ACOS Target Optimisation

How It Works

It is built around two key pillars: smart bidding and continuous learning.

AI-Powered Bidding for Profit

The m19 algorithm does much more than just react to yesterday’s performance. Every day, it calculates the perfect bid for every single keyword and product target based on a few factors:

Historical Performance: It analyzes how well that specific keyword has converted for your product group (or Parent ASIN) over time.
ACOS Target: Your goal is the main constraint; the AI will not bid in a way that risks going over your target.

Market Competition: It considers how other advertisers are bidding to ensure you get the right traffic without overpaying.
Tactics: All keywords/ASINs you add in tactics.

This system helps prevent overspending on less promising keywords/ASINs and keeps that budget to reinvest in better opportunities, even giving a chance to keywords previously considered "bad".

Automated Campaign Structure and Traffic Flow

When you launch an ACOS Target strategy, m19 automatically creates a complete and optimized set of campaigns that work together. The process of finding the best keywords/ASINs is entirely automated and is updated daily:

Discovery: The AI uses broader campaigns (like Auto match) to find new, relevant search terms that customers are using.
Harvesting: Promising search terms move into campaigns that are more controlled (like Phrase match), where the AI validates their performance.
Optimization: The best-performing, highest-converting keywords and ASINs are isolated into a precise Exact/Product campaign. This is where the AI focuses most of your budget to drive the most profitable sales with maximum control.

Once a customer's search term results in a conversion, the system catches it, adds it as an Exact keyword in the optimization campaign, and then adds a negative match for that search term in the original discovery campaigns. This ensures your spending is always focused on the most profitable areas.

To dive deeper into how m19 campaigns are structured, check out this article:

Campaign structure for strategies and tactics

Important Setup and Monitoring Tips

To ensure your strategy starts on the right foot, follow these two essential rules:

1. Set the Right Initial ACOS Target

The best place to start is with a goal you know you can achieve.

Initial Target: Always set the initial ACOS Target to be equal to your historical ACOS from the last 30 days. You can find this historical data in the Product Analysis tab of your m19 dashboard.

2. Choose the Right Algorithm Mode

The ACOS Target mode requires the AI to have enough historical data to make smart bidding decisions.

Data Requirement: Use this mode only if the products in your strategy have collectively generated at least 40-50 ad sales in the last 30 days.
Low Data: If you don't meet this threshold, start with the Monthly Budget algorithm. This mode is recommended for new products on an existing account and is designed to efficiently spend your budget to gather the necessary sales data. You can switch to the ACOS Target mode once you have sufficient sales volume.

Adjusting Your ACOS Target

The m19 algorithm is very sensitive to changes in your ACOS target because it immediately adjusts all bids in proportion.

🛑 Avoid Big Swings: Never make large, sudden changes to your ACOS target.
Go Gradual: Adjust your target softly and gradually (e.g., from 30%→28% → 26%)
Be Patient: After any change, wait at least 3 days to allow the AI to learn, stabilize, and react before making another adjustment.

Here's how the AI reacts to the ACOS you set:

Your Goal vs. Current Performance	Algorithm's Action	Impact on Spend/Sales
ACOS Observed is HIGHLY SUPERIOR to Target	Cuts Traffic: The AI sharply reduces your ad spend (bids lower) while slowly re-evaluating profitable historical search terms.	Spending will decrease. Sales may drop as the AI reduces risk.
ACOS Observed is SUPERIOR to Target	Underbids: The AI bids conservatively and readjusts the next day based on conversions.	Spending will decrease. You might miss out on some promising conversions if bids become uncompetitive.
ACOS Observed is INFERIOR to Target	Aggressive Bidding: The AI bids more aggressively on your historical, proven search terms.	Spending will increase. The AI is pushing for maximum volume and sales at your profitable target.

What About Keywords Without Data or Keywords that don't perform well?

If a keyword in the final Optimization (Exact) campaign hasn't converted (generated a sale) in the last 2 months, the algorithm will pause it in that campaign and feed it back into the Auto campaigns. This gives the keyword another chance to be discovered and tested in a less controlled environment, ensuring the system is always learning.