1. The Rules page
Go to Automation in the left navigation. The page opens on Rules; Smart Lists sits next to it in the title.
- New Rule (top right) starts a new rule — see Section 2 below.
- Search by rule name or ID and Filters narrow the list.
- Manage Groups organizes rules into folders. Groups also let you assign a whole set of rules to a campaign at once, saving time as your rule library grows.
- Hover a rule’s name for Clone, Run now, Logs and Delete.
Standard rules vs. Global rules
Every rule has a Rule scope, and it decides what happens when you launch a new campaign:
With a Standard rule, a campaign you forget to add is completely unprotected. With a Global rule, any campaign you launch in the selected accounts is covered from day one.
Whole ad accounts is available on plans that include Global Rules. If yours doesn’t, the option asks you to upgrade.
One rule, several ad networks
A rule can run on more than one ad network at once. If your stop-loss logic is the same for Facebook, Taboola and TikTok, create one rule and pick all three, instead of maintaining three copies. See Where the rule runs.Platform terminology: Widget & Content
Sometimes you might encounter these terms throughout the platform (especially if you are working with native ad networks):2. Creating a rule
Click New Rule. Instead of a long list of rule types, you get one starting point with three ways in:
Whichever you choose, the rule opens in a side sheet over the Rules page, so your list stays in view.
Creating a rule with Jade
Explain in plain English what you want to achieve — for example, “Pause any Facebook or TikTok campaign that has spent $100 today with ROI below -30%, and raise the budget by 20% on campaigns above 50% ROI”. Jade turns it into one or more rules that match your strategy. Each one appears in the chat as a Generated rule card — a draft, not a live rule. Click Review and save to open it in the rule form with everything filled in, check the settings, and click Save. Nothing is created until you save. Ask Jade to change an existing rule and the card offers Review changes instead, opening that rule with the edits applied for you to save. You can do the same from any Jade chat — press ⌘J / Ctrl+J and describe the rule.The rule form
The rule form is one page of sections, top to bottom:- Rule details — name, group, default data interval and excluded days.
- Where the rule runs — ad networks, level, rule scope and the campaigns or ad accounts it checks.
- Rule type — what the rule does.
- Rule conditions — when it acts. See Section 3 below.
- Rule action — what it changes. See Section 4 below.
- Filtering — include or exclude specific items. See Section 5 below.
- Auto tag — add or remove tags on the items the rule acts on.
- Schedule rule — how often it runs, whether it acts or only alerts, and where alerts go. See Sections 6 and 7 below.
Rule details
1
Name your rule
Use a name that describes the logic, not just the type.
Pause Ads – Spend > $50 & 0 Conv tells you everything at a glance; Rule 1 tells you nothing. As your rule library grows, self-explanatory names save a lot of scrolling.2
Assign a Rule group (optional)
Assign the rule to a group to keep your list tidy and to bulk-assign rules to campaigns later without selecting them one by one. Use New group to create one on the spot.
3
Set the Default data interval
The time window the system looks at when evaluating all conditions. Options range from Today and Yesterday to Last 3 Days, Last 7 Days, all the way to Last 90 Days. Every condition in the rule uses this interval unless you override it individually (see Section 3).
4
Configure Exclude days from default interval (optional)
Removes specific recent days from the evaluation window. If your revenue data arrives with a 24-hour delay — common in Search Arbitrage — excluding Today prevents the rule from making decisions based on spend with no corresponding revenue yet. You can exclude up to the last 3 days.
Where the rule runs
Rule type
The Rule type list shows only what the selected ad networks can all do at the chosen level, so picking more networks can narrow the list. For example, a campaign-level rule on Facebook, Taboola and TikTok offers Pause or Activate, Change Budget and Day Parting.
Once a rule is saved, it keeps its ad networks, level and rule type. To change any of them, clone the rule and edit the copy.
3. Rule Logic: Conditions & Time Frames
The Conditions section is the brain of your automation. Conditions define the exact criteria that must all be true for the rule to execute. Each condition has three parts: a Metric, an Operator, and a Value.
Adding Conditions
1
Click Add Condition
Click Add Condition (or the
+ button) to open a new condition row.2
Select a metric
Use the search bar in the dropdown to find metrics quickly.
3
Select an operator
Choose Greater Than, Less Than, Greater or Equal, Less or Equal, etc.
4
Enter a value
Enter the number you’re comparing against.
