Tracking & optimisation · also called automated rules, rule-based optimisation, auto-optimisation
Automation rules
Automation rules are if-then instructions that pause, restart or adjust ad campaigns automatically when chosen metrics cross set thresholds.
"If an ad has spent $30 and returned less than 80%, pause it." "If a campaign's return over three days is above 130%, raise the budget by 15%." Rules like these run around the clock inside ad platforms, trackers, or dedicated tools such as TheOptimizer.
Arbitrage suits rule-based management because it involves hundreds of small decisions on thin margins: which ad, placement, country and hour to keep. Typical rules cut losing placements into a blocklist, cap daily losses, apply dayparting, and grow winners gradually. The best rules use the tracker's joined view of cost and feed revenue, not the ad platform's numbers alone.
The danger is acting on bad data fast. Feed revenue arrives late and as an estimate (see revenue reporting delay), so a rule looking at the last hour will stop good campaigns. Rules should use time periods long enough for revenue to settle, require a minimum amount of data, and allow for expected deductions. Frequent automatic edits can also keep a campaign in the learning phase. Rules enforce a strategy; they do not replace having one.
An example
Say the rule is "pause any placement with at least 100 clicks and ROI below -30% over the last 3 days, excluding today". Site X: 150 clicks, $30 cost, $18 revenue, ROI -40%: paused. Site Y: 40 clicks, ROI -50%: left alone until it has enough data.
Related terms
Tracker (campaign tracking platform)
A tracker is software that records every click an arbitrageur buys, matches it to the revenue it later earns, and reports profit by campaign, ad and keyword.
Blocklist
A blocklist is a list of websites, apps or placements where a buyer tells an ad network never to show their ads.
Dayparting
Dayparting is scheduling ads to run, pause or bid differently at particular hours of the day or days of the week.
Bid strategy
A bid strategy is the rule an advertiser gives an ad platform for how much to pay in each auction, from a fixed manual bid to fully automated goals.
Revenue reporting delay
Revenue reporting delay is the gap between a visitor clicking a feed ad and the arbitrageur seeing, and later confirming, the revenue for that click.
Scaling
Scaling is increasing a profitable campaign's ad spend to earn more total profit, ideally without eroding the return that made it worth growing.