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Introduction
Rule-Based Control allows users to create rules that automatically take specific actions when defined criteria are met, or suggest actions for manually approval.
For rule-based control related to negative matching, negative matches are applied whenever your specified performance criteria are triggered. This helps reduce manual workload and minimizes response delays.
Factors to Consider
Supported Ad types: Sponsored Products only (learn more here).
Creation Tips:
Make sure that your conditions aren't all encompassing, such that it starts negative matching everything.
Protect top search terms from being negative matched by including them in the exclusion list.
Sub Rules: You can have up to 5 Sub-Rules per Rule & 5 conditions per Sub-Rule.
Edit a Rule: Created rules can be edited, but they can't be deleted (consider pausing the rule instead).
Sticky Condition: A minimum spend or clicks condition is required to ensure that negative matching is based on statistically significant data. For example, if a search term has only spent $1 and shows a 100% ACOS, there isn’t enough data to conclude that it’s a poor-performing search term.
Partially Supported Goal Types
Goals labelled ‘SAG’ (Single-Ad Group) are a legacy goal type and only partially supported by this Rule. This means that while the Rule will apply negative matches to the goal, some negative match types will not get added to the campaign in the Ad Console:
Within Keyword SAG goals, only keyword negative matches are supported (PAT negatives are not supported).
Within Product SAG goals, no negative matches are supported (both keyword and PAT targets).
💡 In both goal types, unsupported negatives will still show up in the Targets tab, and supported negative matches will work as normal.
The SAG legacy goal type is being phased out, and all newly created single-campaign goals will be in the new format. To convert existing SAG goals to the new format, please reach out to the Customer Success team for support.
How to Apply
1️⃣ From your account, navigate the left-side panel and click on the "Rules" tab (1), go to the "Create Rule" tab (2), and access the "Negative Match Rules" tile (3) from the dashboard:
2️⃣ Assign a name to the rule (1) and select the goal/s (2) you'd like to apply to it
🚨 Note 🚨
Sponsored Products are currently the only ad types supporting this feature (learn more here).
3️⃣In the Sub Rule section of the Rule creation flow (1), create the rule by selecting the desired criteria, add or remove up to five conditions using the plus or minus buttons (2), and create up to five Sub Rules in total (3).
4️⃣ In the "Action Settings" (1), define the search terms that should never be negative matched even if the selected criteria are met, then click "Add" (2) to enter the terms.
🚨 Note 🚨
For multi-ad group single campaign goals, the rule applies negative matches only to the relevant ad groups.
5️⃣ In the "Rule Settings", apply criteria such as frequency, lookback window and the rule approval.
Criteria | Definition | Additional info |
Rule Frequency |
How often will the rule run. |
The rule runs at the next hour after creation, then repeats around the time at your chosen interval (i.e., every 2 days)
|
Lookback Window |
How many previous days of data should be considered. |
The rule will automatically exclude the last 2 days of data, so the number of days counting starts from the day before yesterday
|
Rule Approval |
Specify if the action will be taken automatically (approved by Perpetua) or requires manual approval by the users when the criteria are met |
|
6️⃣ Navigate back to the top of the rule creation flow, and click the "Launch Rule" purple button.
Review Your Created Rules
View all your created rules from the "Rules" tab, and use dashboard filters to analyze them by settings such as creation date, last run, type of approval, and more.
🚨 Note 🚨
Created Rules can't be edited, but they can be paused.
Pending Approval
During the Rule Creation flow, you can choose to let Perpetua automatically apply actions when criteria are met, or set Rule Approval to Manual Approval, which allows you to review suggestions in the Pending Approval tab (1), select multiple values (2), and either accept or dismiss them (3).
The History Dashboard
This dashboard lets you track when negatives were applied to your goals and how they were added—manually or automatically. Use filters such as Date or Approval Trigger to quickly find specific negatives.
