Manage goals: targets, switches, and what the engine does with them
How goals work in Autron — one target and one ad-engine switch per product, plus the account-wide default — and how to create, change, pause or stop them on the Goals page or by asking the agent.
TL;DR: A goal is a pair: what you want more of and the limit you will accept — Grow sales, ACoS ≤ 30%. Every product has its own goal and switch on the Goals page; the account-wide goal is the default. Change a target on its row or ask the agent and the engine works toward it from its next pass. Stopping the engine stops the changes, not the ads.
Goals tell the ad engine what to do. Each one is a pair — what you want more of, and the limit you will accept getting it — and Grow sales, ACoS ≤ 30% reads as one instruction. Everything the engine does on a product is in service of its goal.
How goals work
- Every product has its own goal and its own switch. The Goals page lists them, with each product's target, whether the engine is bidding on it, its 30-day actual, and a Status — On track, or Conflicts with goal where the target cannot be met as set.
- The account-wide goal is the default. A product with no goal of its own inherits it. Set a product goal and it overrides the account-wide one for that ASIN.
- Start ad engine / Stop ad engine at the top of the page starts or stops it everywhere; the switch on each row does it for one product.
Targets
- Grow sales with a Max ACoS cap — hold advertising cost of sales at your number and buy what that allows. The usual starting point.
- Grow sales with a Max TACoS cap — the same, measured against your total sales, organic included. Needs a Selling Partner connection.
- Max profit — optimise on margin rather than revenue; no percent target. Needs your product costs — see Profitability and product costs.
Each row also shows the product's estimated break-even ACoS next to its cap. Where a cap sits above break-even, the page flags the conflict and offers the smallest whole-percent cap that clears it — or lets you record the cap as deliberate, so it is not raised again unless your target or costs change.
Change a target
On Goals, edit the target on the product's row, or select several rows and set one ACoS or TACoS cap across them. Your save reaches Autron immediately; the engine picks the new target up on its next optimisation cycle, and the row reads Engine applied once a cycle has run with it. There is nothing to clear or reset first.
Or ask the agent:
- "Lower my ACoS target on the garlic press to 20%"
- "Switch B07ABC1234 from ACoS to TACoS targeting"
- "Set my new product to maximize profit"
The agent shows you exactly what it will change and waits for your "yes" before applying it — see Confirmations and safety. It also checks whether a goal already exists for the ASIN and offers to update it rather than stacking a duplicate.
Pause a product, or stop everything
- One product. Switch it off on its row. The rest keep running, and its target is kept for when you switch it back on.
- Everything. Stop ad engine at the top of the page.
Either way your campaigns stay live and unchanged — what stops is Autron adjusting them. That is also what makes a manual bid stick: switch the product off first, then set the bid. (A bid set through the agent is claimed for seven days and the engine leaves it alone; see Suggest targets.)
- "Pause Autron on B07ABC1234 and B07XYZ5678 while they're out of stock"
- "Re-enable Autron on all my products"
Ask what is going on
- "What are my current goals?"
- "Is Autron running on my garlic press?"
- "Which products have their own goal?"
- "What has the engine changed on B07ABC1234 this week?"
The agent checks both the account-wide goal and the product's own and tells you which applies — a product switched off overrides an account-wide goal that is on.