Understanding Metric Categories
Metrics in the dropdown are organized into three categories:
Duplicating a Condition
When you need two conditions that are very similar — for example, checking that spend is both greater than $50 and less than $200 — use the duplicate button on the right side of any condition row. This clones the condition so you only need to change the operator or value, rather than rebuilding from scratch.Advanced Logic: Percentage Comparisons
Instead of comparing a metric to a fixed number, you can compare it to another metric. Click the$ icon next to the value field to switch modes:
Custom Time Frames (Per Condition)
All conditions use the Default Data Interval by default, but you can override this on a per-condition basis — allowing you to build rules that look at different time windows simultaneously.
Hour of Day Condition
The Hour of Day condition restricts when a rule is allowed to act, independently of whether the other conditions are met. If you only select Monday 9am–5pm, the rule will not take any action outside those hours — even if all other conditions are true.1
Add the Hour of Day metric
Find it under the “Other” category, or search for it directly.
2
Configure the grid
A grid appears with days on the vertical axis and hours on the horizontal axis. Click individual cells, or use the shortcuts: Weekdays, Weekends, Working Hours, Select All, and Clear All. You can also click an hour header to select that hour across all days, or click a day label to select all hours for that day.
3
Set the Timezone
Defaults to UTC. Change this if your team or traffic operates in a specific timezone.
If you use an Hour of Day condition, set the rule’s execution frequency to Every 1 Hour. Running it every 10 minutes is redundant and clutters your execution logs.
Created Date Condition
The Created date condition lets a rule act on ad sets and ads based on how recently they were created. Use it to target items by age — for example, hold off on brand-new ad sets that are still in the learning phase, or run a cleanup rule only on older ad sets and ads. Add a condition and select Created date from the metric dropdown, then choose an operator and a date or age threshold.4. Rule Actions
The Rule Actions section defines what the rule does when all conditions are met. There are four main action types.1. Status Actions (Pause / Activate)
The simplest action type. When conditions are met, the entity (ad, adset, or campaign) is paused or activated. No further configuration is needed — the action is fully defined by the rule type you selected.2. Budget & Bid Adjustments
For change-budget and change-bid rule types, configure the action in the Rule Action section:
Budget Safety Rails: Floor & Ceiling
When using Increase By or Decrease By, you can set a minimum and maximum budget value to prevent the rule from adjusting beyond safe limits:- Min Budget (Floor) — The rule will never reduce the budget below this value, even if the decrease amount would go lower.
- Max Budget (Ceiling) — The rule will never increase the budget above this value, even if the increase amount would go higher.
3. Cloning Actions
Cloning rules automatically duplicate a campaign, adset, or ad when conditions are met. Two additional fields appear:
- Number of Copies — How many clones to create each time the rule fires.
- Adjust budget before cloning — Optionally set the budget on the cloned copy to a specific value at creation time, rather than inheriting the original’s current budget.
- Destination — By default, clones land in the same campaign. Enable Change Cloned Ad Destination to redirect them to a specific adset, campaign, or a different ad account. For campaign cloning rules you can now select multiple destination ad accounts in a single rule, so one rule replicates a winning campaign across your whole portfolio instead of needing a separate rule per account.
- Set start time — For campaign cloning rules, choose when the cloned campaigns should start. Instead of going live the instant they’re created, clones can be scheduled to begin at a specific time — useful for lining up automated launches with budget resets or peak-traffic hours.
4. Dayparting
Dayparting rules let you schedule exactly when a campaign runs.Dayparting is only available at the campaign level. It cannot be applied to ads or adsets.
5. Scope and Filtering
Once the logic and action are defined, you control exactly which entities the rule monitors and acts on.Filtering: Include or Exclude Specific Items
The filter section lets you narrow or exclude specific items within your selected campaigns:
You can populate either list by searching for specific items manually, or by using bulk filtering to select all items matching a naming pattern at once.
Select Campaigns
Every rule — regardless of whether it acts on ads, adsets, or campaigns — needs to know which campaigns it monitors. You choose them in Where the rule runs (see Section 2). The rule evaluates entities within those campaigns only.- Manual Selection — Search for specific campaigns and check them one by one.
- Smart Filtering — Use the filter sidebar to auto-select all campaigns matching a naming pattern (e.g., all campaigns containing “US_2026”).
If the rule scope is Whole ad accounts (a Global rule), you select Ad Accounts instead of individual campaigns.
6. Scheduling & Frequency
This setting controls how often TheOptimizer evaluates your conditions and potentially fires the rule.If your rule includes an Hour of Day condition, set the frequency to Every 1 Hour. Running it every 10 minutes is redundant — the rule won’t act outside the specified hours regardless — and it clutters your execution logs.