PPC Approval Center
Review, approve, or reject AI-suggested PPC optimizations before they go live, giving you full control over automated changes.
Difficulty: 🔴 Advanced · Reading time: ~15 min
Open this page in your dashboard: Go to PPC Approval Center [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 [email protected].
📋 Overview
The Approval Center is your review queue for AI-generated optimization suggestions. When your PPC Manager is set to Manual Review Required mode, all AI and rule-based recommendations land here for your approval before being applied to your campaigns.
This is the control layer between automation and your live campaigns. It lets you benefit from AI intelligence while maintaining final decision authority over every change.
Who should use Manual Review mode? If you are new to PPC automation, managing high-spend campaigns (over EUR 2,000/month), or working in a team where changes need oversight, Manual Review mode is strongly recommended. It gives you the benefits of AI analysis without the risk of unapproved changes going live.
Automation Modes
Choose how you want AI suggestions handled:
Manual Review Required
All suggestions require your explicit approval before execution
Auto-Apply with History
Suggestions are applied automatically; all changes are logged
Paused
AI automation disabled; manage campaigns manually
Select your preferred mode using the card-based selector at the top of the page. Changes take effect immediately.
Choosing the Right Mode
Control level
Full control (you approve each)
Minimal (review after the fact)
Full manual control
Speed of optimization
Depends on your review frequency
Immediate
N/A
Risk of unwanted changes
None
Low-Medium
None
Time investment
5-10 min/day
Weekly review recommended
Varies
Best for
New users, high-spend accounts
Experienced users, trusted AI
Testing, seasonal pause
Recommended path for new users: Start with Manual Review Required for the first 2-4 weeks. This lets you learn what the AI suggests and build confidence. Once you trust the AI's judgment, switch to Auto-Apply with History and review the Activity Log weekly.
Before switching to Auto-Apply: Ensure your AI strategy settings (target ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale), min/max bids) are configured correctly. In Auto-Apply mode, the AI will act immediately on its suggestions. Incorrect strategy settings can lead to significant bid changes across all campaigns within hours.
Pending Actions
Each pending suggestion appears as a detailed card:
Card Layout
Priority indicator: Color-coded left border (Critical = red, High = orange, Medium = blue, Low = gray)
Action title: e.g., "Decrease bid for 'men's running shoes'"
Metadata: Timestamp, affected entity, campaign name, expected metric impact
Explanation: Why the AI recommends this change (e.g., "ACoS 45% exceeds target 25%")
Change visualization: Old value (strikethrough) to New value (highlighted)
Confidence score: Visual bar showing AI confidence (0-100%)
Expiration: "Expires in X days" badge (pending actions have a time-to-live)
Action buttons : Approve (green) and Reject (red)
Reading confidence scores: Treat confidence as a data quality indicator, not a "correctness" guarantee. A 95% confidence bid decrease means the AI has abundant, consistent data supporting the change. A 40% confidence suggestion means limited data, the recommendation could still be correct, but you should review the underlying metrics more carefully before approving.
Understanding Priority Levels
Critical
Red
Immediate action recommended; significant financial impact
Keyword spending EUR 50/day with 0 orders
High
Orange
Important optimization; noticeable performance improvement expected
ACoS 55% on keyword with 100+ clicks
Medium
Blue
Standard optimization; moderate improvement expected
Bid decrease on keyword with ACoS slightly above target
Low
Gray
Minor tweak; small incremental improvement
3% bid adjustment on a low-spend keyword
Triage strategy: During your daily review, handle Critical and High priority items first. These have the biggest financial impact. Low priority items can be batch-reviewed weekly without significant consequences.
Tabs
Pending
Count
Suggestions waiting for your decision
Approved
Count
Suggestions you approved (with Applied/Failed status)
Rejected
:
Suggestions you declined
History
:
Complete archive of all past decisions
Check the Approved tab for failures. After approving suggestions, they are sent to Amazon's API for execution. Occasionally, an approved change may fail (e.g., the keyword was paused in Amazon between suggestion and execution). The Approved tab shows "Applied" or "Failed" status so you can catch and address these cases.
Bulk Actions
When reviewing multiple suggestions:
Select items using checkboxes (or Select All)
Bulk Approve: Apply all selected suggestions at once
Bulk Reject: Decline all selected suggestions
The selection bar shows "X selected out of Y" with action buttons.
Efficient bulk review workflow:
This workflow typically takes 5-8 minutes even with 50+ pending suggestions.
Bulk actions are irreversible. Once you bulk approve, all selected suggestions are sent to Amazon immediately. There is no confirmation dialog for bulk actions, so double-check your selection before clicking.
