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2024 Monthly Release Notes

W
Written by Winnie Chang
Updated this week

December Release Notes

Amazon Page – Preference Settings

Users can now configure their preferred display for ACOS / ROAS on Amazon-related pages.

Additional support includes:

  • Setting whether the week starts on Sunday or Monday


Amazon – AI Managed Optimization

Upgraded Managed Groups Fully Released + AI Workflow Improvements

  • The upgraded version of Managed Groups is now fully available

  • Legacy single-store Managed Groups have been retired

Enhancements include:

  • Managed Group list now supports expanding to view campaign-level basic information

  • Quick navigation from Managed Groups to Ad Management with the current group selected

  • Bulk actions optimized, including:

    • Budget updates

    • Target ACOS / Target ROAS updates


Managed Groups Now Support ROAS Targets

  • The user’s ACOS or ROAS preference setting now affects AI modules

  • All AI target settings, sorting, and display now support ROAS


Amazon – Global Search Ads Updates

Amazon Sponsored Ads improvements include:

  • Sponsored Products campaign cross-store copy support

  • Sponsored Display now supports AMC Audience targeting

  • Multiple usability improvements across the module


Sponsored Products Cross-Store Campaign Copy

Entry path:

Global Search Ads → Campaigns → Sponsored Products → Actions → Copy

New capability:

  • Copy SP campaigns across stores and marketplaces

  • Customize all target campaign structures, such as:

    • Default bid

    • Promoted products

    • Ad group configuration


Sponsored Display Supports AMC Audience + Additional Optimizations

Updates include:

  • Sponsored Display campaigns now support AMC Audience targeting

  • Campaigns, keywords, and search terms now support advanced filters:

    • Single-line “Not Equal”

    • Multi-line “Not Equal”

  • Keyword and negative keyword lists now show:

    • Operation timestamps

    • Negative keyword enable/disable status

  • Campaign list sorting by name is supported in Portfolio view

  • Bulk bid adjustment feedback improved (failure reasons now shown)

  • Placement list includes summary total rows


Amazon – Keyword Library: Rule-Based Keyword Collection

A new rule-based keyword library is now available.

Built on top of the existing keyword library, this feature enables automated classification and dynamic updates for refined keyword management.

Key capabilities:

  1. Rule Execution

    • Supports one-time execution or recurring cycles

    • Customizable timezone and schedule

  2. Rule Combination

    • Multiple rules can be stacked:

      • Word root rules

      • Performance rules

      • ABA ranking rules

    • Keywords must satisfy all conditions to be added

  3. Word Root Classification

    • Keywords are automatically grouped into:

      • Core product terms

      • Features

      • Scenarios

      • Attributes

      • Brand terms

      • Competitor terms

  4. Performance Classification

    • Keywords are categorized based on spend, ACOS, and efficiency:

      • High-performing

      • Potential

      • Low-performing

      • Invalid

  5. ABA Ranking Classification

    • Based on ABA rank, keywords are grouped into:

      • High-traffic keywords

      • Mid-traffic keywords

      • Long-tail keywords


Walmart – Ad Management: Operation Logs Added

A new Operation Log tab is now available in Walmart Ad Management.

Logs include operation sources such as:

  • SparkX user accounts

  • Automation rules

  • Walmart backend

  • System default operations

Key features:

  1. Filter by object type → further filter by operation type and operator

  2. Supports searching by campaign, object, or operator (single or multiple)

  3. Logs can be downloaded

  4. Campaign lists allow direct selection to view related operation logs


Amazon – Custom Report Enhancements

Custom Reports now support:

  • File format selection

  • Store-level report splitting

  • More report types released

Updates include:

  1. Export reports in XLSX or CSV

  2. Generate one consolidated file or split by store

  3. Reports can be delivered by email or downloaded directly

  4. Several beta report types are now fully released (Targeting, Promoted Products, Tag, Product Center reports)


Amazon – Automation Rule Optimization

Automation rules for:

  • Adding search terms

  • Adding negative keywords

Now support selecting multiple target campaigns

  • Each rule can apply to up to 200 campaigns


Walmart – Ad Management Enhancements

New additions include:

  • Ad group level support

  • Page type reports

  • Brand and category tabs

Capabilities:

  1. View and bulk adjust all ad groups under Ad Group tab

  2. Analyze ad performance by page type

  3. Brand/category data available for 1P stores only


Amazon – Keyword Module Enhancements

Keywords now support cross-store management, with major improvements:

1. Cross-Store Keyword Library Management

  • Keyword libraries can now be managed across stores

  • UI optimized with more filters (e.g., scenario-based filtering)

2. Operational Improvements

Supports:

  • Single-line actions (edit, copy, delete)

  • Bulk actions (delete, import, set public/private, manage product associations, merge libraries)

3. Keyword Performance Analysis Enhancements

  • Toggle between keyword performance vs search term performance

  • Data logic improved: keyword metrics now align with associated products, not store-level aggregation


November Release Notes

Amazon – Global Search Ads Optimization

A new cross-store Sponsored Products budget cap page is available.

