Most ad accounts we audit have the same problem — every campaign reports back to one ACoS number, and that number tells you nothing about which dollar is profitable.
The ladder, top to bottom
We tier campaigns by margin contribution, not by intent type. The top of the ladder is brand-defense and post-purchase retargeting (lowest ACoS, highest margin recapture). The middle is hero-SKU expansion. The bottom is pure discovery — broad-match, sponsored display, and the only place where a 50% ACoS is acceptable, because it's funding tomorrow's branded searches.
Manual + smart-auto, never one or the other
Auto campaigns are research tools, not revenue tools. Run them on the bottom rung with tight budgets, mine the search terms weekly, and graduate winners up to manual phrase + exact in the middle rung. The mistake we see brands make is leaving auto on with $300 daily caps — that's not a strategy, that's a tax.
What the weekly review looks like
Every Friday: harvest, prune, scale. Harvest = winners promoted up the ladder. Prune = anything below break-even ACoS for two consecutive weeks. Scale = budget added to the rungs above their target ACoS, never below. The whole review is 45 minutes when the ladder is wired correctly.