# Suggest keywords and targets, or tell the engine hands off

How to feed the engine keywords, ASINs and negatives through the agent, what happens to them and how long it takes, and how to have Autron stand back from a campaign or target.

**TL;DR:** Ask the agent to add keywords or product targets for a product the engine runs, and it hands them to the engine, which builds one campaign per keyword from its next daily run, up to 100 a day. A negative for that product reaches every campaign the engine runs for it, and the engine never builds that term again. Each change appears on the approval card first.

URL: https://autron.ai/help/suggest-targets  
Updated: 2026-10-07  
By: Autron

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The engine finds its own targets from your search-term history, but you know things it can't see yet: a launch keyword, a competitor's ASIN, a term that must never show your product. You feed those in through the agent.

## Add keywords and product targets

Ask in plain language, with match types, competitor ASINs and categories:

- "Add 'insulated lunch bag' for my lunch bag"
- "Target B0XXXXXXXX and B0YYYYYYYY for my garlic press"
- "Feed 'minimalist garlic press' into Autron for my garlic press"

For a product the engine runs, the agent hands your keywords to the engine rather than building campaigns itself. At its next daily run the engine builds one campaign per keyword, exact match unless you ask for phrase or broad. It opens each at your usual bid and manages it from then on. An ASIN becomes a product-targeting campaign the same way. If the product, or the whole ad engine, is switched off, your keywords wait until it is on. Ask "what have I given the engine for the garlic press?" to see what's queued.

How long it takes depends on the size of the list. The engine builds up to 100 new campaigns a day in each workspace, so a short list shows in Amazon Ads within a day and a list of several hundred fills in over several days. When you check what was built, look for each keyword in its singular form: the engine names and stores "grip socks" as "grip sock".

A keyword that already runs in an **Autron Strategic** campaign for that product is not built while that campaign exists, even paused. To hand that keyword to the engine, ask the agent to move the campaign into Autron AI; the engine runs it from its next daily run, bids and all. Archive it only if you want the keyword gone: the archived campaign's name stays unavailable to the engine for about three months, and nothing runs the keyword until the engine builds its own. See [Already running Amazon Ads?](https://autron.ai/help/transition-from-existing-campaigns).

If you want a campaign outside the engine, at a fixed bid you control, ask for that in so many words. Its keywords are exact match unless you ask for broad. It runs beside the engine's campaigns for the product and competes with them in the same auctions. See [Already running Amazon Ads?](https://autron.ai/help/transition-from-existing-campaigns). On a plan without the ad engine, the agent builds campaigns and adds targets directly.

Every change appears on the approval card first, with the exact request, and nothing reaches Amazon until you allow it. See [Manage campaigns with the agent](https://autron.ai/help/manage-campaigns-with-the-agent).

## Negatives: usually the higher-value ask

- "Which search terms spent money in the last 30 days and never sold?"
- "Exclude the ones that have nothing to do with the product"

For a product the engine runs, a negative keyword reaches every campaign the engine runs for that product, and the engine never builds that term again. A negative ASIN only stops the engine targeting that ASIN; it isn't added to Amazon as a negative. Neither reaches campaigns outside the engine. For those, the agent adds the negative to the campaign itself, and that negative is **kept** until you hand it back.

A relevant term that simply isn't profitable yet is usually better left to the engine's bidding. Excluding it cuts real traffic, and the agent will say so.

## When the engine stands back

Keywords you hand to the engine are the engine's to manage. A bid or placement the agent sets on Amazon, or a target it adds to a campaign directly, is different: it is an **exception**, and Autron leaves it alone for seven days, then manages it again. You can also ask for **hands-off** on a campaign or target ("Never touch my Brand Defence campaign"), or for a **ceiling** that caps what Autron bids until a date. See [Exceptions](https://autron.ai/help/exceptions) for how long each lasts, which to use when, and where to keep or hand them back.