Users can now:

  • View SP budget limits across stores

  • Quickly update:

    • Budget caps

    • Average daily budget growth


Amazon – Sponsored Ads Smart Creation Adds More Marketplaces

Sponsored Ads Smart Creation now supports:

  • Mexico

  • India

Including ad types:

  • SP

  • SB

  • SD


October Release Notes

Amazon Brazil Marketplace Now Supported

Since Oct 29, 2024, Amazon Brazil authorization is officially supported.

Highlights:

  • Brazil stores can be authorized via Ads API + SP API

  • Advertising and product data can now be pulled successfully

  • Brazil marketplaces can be added to existing North America accounts

  • Store filters can now include Brazil

  • All modules except Ranking Lock & Market Insight support Brazil normally


Keyword Recommendation Adds More Sites

Keyword recommendations now support:

  • Spain

  • India

  • Mexico

(Brazil already included)


Walmart Smart Creation Fully Released

Enables bulk campaign creation based on different product strategies:

  • Multiple campaign structure templates

  • Keyword recommendations using Walmart historical performance + product features

  • Flexible naming rules with reusable templates


Walmart Ad Management Iteration

Walmart API updates introduced new bid strategy and targeting capabilities.

SparkX Walmart Ad Management now supports:

  • Updated API-based bid strategy logic

  • Creative performance reporting for SB & SV materials


Automation Rules Add Inventory-Based Product Control

Automation rules now support pausing/enabling promoted products based on inventory levels.


Smart Creation Optimization

Improvements include:

  • Campaign preview upgrades

  • Bulk edit bid strategy popup defaults to selecting all campaigns

  • Second confirmation step added for batch campaign creation

September Release Notes

Global Search Ads – Iteration Updates

A new automatic targeting option has been added to the advertising pages.

Enhancements include:

  • Data trend charts and advanced filtering

  • Bulk bid adjustments

  • Bulk status updates

  • Quick access to search term reports


Global Search Ads – Additional Improvements

Further updates to the campaign experience include:

  • Budget column filtering in campaign lists for faster budget-related analysis

  • A new entry point to view full campaign-level daily performance overview

  • Keyword workflows improved:

    • When adding SP/SB keywords, clicking a keyword can now jump directly to the Amazon search page

Sponsored Brands Product Collection ads improvements:

  • Custom creative image uploads now support up to 5 images per campaign

Other usability optimizations were also included.


Placement Lock – Composite Placement Officially Retired

Since the “Highly Rated” placement is being phased out, the composite placement lock feature was officially discontinued on September 10.

All existing composite placement lock tasks have been automatically migrated to TOS / ROS placement lock tasks.


August Release Notes

AI Managed Optimization Enhancements

The AI Managed Group list now supports filtering by:

  • SKU

  • ASIN

  • Parent ASIN

  • Product Line

  • ASIN Tags


AI Action Space Improvements

Bid optimization within AI Action Spaces now includes recommended bid ranges when targeting is enabled, providing better reference for adjustments.


Walmart Data Dashboard Officially Launched

The Walmart Dashboard provides both high-level and structured analytics views.

You can now view:

  • Summary metrics across single or multiple stores

  • Key performance trends over time

  • Structural analysis by:

    • Automatic vs Manual campaigns

    • Keyword match types

  • Insights by placement and platform

  • AI adoption rate across all campaigns

Entry path: Walmart Module → Data Dashboard


New Feature: SOV Insight

SOV Insight generates Amazon Search Page Share-of-Voice reports based on your most important search keywords.

You can use it to track:

  • Brand visibility share

  • Product voice share

  • Competitive positioning for ad strategy decisions

Entry path: Data Center → SOV Insight


Walmart Smart Center: AI Managed Optimization Launched

Walmart Smart Center now supports AI Managed Optimization with the following Action Spaces:

  • Bid Optimization

    • Base bid adjustments

    • Placement/platform premium adjustments

  • Budget Redistribution

    • Only available for campaigns with daily budgets enabled and no total budget set

  • Target Harvesting

    • Keyword harvesting automation

Additional highlights:

  • Full compatibility between AI and Automation Rules

  • AI Managed + Dayparting bid & budget automation can run simultaneously

  • Cross-store AI management supported

  • Numerous optimizations added beyond Amazon parity:

    • Managed group list enhancements

    • Quick add/remove campaign actions

    • Bulk enable/disable promoted products

    • Bulk product additions


Global Search Ads Optimization Iteration

Bulk Automation Template Association Supported

You can now batch associate or remove automation templates, enabling faster configuration of:

  • Dayparting bid rules

  • Dayparting budget rules

  • Campaign on/off automation

Supported actions:

  • Bulk link templates

  • Bulk unlink templates, with reset behaviors:

    • Bid resets to original or last executed bid

    • Budget reverts to last executed value

  • Bulk enable/pause campaigns

  • Bulk add search terms

  • Bulk add negative keywords


New Module: Product Targeting Management

A new “Product Targeting” page is now available.

