific competitors. If there's a similar product that your customers would consider as an alternative, you can bid on that product's ASIN so your ad shows up on their page.
The Strategy Most Successful Sellers Use
The approach that works for the majority of sellers is running them together in a specific workflow.
- Start with an auto campaign and let it run for two to three weeks to collect data
- Review your search term report to find which search terms are actually generating sales
- Move those converting search terms into a manual campaign with exact or phrase match where you can bid on them individually
- Add those same terms as negative keywords in your auto campaign so you're not competing against yourself
- Let the auto campaign keep running as a discovery engine for new keywords and repeat the process regularly
This creates a cycle where your auto campaign constantly finds new opportunities and your manual campaigns focus your budget on what's proven to work.
💡 Pro Tip: Moving keywords from auto to manual campaigns is one of the most impactful optimizations you can make. Our tools automate this entire workflow for you.
When This Gets Overwhelming
The catch is that this process requires ongoing attention. You need to check search term reports regularly, move keywords between campaigns, adjust bids based on performance, and add negatives to cut waste. For sellers managing multiple products, this can quickly become a part time job.
That's one of the reasons tools like ppctools.net exist. The system reads your search term reports automatically, identifies which terms are converting and which are wasting money, and handles bid adjustments across all your campaigns based on actual performance. But even if you prefer to manage things manually, the auto to manual pipeline described above is the foundation of every good Amazon PPC strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I start with auto or manual campaigns on Amazon?
Start with an auto campaign. It requires no keyword research and lets Amazon's algorithm find relevant search terms for your product. After two to three weeks of data, use your Search Term Report to identify which terms convert, then create manual campaigns to target them directly.
What are the four targeting groups in Amazon auto campaigns?
Close match shows your ad for searches closely related to your product. Loose match targets more broadly related terms. Substitutes shows your ad on product pages of similar items. Complements shows your ad on pages of products frequently bought with yours.
What is the difference between exact, phrase, and broad match?
Exact match triggers your ad only for the precise search term or very close variations. Phrase match triggers when the search includes your keyword phrase in order, with possible words before or after. Broad match is the loosest, showing your ad for searches containing your keywords in any order plus related terms.
Can I run auto and manual campaigns at the same time?
Yes, and you should. The key is to add your manual campaign keywords as negative keywords in your auto campaign so they don't compete against each other. This way your auto campaign keeps discovering new terms while your manual campaign focuses budget on proven performers.
Get new Amazon PPC guides by email
New guides and product updates, sent when they are published. Unsubscribe at any time.
Put this into practice on your own campaigns
PPC Tools reads your Amazon advertising data and gives you bid, negative keyword, scaling and pause recommendations with the reason behind each one.
Start your free trialFree trial includes 3 campaign analyses. No credit card required.Tags:
auto campaign
manual campaign
Amazon PPC
automatic targeting
keyword match types
exact match
phrase match
broad match
search term report
negative keywords
product targeting