PPC Activity Log

A complete audit trail of every change made to your PPC campaigns, whether by you, your bid rules, or the AI Optimizer.

Difficulty: 🔴 Advanced · Reading time: ~10 min

Open this page in your dashboard: Go to PPC Activity Log [BETA] →

BETA: The PPC Manager is currently in beta. Some features may behave unexpectedly or change based on user feedback. Please report any issues at info@sellermagnet.com.

📋 Overview

The Activity Log records every action taken on your Amazon PPC campaigns. Whether a change was made manually, by an automation rule, or by the AI Optimizer, it's logged here with full details including the source, old value, new value, and reason.

Think of it as your PPC black box recorder. If campaign performance suddenly improves or drops, the Activity Log tells you exactly what changed, when, and why.

Why this matters: On teams with multiple users managing PPC, the Activity Log is your single source of truth. No more guessing "who changed the bid on that keyword?", every action is attributed and timestamped.

Summary KPIs

Five summary cards give you an instant snapshot of the currently filtered view:

Card

Description

Total Actions

Total number of recorded actions

Suggested

Count of actions suggested (queued for your approval)

Est. Monthly Impact

Estimated monthly spend delta from applied bid/budget changes. Uses the engine's per-action impact when available, otherwise a directional estimate, treat it as a direction, not actuals

Approval Rate

Share of decided actions (applied + rejected) that were applied

AI Actions

Count of actions initiated by the AI Optimizer

Quick health check: Watch the Approval Rate and Est. Monthly Impact cards together. A high approval rate with a negative (spend-reducing) monthly impact means your automation is cutting waste and you are trusting its calls. A very low approval rate suggests the AI or your rules are proposing changes you keep rejecting, worth tightening the rule scope or switching to Manual Review.

🔍 Filters

Filter

Options

Default

Time Range

Last 24 Hours, Last 7, 14, 30, 60, or 90 days, or Custom… (pick your own From/To dates)

Last 30 days

Source

All Sources, AI Autopilot, Bid Rules, User Approved, Manual, System

All

Action Type

All Types, Bid Change, Budget Change, Campaign State, Negate Keyword, Harvest Keyword

All

Profile

All Marketplaces, or a specific advertising profile (marketplace)

All Marketplaces

All timestamps are in UTC. The date each action was recorded is stored and displayed in UTC, so your local time may differ. Keep this in mind when investigating "what happened yesterday".

Faster ways to set the same filters:

Time-range preset chips. Above the time-range dropdown, quick chips for Last 24h, 7d, 30d, and 90d let you jump to the common windows in one click. Choosing Custom… in the dropdown reveals From and To date pickers.
Source and Action Type chip strips. Under each of those two dropdowns is a strip of one-click chips (autopilot, bid_rule, approval, manual, system for Source; bid_change, budget_change, campaign_state_change, negate_keyword, harvest_keyword for Action Type). Click a chip to apply that value without opening the dropdown.

Filters stack. You can combine every filter simultaneously. For example, show only "AI Autopilot" + "Bid Change" actions from the "Last 7 days" on one profile to see exactly what the AI changed to your bids this week in that marketplace.

Filter Combinations for Common Investigations

Investigation Goal

Time Range

Source

Action Type

"What did the AI do this week?"

Last 7

AI Autopilot

All Types

"Why did my spend spike yesterday?"

Last 7

All Sources

Bid Change

"Which keywords did bid rules pause?"

Last 30

Bid Rules

Campaign State

"What did I manually change last month?"

Last 30

Manual

All Types

"Were any new negative keywords added?"

Last 14

All Sources

Negate Keyword

"What keywords were harvested from search terms?"

Last 30

All Sources

Harvest Keyword

Activity Table

Column

Description

When

When the action happened, shown as a relative time with the absolute UTC timestamp beneath. Rows are grouped under day separators

Source

Color-coded badge: AI Autopilot (purple), Bid Rules (blue), User Approved (green), Manual (orange), System (gray). For manual and approved actions, the specific user's email is shown beneath the badge

Activity

What happened: the action type (Bid Change, Budget Change, Campaign State, etc.) together with the keyword, campaign, or ad group affected

Campaign

Campaign name

Change

Previous value to new value, with a direction arrow and the percentage/absolute delta

Status

Outcome badge: Applied (sent to Amazon), Failed, Rejected, Suggested (queued for approval), or Expired

Reason

Explanation of why the AI or rule recommended the change

Undo

One-click reverse of the action within a 24-hour window (see below). Harvested keywords and some action types are non-undoable

The table supports pagination and combined filtering (time range + source + action type + profile simultaneously).

