What is the Algorithm Designer

We’ve taken a new approach to allowing you maximum flexibility when building rules for keyword and target bid optimisation, inspired by some of the world’s leading graphical design tools such as Blender and 3DStudio Max. Instead of having to write lines of code, or build a series of decision rows in a clunky spreadsheet-like tool, we’ve designed a free flowing graph system where you can drag and drop logical decisions, make mathematical calculations, and apply final real world applications to your campaigns.

The aim of an Algorithm is to control your keyword bid budget, arriving at one of three conclusions:

  1. Change the daily bid budget to a new value, either higher or lower
  2. Pause the keyword, taking it out of action from now on
  3. Do nothing, leave the bid as it is

Take this simple example:

Example designer image
Example algorithm testing for clicks but no sales.

This algorithm allows you to take any keyword and examine its clicks and sales metrics for values indicating it’s just chewing up your budget. If people are clicking, costing you CPC budget dollars, but never buying anything, that keyword is most likely not a conversion driver and should be paused to stop it eating up your budget. The outcome of the Decision node is either true or false: should the algorithm run the left hand Conclusion, or the right hand one?

This algorithm is one of the Templates available to you in the Algorithm Designer, so you can get started straight away. Just click “+ New Algorithm”, and in the dialog that opens type in a name of your choice and click the “Daily 15 click 0 sale checker” template to start with these nodes pre-filled.

How Do I Test What An Algorithm Will Do?

In the Algorithm Designer, the purple “Test” button will perform a safe test run of the logic in the algorithm graph, using the metrics on the left side of the designer screen as inputs. You can type any values you like into those Metric inputs to see what effect they have on the run, or you can use the Search tool to load real world metrics from one of your own keywords. Tests like this will never actually impact the keyword bid on Amazon, it’s purely for hypothetical testing to see what would happen.

For example, here is the result of a Test of the algorithm above:

Example of a Test run

You can see on the left, the clicks metric value is 10 and the sales value is 200. Given these starting metrics, the algorithm has decided the outcome of the Decision node is false, because clicks were not above 15 nor were sales equals to zero. The conclusion is that the algorithm would do nothing, for this keyword given these metrics.

Now, typing different values into the metrics text boxes and clicking “Test Again” shows a different outcome.

Here we edited clicks to 30 and sales to 0, and hit “Test Again”. In this unfortunate set of circumstances, this is a poorly performing keyword that we would want to be taken out of action so it will stop burning up our ad budget. The Algorithm conclusion node reached is “Pause Keyword”, meaning the decision for this keyword would be to set the keyword’s state in Amazon Ads to “PAUSED”.

What’s Available In The Algorithm Graph?

You can add several types of node to the graph:

  1. Decision nodes – branch the execution of the graph in one of several output directions, based on a calculation performed internally.
  2. Calculation nodes – execute a series of mathematical operations to transform the input value into an output value, usually the bid amount.
  3. Conclusion nodes – stop executing the graph, arriving at a terminal conclusion, one of Set Bid, Pause Keyword or Do Nothing.

How Do Algorithms Run?

Algorithms run on keyword metrics, one keyword at a time, and keywords come from Ad Groups in your Ad Campaigns. The metrics are calculated over a “Lookback” period defined on the Algorithm Designer page, for example a common lookback period is 14 days. This means that the metrics are calculated over the last 14 day period: total clicks, total impressions, ACOS and ROAS etc. are all calculated over that lookback period.

So, when an Algorithm is associated with a Campaign that has 1,000 keywords associated with it, that algorithm will execute its logic graph 1,000 times, each time starting at the Start node with the metrics of one of the keywords, and it will reach 1,000 conclusions. Many of the conclusions will be “Do nothing”, but those that are “Set Bid” or “Pause Keyword” will result in an action to be taken on the Amazon Ads platform.

These actions are called Decisions, and they are controlled by the “Action” field of the algorithm. If the Action is “Review”, the Decision will be created in “Pending Review” state, and not take any immediate action. You can then review what they would do before approving them, either one by one or en mass.

If the Action is “Immediate”, the Decision will be created and acted upon automatically. The actions will be available for review on the Runs page, and can be rolled back if you decide the actions were unwanted.

When Do Algorithms Run?

Each Algorithm has a “Frequency” associated with it, either Daily or Fortnightly. A run will be started according to this schedule, or you can trigger a full run using the green “Run Now” button on the Designer (remember to Save the algorithm first to make sure it executes your latest version).

Because a full algorithm run can take a while, it executes as a background task, visible in the Notifications panel. Results are created as an entry on the “Runs” screen in the left hand navigation menu of the app.

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