Anything I should know before using AutoPilot?
- Campaigns on AutoPilot MUST be paused or activated from the Shape interface. If a pause/enable happens outside of Shape, AutoPilot will not detect the change and will likely undo the status change you just performed.
- If you pause a campaign in Shape manually, it will go into Standby mode. Shape assumes that you want the campaign paused for the duration of the budget cycle. If utilizing AutoPilot Pause/Enable or AutoPilot Daily Pause/Enable, a campaign in standby will reactivate it at the start of the next budget cycle. If you want the campaign to remain paused indefinitely, you must switch AutoPilot to off for that specific campaign.
- NOTE: You can also manually choose to place a campaign into Standby mode using the Automation tab on the "Edit Budget Settings" form.
- You must set up a timezone for AutoPilot to work correctly. Navigate to the settings page found in the menu and choose the correct timezone. This will sync up AutoPilot with your campaign data.
Should I apply AutoPilot to all my campaigns?
Only include the campaigns you are comfortable with being auto-paused and activated by AutoPilot. If you have legacy campaigns you don’t want to be activated, DO NOT apply AutoPilot to these campaigns.
How does AutoPilot decide to pause campaigns?
The platform checks spend levels multiple times a day for every Budget.
When you're using AutoPilot Pause Only, if AutoPilot detects at any time during the cycle that less than 2% of your Budget is remaining, the campaigns on AutoPilot are paused indefinitely.
When you're using AutoPilot Pause/Enable, if AutoPilot detects at any time during the cycle that less than 2% of your Budget is remaining, the campaigns on AutoPilot are paused until the next cycle or when your target budget is increased during the current cycle.
When you're using AutoPilot Daily Pause/Enable, if AutoPilot detects at any time during the day that your campaigns have hit the ideal daily target, the campaigns on AutoPilot Daily are paused until the next day when they are reactivated.
How does AutoPilot decide to activate campaigns?
When you're using AutoPilot Pause Only, AutoPilot will never reactivate campaigns. YOU MUST ACTIVATE CAMPAIGNS MANUALLY.
When using AutoPilot Pause/Enable, AutoPilot will reactivate campaigns on the first day of the next billing cycle or if the budget target is increased mid-cycle.
When you're using AutoPilot Daily Pause/Enable, AutoPilot will reactivate your campaigns each night as close to 12:01 AM as possible (assuming they were paused the day before).
Will AutoPilot alert me when campaigns are paused?
If your campaigns are on AutoPilot Pause Only or AutoPilot Pause/Enable, you will be alerted when AutoPilot takes action and changes the campaign status on your behalf. An email is sent with a summary of the paused campaigns and an alert appears in Shape.
Due to the sheer volume of changes made daily on AutoPilot Daily Pause/Enable, you will not be alerted to changes currently.
How does AutoPilot work on One-Time Budgets?
One-Time Budgets have a finite start and end date. All campaigns with AutoPilot enabled in a one-time Budget will be paused on the end date regardless of whether the campaigns spent the target Budget Amount.
If the campaigns spend the target Budget Amount before the end date, AutoPilot will pause campaigns on the date the targeted Budget Amount is reached.
After the Budget ends, Shape will take no further action on the campaigns past the end date.
Can AutoPilot use a Custom Value to Change Campaign Statuses?
Currently, AutoPilot utilizes total campaign cost vs. total Budget Amount to determine when to pause or activate campaigns. AutoPilot will pause campaigns when the total campaign cost is within +/-2% of the target Budget Amount. Depending on the AutoPilot mode utilized, it will reactivate campaigns when the total Budget Amount is increased or at the start of the next Budget cycle.
AutoPilot cannot utilize custom values to change campaign statuses at this time.
Will my Facebook and Google campaigns be put back into a "learning phase" if AutoPilot Daily makes daily status changes?
Changes to campaign statuses made by AutoPilot can cause Google and Facebook campaigns to be placed back into the Learning Phase.
While campaign status changes can impact learning, Google and Facebook have evolved their products to the point where potential impacts aren't too drastic and the learning periods have become less volatile and shorter.
During our AutoPilot Daily beta testing period, we found that the impact posed by campaigns defaulting to a learning phase was minimal. For Budgets with severe budget pacing and overspending challenges, we believe that the value of AutoPilot's automation outweighs performance fluctuations caused by the learning period.
However, if you are concerned AutoPilot Daily making daily status changes and keeping your campaign in a constant learning phase, you can:
1) Switch to AutoPilot Pause/Enable or AutoPilot Pause only to prevent daily campaign status changes. You can manually pace daily budgets or utilize Budget Pacer to approve pacing recommendations at intervals you are comfortable with
2) Utilize CruiseControl to let Shape make daily budget adjustments to keep you on pace. However, the learning phase may also be enabled by daily budget changes as outlined in the CruiseControl FAQ found here (there are recommendations on how to prevent this)
Does AutoPilot work on all Campaign types?
No!
AutoPilot does not work for certain campaign types. AutoPilot also does not work when the permissions granted to a data source email are too low.
AutoPilot does not work for:
- Campaign Types:
- Youtube Video Campaigns
- Google Ads Experiment Campaigns
- Pinterest Ads Campaigns
- TikTok Ads Campaigns
- Account Permission Levels:
- Facebook - "Ad Account Analyst"
- Google - "Email Only" or " Read Only"
- Microsoft Advertising (fka Bing) - "Viewer"
- LinkedIn - "Creative Manager" or "Viewer"
- Twitter - "Campaign Analyst" or "Organic Analyst"
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