Auto vs manual campaigns — decision tree

Auto and manual campaigns are the two starting points for any Sponsored Products strategy. They don't compete — they complement each other. Picking the right one at the right time is the most important early decision.

The quick difference

• Auto campaign — you only tell Amazon which products to advertise. Amazon decides which search terms to bid on.
• Manual campaign — you choose the keywords (or ASINs) yourself and control match type and bid per keyword.

When to use auto

Auto is good for discovery— when you don't yet know which search terms shoppers use to find your product. Concretely:

• Brand-new product. Listing is live, no click data yet. Auto collects in 2-3 weeks enough data to show which search terms actually convert.
• Entering a new product categoryand you don't know the shopper vocabulary yet. Example: you sell yoga mats and notice via auto that many search for "sport mat non-slip" — a term you wouldn't have picked yourself.
• Search term harvesting. Even with established manual campaigns, an auto campaign in the background can find new search terms you then promote into manual.

Setup tip:Low bid ($0.30-$0.50), moderate daily budget ($20-30). Goal isn't direct profit, it's data.

When to use manual

Manual is good for scaling — when you already know which keywords work and you want more control. Concretely:

• You have search-term data (from auto or earlier manual campaigns) and see which terms convert.
• You want different bids per keyword. Brand names (low), generic terms (mid), high-intent long-tails (high).
• You want to control match types. See Match types — when to use which.
• Defensive brand campaign. Book your own brand name as manual exact with a low bid to prevent competitors from outbidding you on your own brand.

The common recommendation: both at once

Beginners often think "just auto" or "just manual". Most successful accounts run both in parallel:

1. Auto campaign as a discovery machine with low bid. It produces search-term data.
2. Manual phrase campaign with your 5-10 main terms, mid-range bid. Converts profitably and finds new long-tails.
3. Manual exact campaign with the top 5-15 terms from (1) and (2), higher bid. Captures maximum value from terms proven to convert.

If you can only pick one

With a very limited daily budget (under $20 total) or if you're truly day-1:

• First product ever → auto. You need data, not optimization.
• Second/third product in the same category → manual. You already have vocabulary from product 1.

What Sellerwerk handles for you

The Search Term Harvesterautomatically watches your auto and phrase-manual campaigns and suggests which search terms to promote into a manual exact campaign. You don't have to comb the Search Term Report yourself.

Sellerwerk also flags when your auto and manual campaigns cannibalize each other (both bidding on the same search term). Common when you promote terms from auto into manual but don't add them as negatives in auto.

Common mistake: letting auto run forever

An auto campaign has notargeting control. If it runs for 6 months without touch-ups, it likely spends on irrelevant search terms — "stainless steel" without "water bottle" also matches baking sheets.

Maintenance: Every 14 days, review Search Term Report, add irrelevant terms as negatives in the auto campaign. Promote profitable terms into a manual exact campaign.

More on first-campaign setup: Getting started. More on match types within manual: Match types — when to use which. For questions: support@sellerwerk.de.