An automatic campaign is the format almost every Wildberries ad account starts with today: the algorithm distributes impressions across search, catalog, recommendations and product cards on its own. You can launch one in a minute, but making it profitable is a separate craft. Here is the setup, bid management, query cleanup and the usual traps.
How an automatic campaign works
You set a bid and a budget, and the WB algorithm decides which queries and which zones your card appears in. Impressions are billed by CPM through the shared auction. The key difference from search ads: you manage the bid, the zones and the negative keywords rather than the queries themselves. You do not pick where to appear, you cut off what you do not want.
The algorithm relies on the card content: title, attributes, category. A product card with raw semantics collects impressions on junk queries, and no amount of negative keywords will fix what the algorithm misread from the very start.
Setup: what matters at launch
- Keep the bid conservative. Start below the figure the dashboard recommends and raise it in steps, watching the impression volume. The recommended bid is the top of the auction, not the optimum.
- Keep the budget a test budget. In the first days the campaign collects statistics, not profit, so cap the daily limit.
- Check the placement zones. Campaign settings let you manage placements (WB keeps changing the exact set of options, so check the current one in the dashboard). Leave them all on at first to gather data on each.
- Prepare a negative keyword list up front. Obvious junk (other brands, irrelevant categories) is better cut off before the first charge, not after.
Management after launch
- Days 1-3: collecting data. Do not touch the bid every half hour, the algorithm needs data.
- Days 3-7: first cleanup. Query report, then irrelevant terms go to negatives and zones with impressions but no cart adds get switched off.
- After that, the bid-to-DRR cycle. Raise the bid while ad spend share (DRR) stays below your margin; lower it once organic search picks up the positions. How to find that line is covered in the guide on burning your ad budget.
When to use auto and when to use search
- Auto — a fast start, a new product with no statistics, broad categories, the job of working out which queries you show up for at all.
- Search — when the target queries are known and you need per-query bid control. The full comparison is in the search vs catalog guide.
- In practice, mature accounts run both together: auto for reach, search for target keywords.
FAQ
"What is an automatic campaign on Wildberries?" An ad format in which the WB algorithm distributes a card's impressions across search, catalog, recommendations and product cards on its own. The seller manages the bid, the placement zones and the negative keywords.
"What bid should I set in an automatic campaign?" Below the dashboard recommendation, raising it gradually until you reach the impression volume you need. The upper limit is the bid at which DRR is still below the product's margin.
"Why does my automatic campaign show the product on irrelevant queries?" The algorithm takes queries from the card content. If the title and attributes are filled in imprecisely, impressions go to junk. The fix is reworking the card semantics plus regular negative keyword cleanup.
"How often should I clean up negative keywords?" At launch, 3-7 days after starting; after that, weekly from the report: queries with impressions and spend but no cart adds or orders go to the negative list.
"Can I run an automatic campaign and search ads at the same time?" Yes, this is the standard combination: auto delivers reach and query data, search reinforces target keywords one by one. The main thing is to watch the combined DRR for the product.
