Troubleshooting Common Automation Issues

Is your automation not working as expected, or are your rules making unexpected changes? This guide covers common automation scenarios, their possible causes, and steps you can take to troubleshoot them.

[drawer]1. Keyword Bids Haven't Changed After Several Days or a Week

Possible cause: Your keyword bids may be too low to generate enough impressions, clicks, or performance data for the Bidding Rule to evaluate and adjust them.

What you can do:

• Manually increase the keyword bid to help generate more traffic and performance data.
• Assign a Bidding Inch-Up Rule to gradually increase low bids.
• Start with the preset Inch-Up Rule and customize its conditions, bid increase amount, and observation period to suit your strategy.

[drawer]2. Bidding Rule Keeps Decreasing Keyword Bids

Possible causes:

• Your Target ACOS may be too low or may not align with your campaign's actual performance and advertising goals.
• Your maximum bid limit may be set too low, restricting how high the calculated bid can go. If the current bid exceeds the configured limit, the resulting bid may be capped at that lower amount.

What you can do: Review your Target ACOS and maximum bid settings. Adjust them to better reflect your product profitability, campaign performance, and bidding strategy.

[drawer]3. Bidding Rule Increases Bids Even When ACOS Is Above Target

Possible cause: The Bidding Rule calculates an optimal bid using historical keyword performance rather than reacting to aggregated ACOS alone. Changes in conversion rates and historical average CPC can affect the calculated optimal bid, resulting in a bid increase even when the overall ACOS is above target.

What you can do: Check the keyword's Change Log and review its calculated optimal bid, conversion performance, and average CPC to understand why the adjustment occurred.

Related article: Why Are Bids Increased When Above Target ACOS?

[drawer]4. Blacklisted Keywords Aren't Being Negated

Possible causes:

• The Blacklist setting may not be enabled for the ad.
• The keyword may have already been negated or may already exist in the ad's negative keyword list.

What you can do:

1. Check that Blacklist is enabled for the relevant ad.
2. Review the ad's existing negative keyword list to confirm whether the keyword has already been added.

[drawer]5. Why Hasn't My Assigned Rule Executed Yet?

Possible causes:

• Rule criteria haven't been met: Automation rules only generate actions when the configured conditions are satisfied by the available performance data.
• Insufficient performance data: The selected ads, keywords, or search terms may not have enough data to meet the rule's evaluation requirements.
• Incorrect rule assignment: The rule may not be assigned to the intended campaigns or ads.
• Rule scheduling: The rule may not have reached its next scheduled execution time.

What you can do:

1. Check that the rule is assigned to the correct campaigns and ads.
2. Review the rule's conditions, observation period, and other criteria to make sure they align with your intended strategy.
3. Check whether a Preview is available. A preview indicates that the rule's criteria have been met and shows the proposed changes.
4. Verify the rule's execution schedule and check the Change Logs for previous activity.

[drawer]6. Why Are Search Terms Not Being Negated?

Possible causes:

• Negative Rule criteria aren't met: The search terms may not meet the configured conditions, such as minimum clicks, spend, or orders.
• Search Term Source selection: The rule may be retrieving search terms from a different product, campaign, or ad group than intended.
• Blacklist isn't enabled: If you're using the Blacklist feature, make sure it is enabled for the relevant ad.
• Already-negated search terms: The search terms may already exist in the campaign or ad group's negative keyword list.

What you can do:

1. Review the Negative Rule's conditions and observation period to confirm that the search terms qualify for negation.
2. Check the Search Term Source to ensure the rule is evaluating the intended search terms.
3. If using the Blacklist, verify that it is enabled for the relevant ad.
4. Check the existing negative keyword list to see whether the search terms have already been added.
5. Review the rule's Preview, if available, to inspect the proposed negations.

[drawer]7. Why Aren't New Keywords Being Harvested?

Possible causes:

• Harvesting Rule criteria aren't met: Search terms may not meet the configured requirements for harvesting, such as minimum clicks, orders, or conversion performance.
• Incorrect Search Term Source: The rule may be retrieving search terms from a different product, campaign, or ad group than intended.
• Insufficient search term data: There may not be enough recent performance data for the rule to identify qualifying keywords.
• Keyword already exists: The search term may already be added as a keyword in the destination campaign or ad group, so it may not be added again.
• Incorrect destination settings: The selected campaign or ad group may not be the intended destination for harvested keywords.

What you can do:

1. Review the Harvesting Rule's conditions and observation period to make sure they match your keyword harvesting strategy.
2. Check the Search Term Source to confirm that the rule is retrieving data from the intended product, campaign, or ad group.
3. Allow sufficient time for search terms to accumulate performance data and meet the configured criteria.
4. Check the destination campaign or ad group to see whether the keyword already exists.
5. Review the rule's Preview, if available, to see which keywords are proposed for harvesting.

Need More Help?

If the issue persists after checking these settings, contact our Support team. Include the affected ASIN, campaign or ad group, rule name, and relevant screenshots or Change Log records so we can investigate further.