Manual targeting is the Sponsored Products setting where you choose exactly what your ad targets, either keywords with a match type or specific products and categories, and set a separate bid for each target. A manual campaign is any campaign built this way. On Flipkart the equivalent is a PLA campaign with keyword targeting.
A manual Sponsored Products campaign has one of two targeting types. Keyword targeting lets you enter search phrases with a match type, broad, phrase or exact, that decides how closely a shopper's search must resemble the keyword. Product targeting lets you pick ASINs or whole categories, optionally refined by brand, price or rating, so the ad appears on those product pages and in related searches. Each target carries its own bid, and the campaign carries negatives and placement adjustments.
Worked example: after an auto campaign shows that the search term mixer jar 1.5 litre converts, you add it as an exact match keyword in a manual campaign at ₹9. It gets 40 clicks a day, ₹360 of spend, and 4 orders at ₹1,299. That is ₹90 per order and an ACoS of ₹360 / ₹5,196 = 6.9%. The same term in the auto campaign shared a ₹6 bid with everything Amazon matched; here it has its own price.
On Flipkart, a PLA keyword campaign takes phrase and exact keywords with bids, and can carry excluded keywords, which do the job of negatives.
Control over spend. Every rupee in a manual campaign goes to a target you chose, at a bid you chose. That is what lets you pay ₹12 for a term that converts at 10% and ₹3 for one that converts at 2%, instead of one bid for both. It is also where placement adjustments and dynamic bidding become useful, because you know which keywords deserve the top of search.
The cost is effort. Manual campaigns need keyword research up front and a regular review of bids and search terms, which is why most accounts pair them with an auto campaign that keeps finding new terms.
The campaign type where Amazon picks the targets.
Learn more →The tightest keyword match type and the workhorse of manual campaigns.
Learn more →Which to run first and how to move terms between the two.
Learn more →Filter keywords by ACoS or CVR, compare with suggested bids and update hundreds of bids at once.
Learn more →It means you choose the targets yourself. In a manual Sponsored Products campaign you enter keywords with match types, or ASINs and categories, and set a bid for each, instead of letting Amazon match your listing automatically.
Automatic targeting has Amazon pick the search terms and products from your listing. Manual targeting has you pick them. Auto is for discovery; manual is for controlling bids on the terms that work.
A PLA campaign with keyword targeting, where you add phrase and exact keywords with bids and can exclude keywords. The alternative is Flipkart's automatic targeting.
Not in the same ad group on Amazon. A manual Sponsored Products ad group uses either keyword targeting or product targeting, so most sellers run one campaign of each.
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