Suggestion Types
The AI may recommend any of the following:
Bid increase
Raise bids on high-converting keywords
Low ACoS + high CVR + room to grow impressions
Bid decrease
Lower bids on high-ACoS keywords
ACoS above target + sufficient click data
Keyword pause
Pause keywords with consistently poor performance
Zero orders after significant spend
Keyword harvest
Add high-performing search terms as new keywords
Search term with 3+ orders and strong CVR
Budget adjustment
Shift budget between campaigns based on ROI
One campaign hitting budget cap while another underspends
Negative keyword
Block wasteful search terms
Search term with high clicks, zero conversions
Placement adjustment
Increase or decrease placement bid modifiers
Top-of-search placement converting significantly better
Use Case: How Each Suggestion Type Impacts Your Account
Bid Increase Example
Suggestion: Increase bid on "stainless steel water bottle" from EUR 0.85 to EUR 1.05 (+23%)
AI Reason: "This keyword has a 14% CVR and 12% ACoS over the last 14 days, well below your 25% target. Current impression share is 18%, indicating significant room to grow."
What happens if you approve: The keyword wins more auctions, gets more impressions, and (based on historical conversion rates) should generate additional profitable sales.
What happens if you reject: Performance stays the same. You may miss out on profitable sales volume, but your current ACoS remains stable.
Negative Keyword Example
Suggestion: Add "free water bottle" as a negative exact match in Campaign "Water Bottles - Broad"
AI Reason: "This search term received 87 clicks (EUR 43.50 spend) with 0 orders over the last 30 days. Adding as negative prevents future wasted spend."
What happens if you approve: The search term is blocked. Future searches for "free water bottle" will not trigger your ads. Estimated savings: EUR 43.50/month.
What happens if you reject: The search term continues to receive clicks and spend with no conversions.
Keyword Harvest Example
Suggestion: Add "insulated water bottle for gym" as an Exact match keyword in Campaign "Water Bottles - Exact"
AI Reason: "This search term appeared 5 times in broad match, generating 4 orders with a 9.2% ACoS. Adding as exact match gives you bid control over this high-performing term."
What happens if you approve: A new exact match keyword is created, allowing you to set a specific bid and track performance independently. This typically improves both control and efficiency for winning search terms.
Priority & Expiration
Priority levels: Critical, High, Medium, Low: based on estimated business impact
Expiration: Pending actions expire after a defined period (typically 7 days) to prevent stale recommendations from being applied
Auto-rejection: Expired suggestions are automatically rejected and archived
Why suggestions expire: PPC performance data changes constantly. A bid decrease suggested based on last week's ACoS data may no longer be relevant if this week's performance shifted. Expiration ensures you never accidentally apply an outdated recommendation. If a suggestion was genuinely needed, the AI will generate a fresh, updated version in the next analysis cycle.
Do not let Critical suggestions expire. Critical priority means significant money is being wasted right now. If a Critical suggestion expires without action, the underlying problem (e.g., a keyword spending EUR 50/day with zero orders) continues unchecked. Review Critical items within 24 hours.
Before/After: The Impact of Consistent Approval Center Usage
Here is what happened when a seller committed to reviewing the Approval Center daily for 30 days, starting from the beginning with Manual Review mode.
Pending suggestions/day
12
9
7
5
Approval rate
68%
75%
82%
88%
Portfolio ACoS
31.2%
28.4%
25.8%
23.9%
Weekly wasted spend
EUR 142
EUR 98
EUR 61
EUR 38
Negative keywords added
8
6
4
2
Key takeaway: The number of pending suggestions decreased over time because the AI learned from the seller's approval/rejection patterns. By Week 4, the AI was generating fewer but higher-quality suggestions with an 88% approval rate.
Daily Review Workflow: 5 Minutes to Better PPC
Follow this workflow every morning to stay on top of your optimizations:
Minute 1-2: Triage
Open the Approval Center and check the Pending tab badge count.
Sort by priority (Critical first).
Immediately approve or reject all Critical items: these are time-sensitive.
Minute 2-3: High Priority Review 4. Review High priority suggestions. Read the AI's explanation for each. 5. Approve those that align with your strategy. Reject any that conflict with upcoming promotions or strategy changes.
Minute 3-5: Bulk Process the Rest 6. Select all remaining Medium and Low priority items. 7. Quickly scan the list. Deselect anything unusual. 8. Bulk Approve the rest.
Pro tip: This workflow becomes faster over time. As the AI learns from your decisions, you will see fewer suggestions that need individual review and more that can be safely bulk-approved.
How the AI Learns from Your Decisions
The AI tracks your approval and rejection patterns and adjusts future suggestions accordingly:
You consistently reject bid increases > 20%
AI starts suggesting smaller increases (10-15%)
You always approve negative keyword suggestions
AI increases confidence and priority on future negative keyword suggestions
You reject harvest suggestions for broad match
AI stops suggesting broad match harvests, focuses on exact
You approve decreases but reject pauses
AI prefers gradual bid reductions over keyword pauses
Training the AI takes time. The learning effect becomes noticeable after approximately 50-100 decisions. Be consistent in your approvals and rejections during the first 2-3 weeks for the best results.
