When you create a Sponsored Products campaign, Amazon asks one question first: automatic or manual targeting? Pick wrong and you either pay Amazon to guess for months, or you spend hours on keyword lists for a design nobody searches for.
The good news is you do not have to choose one forever. This guide explains what each option does, how match types and product targeting work, and how Merch sellers usually combine them.
The difference in one sentence
- Auto targeting: Amazon reads your listing and decides which searches and product pages show your ad.
- Manual targeting: you decide, by picking keywords or specific products to target.
Everything else is detail. But the details decide how much you spend, so they are worth knowing.
Watch out Amazon does not let you switch a campaign's targeting type after it goes live. An Auto campaign stays Auto. If you want Manual, you create a new campaign.
How auto campaigns work
In an Auto campaign you do not add keywords. Amazon uses your title, bullets and other listing details to match your ad. It sorts that matching into four targeting groups, described in Amazon's targeting guide:
| Group | Where your ad can show | Merch example |
|---|---|---|
| Close match | Searches closely related to your product | "funny nurse shirt" for a nurse humor tee |
| Loose match | Searches loosely related | "nurse gifts" |
| Substitutes | Pages of similar products | Another seller's nurse shirt |
| Complements | Pages of products that go with yours | A nurse badge reel or stethoscope |
You can bid on each group separately, or turn groups off. Many sellers find close match turns clicks into orders most often, and complements least often, but that is a pattern, not a rule. Check your own numbers.
When Auto makes sense for Merch
- Discovery. You do not know yet how shoppers search for your design. Auto finds out for you.
- Large catalogs. If you have hundreds of designs, writing keyword lists for each one is not realistic. Auto lets you test many cheaply.
- Proven products with no ads yet. A design that already sold without ads is a good first Auto test.
The downsides
- You give up control. Amazon will try searches that are only loosely related.
- Money leaks to junk searches like "free svg" unless you block them with negative keywords. See negative keywords for Merch.
- Your listing text matters a lot, because it is what Amazon matches on.
How manual campaigns work
Manual campaigns come in two kinds: keyword targeting and product targeting. Amazon advises not mixing them in the same campaign or ad group, because it makes results hard to read.
Keyword targeting and match types
You pick keywords, and for each one you pick a match type, which controls how closely a shopper's search must match your keyword.
| Match type | What it matches | Keyword: "cat mom shirt" |
|---|---|---|
| Broad | Searches with your words in any order, plus related words and synonyms | "shirt for cat moms", "kitty mama tee" |
| Phrase | Searches that contain your words in the same order | "funny cat mom shirt" |
| Exact | Your words, in that order, and nothing else (plurals and close variants allowed) | "cat mom shirt", "cat mom shirts" |
The trade-off is simple:
- Broad reaches the most shoppers but includes more irrelevant searches.
- Exact reaches the fewest but usually turns clicks into orders best.
- Phrase sits in between.
Amazon suggests bidding highest on exact, lower on phrase and lowest on broad. That makes sense: you pay the most where you are most sure the shopper wants your product.
Lower the bid by about 43%, then give it a week or two of clicks.
Keyword limits are worth knowing: up to 10 words and 80 characters, and only letters, numbers and spaces.
Product targeting
Instead of keywords, you target products or categories:
- Individual products (ASINs): your ad can show on that product's page, and in search results where that product ranks well. An ASIN is Amazon's 10-character product ID.
- Categories: for example, a novelty t-shirt category, which you can narrow by things like price range or star rating.
For Merch, product targeting is useful when you know exactly which shirts your buyer is already looking at, for example top sellers in your exact niche. Be careful with famous brand or character products, though. Showing up next to them rarely helps a small design and can attract the wrong buyers.
When to use each for Merch
| Situation | Better choice |
|---|---|
| New design, no idea how people search | Auto |
| Hundreds of designs, little time | Auto, small budgets |
| A search term already brought orders | Manual, exact match |
| You want more reach around a proven term | Manual, phrase match |
| You know the competing shirts your buyers view | Manual, product targeting |
| You want to protect a best seller in its main search | Manual, exact match |
Tip Notice the pattern. Auto finds, Manual focuses.
The common combo: harvest from Auto into Manual
Most experienced sellers run both, in a loop:
- Run an Auto campaign with a modest bid. Let it gather at least a couple of weeks of data.
- Open the search term report. It shows the exact searches shoppers typed before clicking.
- Find winners. A search term that brought orders at an ACoS below your break-even is a winner. (ACoS is ad spend divided by ad sales. Break-even ACoS is your royalty divided by price. Details in break-even ACoS for Merch.)
- Add winners to a Manual campaign, usually as exact match, where you can bid on them precisely.
- Block junk in the Auto campaign with negative keywords.
- Optional: add the winner as a negative exact in the Auto campaign, so the two campaigns do not compete for the same search. Some sellers prefer to leave it in Auto too. Either can work; just decide on purpose.
Over time, the Auto campaign keeps discovering, and the Manual campaign holds your proven searches at bids you control.
Common mistakes
- Only running Auto forever and never moving winners into Manual where you can control the bid.
- Starting with long Manual keyword lists for a design that has never sold.
- Using one bid for every match type. Exact deserves more than broad.
- Mixing match types in one campaign. You can do it, but results become hard to read. Many sellers keep one match type per campaign.
- Copying a top seller's keywords without checking they fit your design.
If you are still setting up your first campaign, start with Amazon Ads for Merch beginners.
How MerchPPC helps
MerchPPC shows each search term's spend and orders next to your product's break-even ACoS on the Advertising page, which makes winners and junk easy to spot. Today it can send Auto campaigns, bids, budgets and negative keywords to Amazon, always through the Publish queue where nothing goes out until you approve it. You still build Manual campaigns in Amazon's console for now.
The short version
- Auto: Amazon picks where your ad shows. Great for discovery and big catalogs.
- Manual: you pick keywords (broad, phrase, exact) or products. Great for control.
- Bid highest on exact, lower on phrase, lowest on broad.
- Run Auto to find search terms that sell, then target them in Manual.
- Use negative keywords to keep Auto away from junk.
What is sent to Amazon today. Of the changes described here, MerchPPC sends the kinds it has confirmed against Amazon: a target's bid, a campaign's budget, a negative keyword and a new Auto campaign. Not sent yet: an ad group's default bid; a campaign's placement adjustments; a campaign's bid strategy; a campaign's audience bid adjustments; pausing or enabling a target, an ad, an ad group or a campaign; a negative product; removing a negative keyword; removing a negative product; promoting a search term to a keyword; adding a product target; adding a product to an ad group; adding products to a new ad group; a new manual campaign; a new Sponsored Brands campaign; one Auto campaign per product from a selection; splitting a campaign; a Sponsored Brands keyword's bid; a Sponsored Brands target's bid; a Sponsored Brands theme's bid; pausing or enabling a Sponsored Brands campaign, ad group or ad; a Sponsored Brands negative keyword; a Sponsored Brands negative product; a price change; adding a missing product; republishing a product; deleting a product. The extension shows those as “Not available yet” and holds them back until each one is confirmed.
Amazon changes its rules, prices and tools from time to time. Check the current details in your Merch and Amazon Ads accounts.