One can control what is targeted but can not aim for impressions or clicks. Traffic is referred to both as the keywords and products you target and the impressions and clicks your campaigns generate.
For each strategy, the algorithm automatically collects keywords and products. Then it puts them in different campaigns. It starts its optimisation if it is an ACOS optimisation strategy or looks for visibility for Force Product visibility strategies.
Targeting
One can define what keywords and products the algorithm targets at 2 different levels :
For a given ASIN: Seed & blacklists provide a list of keywords and/or ASIN that the algorithm has to or is forbidden to bid on. One should use it when wanting to split the traffic depending on the ASIN.
For a product group: Tactics are sub-strategies associated with a segment, that is a list of keywords and ASIN. A tactic either force the algorithm to bid intensively on a segment or forbid the algorithm to bid on it! One should use it when wanting to split the traffic for a given strategy. Beware tactics might cut the traffic of the strategy when you set a high intensity!
Through both features, the algorithm adds or removes keywords from the campaigns it created.
Do not confuse seed & blacklist and tactics that work on different levels.
Aggressivity
One can not decide how many impressions and clicks are generated! One can only give the algorithm incentives to generate be more or less aggressive in 4 different ways
Change the target ACOS for ACOS optimisation strategies: It is the easiest way to lower or increase the traffic. Whenever you change the target ACOS, the algorithm changes the bids accordingly. You should understand what happens when you change the ACOS target before lowering or increasing it.
Change the parameters for Force product visibility strategies: When you increase the suggested bid, the algorithm increases the bids, leading to a higher ranking.
Min daily spend -> The minimum the algorithm spends on a daily basis. It helps you force the algorithm to spend money. Be careful with this option, we advise setting a modest budget, such as $5, since the algorithm does not optimize spending based on performance and may not allocate the budget intelligently.
Target daily budget -> A soft spending limit the algorithm does not outreach, more or less. It helps you limit the money the algorithm spends. The lower it is, the less traffic you should get.
Control the ACOS or spending per segment
Once you split your traffic properly, there are two optimal set-ups for your strategies, depending on your goal:
You want the algorithm to find the best ACOS target for each segment
You want to have different ACOS targets for each segment
You want the algorithm to find the best ACOS target for each segment
You should create one sponsored product strategy and add one tactic per segment with a neutral intensity. If you set different intensities, the algorithm will increase or decrease the bids accordingly.
You want to have different ACOS targets for each segment
You should create one sponsored product strategy per segment. In each strategy, you should:
Create a tactic with "product & keyword targeting" and a neutral intensity for the segment concerned
Plus, you should create another sponsored product strategy in which you add one "blacklist" tactic for each segment you used in the previous strategies.
For x segments, you will have x + 1 strategies.
For example, assume you have the following segments for an ASIN "teacup":
Branded
Competitors
Generic
You will create the following strategies:
Teacup branded: You add a tactic with type = targeting and segment = branded and disable the automated campaigns
Teacup competitors: You add a tactic with type = targeting and segment = competitors and disable the automated campaigns
Teacup generic: You add a tactic with type = targeting and segment = generic and disable the automated campaigns
Teacup all other traffic: You add 3 tactics with type = blacklist and segments are branded + competitors + generic
Then you will have control over the ACOS and spending for each strategy!