One-click Undo. Applied bid and budget changes can be reversed straight from the Undo column for up to 24 hours after they were made. Clicking Undo opens a short confirmation, then sends the reversal to the Amazon Ads API and restores the previous value, no need to dig through Amazon's console. After 24 hours, or for non-reversible action types (such as harvested keywords), the Undo control is disabled.

Understanding Sources

Source

Color

Meaning

AI Autopilot

Purple

Change made autonomously by the AI Optimizer

Bid Rules

Blue

Change executed by a scheduled bid automation rule

User Approved

Green

AI suggestion that you approved in the Approval Center

Manual

Orange

Change you made directly

System

Gray

System-level adjustment (e.g., budget cap enforcement)

Source Detailed Analysis

AI Autopilot vs User Approved: Both originate from AI suggestions, but the difference is critical. AI Autopilot changes were applied automatically (you are in Auto-Apply mode). User Approved changes went through the Approval Center and you explicitly approved them. If you see AI Autopilot actions you disagree with, switch to Manual Review mode in the Approval Center.

System actions are relatively rare. They typically occur when Amazon enforces a budget cap (your daily budget was hit and the system paused the campaign) or when a campaign's end date is reached. These are informational entries, you cannot prevent or modify them.

Use Case Scenarios

Scenario 1: Investigating a Sudden Spend Spike

Situation: Your daily PPC spend jumped from EUR 80 to EUR 140 overnight and you want to know why.
How to investigate:

Set Time Range to "Last 7 days."

Set Action Type to "Bid Change."

Set Source to "All Sources."

Sort the table by Date (newest first).

Look for large bid increases (green arrows in the Change column) on the day spend spiked.

Check the Source column, was it a bid rule, AI action, or manual change?

Read the Reason column to understand the logic behind the increase.

Common causes: A bid rule with overly aggressive increase settings (e.g., +25% on any keyword with CVR > 5%) or the AI Autopilot responding to a sudden conversion spike by aggressively bidding up.

Scenario 2: Auditing AI Performance Over 30 Days

Situation: You have been running AI Autopilot for a month and want to evaluate whether it is helping.
How to investigate:

Set Time Range to "Last 30 days."

Set Source to "AI Autopilot."

Note the total number of actions in the Total Actions KPI card.

Filter Action Type to "Bid Change" and scan the Change column: in most cases the AI should be making more decreases (red, down arrows) than increases (green, up arrows).

Cross-reference with your campaign performance: Is ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale) trending down? Is wasted spend decreasing?

If the AI made changes you disagree with, consider switching to Manual Review mode.

Scenario 3: Preparing a Team Performance Review

Situation: You manage PPC for a team and need to report on what was done this month.
How to use the Activity Log:

Set Time Range to "Last 30 days."

Filter by Source = "Manual" to see all human-made changes.

Export or screenshot the results for your report.

Then filter by "AI Autopilot" and "Bid Rules" to show automation contributions.

Compare the ratio of manual vs automated actions to demonstrate the efficiency gains from automation.

Before/After: How the Activity Log Reveals Hidden Problems

What You See in Campaigns

What the Activity Log Reveals

ACoS dropped from 32% to 24%

Bid Rules decreased bids on 45 high-ACoS keywords over 3 weeks

Top keyword lost impressions

A bid rule decreased the bid 4 times in 2 weeks (rule too aggressive)

New keyword appeared in campaign

AI Autopilot harvested it from search term report 5 days ago

Campaign paused unexpectedly

System action: daily budget cap reached at 3:00 PM

Spend shifted between campaigns

Manual budget reallocation by team member on Tuesday

⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake 1: Ignoring the Activity Log after enabling automation. Setting up bid rules or AI Autopilot and never reviewing the log is like hiring an employee and never checking their work. Review the log weekly at minimum. Fix: Set a calendar reminder to review the Activity Log every Monday morning.

Mistake 2: Not filtering before investigating. Scrolling through hundreds of unfiltered entries is inefficient and leads to missed insights. Fix: Always start by narrowing to a specific time range and source before analyzing.