Inconsistent decisions confuse the AI. If you approve a 15% bid decrease on Monday but reject the same type of suggestion on Wednesday with no clear difference, the AI cannot learn a useful pattern. When rejecting, ask yourself: "Is this a consistent preference or a one-time exception?"
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
Mistake 1: Letting the Pending queue build up. If you skip reviews for a week, suggestions start expiring and the AI cannot learn from your decisions. Performance problems flagged by the AI go unaddressed. Fix: Set a daily 5-minute calendar reminder. If you cannot review daily, switch to Auto-Apply mode so optimizations are not blocked.
Mistake 2: Bulk approving everything without review. While bulk actions save time, approving 100% of suggestions blindly defeats the purpose of Manual Review mode. The AI is good but not perfect : it may suggest changes that conflict with your promotions, inventory changes, or strategy shifts. Fix: At minimum, individually review Critical and High priority items. Only bulk-approve Medium and Low.
Mistake 3: Rejecting suggestions without understanding why. When you reject a suggestion, the AI interprets it as "do not do this type of thing." If you reject a valid suggestion by accident, the AI learns the wrong lesson. Fix: Read the Reason field before rejecting. If the suggestion is sound but the timing is bad (e.g., you are about to run a promotion), consider waiting rather than rejecting.
Mistake 4: Switching between modes frequently. Changing from Manual Review to Auto-Apply and back every few days creates gaps in your optimization coverage and disrupts the AI's learning cycle. Fix: Commit to one mode for at least 2-4 weeks before evaluating whether to switch.
Mistake 5: Ignoring Failed status in the Approved tab. Approved suggestions can fail during execution (API error, keyword state changed, campaign paused). Failed items represent optimizations you wanted but did not get. Fix: Check the Approved tab weekly for any Failed entries and manually apply those changes if they are still relevant.
## 🔧 Troubleshooting
No pending suggestions appearing
Is the AI Optimizer enabled?
Go to PPC Manager settings and verify AI optimization is active
Is the mode set to "Paused"?
Switch to "Manual Review Required" or "Auto-Apply with History"
Do your campaigns have enough data?
The AI needs at least 7 days of click/spend data to generate suggestions
Is your Amazon API connection active?
Verify Amazon Advertising API credentials in Settings
Approved a suggestion but nothing changed in Amazon
Check the Approved tab for "Failed" status
The API call to Amazon may have failed. Retry by manually making the change
Is there an API sync delay?
Amazon can take up to 1 hour to reflect changes. Wait and check again
Was the keyword/campaign modified between suggestion and approval?
If the entity state changed (e.g., paused by a bid rule), the change may no longer be applicable
Suggestions seem wrong or irrelevant
Are your strategy settings correct?
Verify target ACoS, min/max bids in your PPC Manager settings
Is the lookback period too short?
Extend it to 30 days for more stable recommendations
Has your product catalog changed recently?
New products, price changes, or inventory issues can make old data misleading
Suggestions expired before I could review them
Are you reviewing frequently enough?
Suggestions expire after 7 days. Review at least twice per week
Can you extend the expiration window?
Currently, the 7-day TTL is system-defined. If this is too short, consider Auto-Apply mode
❓ FAQ
What happens to pending suggestions when I switch from Manual Review to Auto-Apply mode?
Existing pending suggestions remain in the queue and will be auto-applied at the next AI cycle. If you want to clear them first, bulk reject all pending items before switching modes.
Can I approve a suggestion but modify the amount before applying it?
Not directly in the Approval Center. If you want a different bid amount than what the AI suggests, reject the suggestion and make the change manually. The AI will learn from this pattern and adjust future suggestions.
How many suggestions does the AI generate per day?
This depends on your number of active campaigns and keywords. Typical accounts see 5-20 suggestions per day. Larger accounts with hundreds of keywords may see 30-50. The volume decreases over time as the AI learns your preferences and your campaigns become more optimized.
Can I set up notifications for Critical priority suggestions?
Currently, notifications are not available for specific priority levels. Check the Pending tab daily, or set up a daily review habit using the 5-minute workflow described above.
Does rejecting a suggestion permanently block that type of optimization?
No. The AI adjusts its confidence and frequency for that type of suggestion, but does not permanently block it. If conditions change (e.g., a keyword's ACoS doubles), the AI will suggest it again with updated data, even if you rejected a similar suggestion before.
Can multiple team members review suggestions?
Yes. Any user with PPC management permissions can approve or reject suggestions. However, be aware that this can send mixed signals to the AI if team members have different optimization philosophies. Consider designating one primary reviewer.
➡️ What's Next?
PPC AI OptimizerPPC Activity LogLast updated