Exceptions: when you step in and Autron stands back
What an exception is, how long one lasts (until a date, or kept), hands-off and ceilings, which to use for a promotion, a test or brand defence, and where to keep or hand them back.
TL;DR: The goal is the rule for a product; an exception is where you step in with something the engine can't know, and Autron stands back from that one thing. Every change the agent makes directly on Amazon becomes one. Pauses, negatives and hands-off are kept until you say otherwise; a ceiling runs to the date you choose; the rest run seven days. Each product lists its own on Goals.
The goal is the rule for a product, and the ad engine runs the bidding loop toward it every day without you. An exception is where you step in with something the engine can't know, such as a promotion starting Friday, a term that must never show, or a campaign you run your own way. Autron stands back from that one thing and keeps optimising everything else. You don't have to choose between automation and control. Exceptions matter on products the ad engine runs, which comes with Autron Pro.
Every change the agent makes on Amazon becomes one
There is nothing separate to set up. Every change the agent makes directly on Amazon becomes an exception the moment it lands. That holds wherever you asked: the app, email, Slack, a routine, Claude or ChatGPT. Keywords you hand to the engine don't become one: the engine builds and manages those. Archiving a campaign or target ends its exception rather than creating one. An exception lasts one of two lengths:
- Kept, until you say otherwise: every pause, every negative and every hands-off.
- Until a date, seven days out, then back with Autron: bids, placement multipliers, budgets, names and portfolios, new campaigns and new targets. Change it again through the agent and the date moves out to seven days from that change.
Ask the agent to keep any of them, or to give one a later date. When an exception ends or you hand it back, the engine picks that item up again at its next scheduled run.
Kept, hands-off and ceilings
Asking the agent to keep an exception, or pressing Keep, changes only how long it lasts.
| What Autron does | Use it for | Ask the agent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Until a date | Leaves your change alone for seven days, then manages it again | A test, a launch push, a short promotion | "Raise the bid on 'garlic press' to $1.50 for the launch" |
| Kept | Leaves your change alone until you hand it back | A pause that must last, a bid you've settled on | "Keep that bid" |
| Hands-off | The same as kept, on something you haven't changed | Brand defence, a campaign you run yourself | "Never touch my Brand Defence campaign" |
| Ceiling | Keeps bidding, but never above your number, until an end date | Holding cost down through a busy spell | "Keep bids on 'garlic press' under $1.20 until the end of the month" |
Hands-off is how you keep something you haven't changed. Autron treats it exactly like a kept change. The one difference: switching a campaign back on through the agent ends a kept pause on it, and the campaign then runs to a date like any other change. A hands-off stays in place until you hand it back.
A ceiling is the one kind where Autron doesn't stand back. It keeps bidding, and caps a keyword's bid at your number, though a placement boost can still raise what you pay on that placement. A ceiling only ever lowers what Autron would bid, and it always has an end date, so it can't be kept. To bid higher and have it stick, set the bid through the agent instead.
An exception on a campaign, hands-off or any other, covers the campaign itself: Autron won't switch it on or off or change its placements. Inside one of the engine's own campaigns, it still adds and removes negative keywords. If the campaign's keyword bids must stay put too, ask for hands-off on the keywords as well.
Which one?
- A short promotion: a bid set through the agent, with a later date if it runs past seven days. Or a ceiling, if you want the engine to keep working beneath a cap.
- A test: a change through the agent. It goes back with Autron on its own after seven days.
- Brand defence: hands-off on the campaign and its keywords.
- Out of stock: the engine already lowers bids when FBA stock runs low. To stop advertising the product, switch it off on Goals rather than pausing campaigns one by one. Campaigns on your own brand name can keep running, so ask the agent to pause those.
- A term that must never show: a negative, which is kept.
Keep what still reflects something the engine can't know, such as brand defence or a negative that must last. Hand back what has done its job, like a promotion that has ended.
When not to use one
- If you keep overriding the same product, its goal is wrong. Change its target on Goals, or move it to Max profit. See Manage goals.
- Changes made by hand in Amazon Ads are not exceptions. The engine moves a hand-set bid back toward your target on its next pass. While a product is switched on, it also switches its own paused campaigns back on at its next check. Make the change through the agent instead.
Where to see and manage them
- The product's page. Open a product from Goals and Where you've stepped in lists its exceptions, with columns for Type, What and Ends. Filter by type, or by Any time, Ending this week, Ending later or Kept. Each row's menu offers Keep, Hand back and Ask the agent about this. Select several rows to keep or hand them back together.
- The Goals list. The Exceptions column counts each product's, and the Ending this week filter finds the ones about to go back.
- Today shows a to-do when changes you made go back to Autron that week.
- The Action log. A change's detail shows an In place line, with Keep and Hand back, while it is still an exception.
- The weekly summary email, sent when something has changed, lists them product by product. To turn it off, see Emails and notifications.
The Type is what you did: Paused, Enabled (a paused campaign you switched back on, which runs to a date), Bid, Placement, Created (a campaign), Added (a target), Changed (a budget, name or portfolio), Blocked (a negative), Hands-off or Ceiling.
Ask the agent
- "What have I stepped in on?"
- "Keep it."
- "Hand the garlic press bids back to Autron."
Handing back a negative is different from the rest. The engine's negative clean-up may then remove it from Amazon, and the term can start spending again, so the agent checks with you first.
Two honest limits
- A run already in flight when you make a change can finish with the old value. From the next scheduled run on, Autron stands back for certain.
- On the rare run where the engine can't read your exceptions, it keeps optimising rather than stopping.