Mistake 3: Confusing correlation with causation. A bid increase on Monday does not necessarily explain a sales spike on Wednesday : Amazon's attribution window means the cause could be older. Fix: Look at changes from 3-7 days before a performance shift, not the same day.

Mistake 4: Overlooking System actions. Budget cap enforcement actions (System source) can silently kill your campaign performance by pausing campaigns mid-day. If you see frequent System actions, your daily budgets may be too low for your bid levels. Fix: Increase daily budgets or lower bids to ensure campaigns run throughout the full day.

## 📤 Export

Use the Export button above the Activity Table to download the currently filtered view. The export menu offers two formats:

CSV , for spreadsheets, BI tools, and plain archiving
Excel , a ready-to-open .xlsx workbook

Whatever time range, source, and action-type filters you have applied are reflected in the file, so you can export, say, only "AI Autopilot" + "Bid Change" actions from the last 7 days.

Tip: Because Activity Log entries are retained for 90 days in the interface, export on a regular schedule (monthly works well) if you need a longer-term audit archive for compliance or year-over-year review.

Reading the Activity Log Like a Pro

Pattern Recognition Checklist

Use this checklist during your weekly Activity Log review:

Bid oscillation: Is the same keyword being increased and decreased repeatedly? This signals conflicting rules or an AI strategy that does not match your goals.
Bid floor hits: Are many keywords hitting your minimum bid? Your min bid floor may be too high, or your decrease rules may be too aggressive.
Cluster changes: Did many keywords change on the same day? This usually means a bid rule executed on its schedule. Verify the rule is producing the intended results.
Source distribution: Is one source dominating? If 90% of changes come from a single bid rule, that rule might be too broadly scoped.
Unusual reasons: Read the Reason column for anything unexpected, such as "Insufficient data" or "Confidence below threshold."

🔧 Troubleshooting

Activity Log shows no entries

Check

Solution

Are filters too restrictive?

Reset all filters to "All" and check if entries appear

Is the time range too narrow?

Expand to "Last 90 days" to verify data exists

Are any rules or AI features active?

If no automation is running and no manual changes were made, the log will be empty

Is the API connection active?

Verify your Amazon Advertising API credentials in Settings

Entries appear but are missing details

Check

Solution

Is the Reason column empty?

Some manual changes may not have an attached reason. This is expected

Is the Change value blank?

For "Campaign State" actions (pause/enable), there is no numerical value, only a state change

Cannot find a specific change

Check

Solution

Was the change made in Amazon directly?

Changes made outside SellerMagnet (e.g., directly in Amazon Seller Central) are not tracked in this log

Was the change in a different account?

Confirm you are viewing the correct marketplace/account

❓ FAQ

How long is Activity Log data retained?

Activity Log entries are retained for 90 days. After that, they are archived and no longer visible in the interface. If you need longer retention for compliance purposes, export your data regularly.

Can I export the Activity Log?

Yes. Use the Export button at the top of the Activity Table to download the currently filtered view as either CSV or Excel (.xlsx). This is useful for reporting, auditing, and sharing with team members.

Are changes made directly in Amazon Seller Central tracked here?

No. The Activity Log only tracks changes made through SellerMagnet (manual changes, bid rules, AI Autopilot, and system actions). Changes you make directly in Amazon's console are not captured.

I see a "System" action I don't understand. What should I do?

System actions are typically budget enforcement events. If the reason is unclear, check your campaign's daily budget and compare it to your actual spend on that day. The system may have paused a campaign that hit its budget cap.

Can I reverse a change shown in the Activity Log?

Yes. Applied bid and budget changes have a one-click Undo in the Undo column for up to 24 hours after the change was made. Clicking it confirms, then sends the reversal to the Amazon Ads API and restores the previous value. After the 24-hour window, or for non-reversible actions (such as harvested keywords), the Undo control is disabled, in that case, read the previous value from the Change column and set the bid or budget back manually. For ongoing protection, use Manual Review mode in the Approval Center so you approve changes before they are applied.

Does the Activity Log count against any storage or API limits?

No. Logging is included in your SellerMagnet plan at no additional cost and does not consume any Amazon API quota.

➡️ What's Next?

PPC Settings PPC Analytics

PreviousPPC Approval Center

NextPPC Settings

Last updated 17 days ago