Campaign ACOS is 22%. Target is 25%. Budget utilization shows 95%. You raise the daily budget 20%.
Spend jumps. Sales jump slower. ACOS lands at 29%. You didn't scale a winner — you bought more of everything, including the waste you skipped in Optimize.
Grow is not "turn everything up." It's picking the right lever when prerequisites are met.
Grow only after optimize and protect
Before opening the Grow tab, confirm:
- Optimize queue addressed — or consciously deferred with reason
- Protect signals clear — Buy Box healthy, no active CVR decay
- Targets configured — target ACOS and pause thresholds in Settings
Simentri suppresses Grow when account conversion is deteriorating. Cards in Watching explain why — don't override without reading the reason.
Raise keyword bid: capture more of proven demand
When it applies:
- Keyword is manual (not auto targeting group)
- Campaign ACOS at or below target
- Keyword is profitable and stable — not a one-week spike
- Campaign is not budget-capped — otherwise budget is the binding constraint
Apply Now raises bids with a capped step (typically up to +20% per action). Connected profiles may use Amazon bid recommendation bands when available; offline upload profiles use a conservative percentage step from current bid.
The Grow candidates panel (Spec 107) unifies keyword, auto-group, and budget scale rows in one tree with an Evidence drawer — ACOS, spend, cap utilization, and bid band when present.
Increase daily budget: when the campaign is capped and profitable
When it applies:
- Campaign spending ~90%+ of weekly budget allocation
- ACOS at or below target — never raise budget on over-ACOS campaigns to "fix" volume
- Waste already addressed — you're not scaling a leaky bucket
When it does NOT apply:
- ACOS above target → fix Optimize first
- Campaign not near cap → bid may be the constraint, not budget
- CVR decay active → Protect issue, not Grow
R04 logic in Simentri: near cap + good ACOS → Increase Budget. Near cap + bad ACOS → Review, not raise.
Auto targeting groups: multiplier, not fake keyword bids
Auto campaigns don't scale like manual keywords. Winners live in targeting groups — close match, loose match, substitutes, complements.
Simentri recommends Review auto-group multiplier with guidance to raise the group bid adjustment in Seller Central — not an automatic keyword-level Apply that doesn't map to Amazon's UI.
Attempting to "raise bid" on auto as if it were exact match is a common tool mistake. Ad Insights routes this correctly.
Bid vs. budget: quick decision tree
| Situation | Lever |
|---|---|
| Good ACOS, low impressions, budget headroom | Raise bid |
| Good ACOS, budget capped daily, losing late-day traffic | Raise budget |
| Good ACOS, auto group performing | Raise group multiplier (review) |
| Bad ACOS | Optimize, not Grow |
| Good ACOS but CVR falling account-wide | Protect, not Grow |
When in doubt, open the Evidence drawer on the Grow card — it shows which constraint fired the recommendation.
Performing well: don't fix what isn't broken
The Performing Well section on the Grow tab highlights keywords and campaigns working above target this week. It's positive reinforcement — and a sanity check that Grow isn't only about problems.
Agencies: use this in client emails — "here's what we scaled, here's what was already working."
What to do this week
- Complete Optimize and Protect before Grow
- Read suppression reasons on any Grow → Watching moves
- One lever per decision — don't raise bid and budget on the same campaign in one session without evidence
- Confirm cap % in Evidence before budget increases
The bottom line
Grow is where profit compounds — or ACOS breaks. The difference is sequence and lever choice.
Simentri gates scale on conversion health, separates bid from budget from auto-group paths, and caps step sizes so one enthusiastic review doesn't blow up the account.
90-day free trial, no credit card required. You approve every action before anything changes in Seller Central.