It supports:

  • Viewing and filtering targeted products or categories

  • Bulk operations on promoted products

Key capabilities include:

  • Global product search

  • Data trend visualization

  • Scatterplot structure insights

  • Detailed drilldowns into product-level performance

Bulk actions supported:

  • Status updates

  • Bid adjustments

  • Tagging

  • Quick search term access


SB Product Collection Ads: Landing Page Type Editable

Landing page type is now editable for Sponsored Brands Product Collection ads.

Supported scenarios:

  • When creating new ads under SB Product Collection ad groups

  • When editing existing SB Product Collection ads

  • Allows editing:

    • Product ASINs

    • Creative assets

    • Collection structure

This makes ad management much more flexible.


July Release Notes

Homepage Filter Improvements

Homepage filters are now unified across the system:

  • Store and date filters remain consistent when switching pages

  • A new product filter has been added, showing:

    • Total product sales

    • Related campaign-level ad data

UI improvements:

  • Card layout optimizations

  • Added display of ad order count


Product Filter Enhancements

Updates include:

  • Global Ad Management now supports Product Line and ASIN Tag filters

  • During campaign creation (new campaign / add promoted product / Smart Creation):

    • Products can be retrieved by SKU or ASIN input

    • Useful when product sync is delayed but Amazon backend already supports ad creation


Product Center Updates

  • Vendor stores now support report type switching with memory

  • Smart Diagnosis has been fully released


Hourly Data Updates Added to Product Center

The product list now supports hourly refresh for the last 2 days, including:

  • Total Sales

  • Total Units Sold

  • TACOS

Dimensions supported:

  • ASIN

  • Parent ASIN

  • Product Line

After this update, Product Center total sales will align with Homepage totals.

Notes:

  • Real-time data comes from Amazon hourly APIs, and refund calculations may differ from Amazon business reports

  • Hourly scope is only for recent 1–2 days; older data follows Amazon business reports

  • SKU-level hourly data is unavailable and delayed by 1–2 days

  • Vendor stores are not covered and have a 4–5 day delay due to Amazon limitations


Action Space Configuration Fully Released

Action Space settings have now been fully rolled out.


Smart Center Iteration

Smart Optimization Officially Retired

Smart Optimization was officially discontinued on July 9, and all data has been migrated into Managed Groups.

Migration rules:

  • One Smart Optimization template becomes two new Managed Groups:

    • AI Enabled group

    • AI Disabled group

Special handling:

  • Campaigns inside budget groups each become their own Managed Group

  • Archived campaigns are not migrated

  • Templates with no active campaigns are not migrated


New AI Managed Group UI + Feature Updates

UI Refresh

  • Menus and buttons renamed

  • Managed Group list layout is more compact

  • AI status simplified into a pure toggle:

    • Independent of campaign count or activity

  • Bulk operations redesigned, including bulk delete

  • Quick add campaign/product updated (removal coming later)


New Capability: Budget Redistribution for SP/SB/SD

Budget Redistribution is now available as an Action Space setting.

Default behaviors:

  • Newly created Managed Groups are enabled by default

  • Migrated groups from Smart Optimization are disabled by default

Budget increase logic:

  • Redistribution ON → group-level daily budget cap applied

  • Redistribution OFF → campaign-level daily budget cap applied for compatibility


Other Optimizations

Managed Group detail page improvements:

  • AI toggle actions simplified

  • Campaign removal no longer requires extra budget selections

Ad Management module UI improvements:

  • AI optimization icon simplified:

    • Active = highlighted + rotating

    • Inactive = grey

Placement Lock remains unchanged for now.


Global Search Ads Improvements

  1. Search/filter component upgraded:

    • More common filters

    • Multi-line search supported

  2. New Keywords page:

    • Cross-store bulk operations

    • Data analysis view

  3. New Search Terms page:

    • Cross-store bulk operations

    • Improved add-to-target/add-negative workflows


Walmart Ad Management Phase II

Walmart Ad Management now includes new reporting modules:

  • Search Terms Report

  • Placement Report

  • Platform Report

Universal filtering has also been upgraded.


Search Terms Report

Data sources:

  • Walmart API reports: itemKeyword, keyword, videoKeywords

Features include:

  • Dashboard trends (daily/weekly/monthly)

  • Summary MoM comparisons

  • List drilldowns:

    • Targeting drilldown

    • Promoted product drilldown

  • Downloadable reports

Search term add-to-target supports:

  • Add to existing ad group

  • Create new ad group

  • Create new campaign

Bid options:

  • Original bid

  • CPC

  • Custom bid

  • CPC uses last 14-day search term CPC


Placement Report (SP)

Data source: Walmart placement report API

Supports:

  • Placement-level trend analysis

  • Placement drilldown to ad group

  • Placement multipliers for manual/auto campaigns


Platform Report

Data source: Walmart platform report API

Supports:

  • Platform-level trend analysis

  • Drilldown to ad group

  • Platform bid multiplier adjustments


Universal Filter Upgrade

All report tabs now share global filtering, including:

  • Ad type filter

  • Variant vs Parent variant filter

  • Attribution windows: 3 / 14 / 30 days

  • Report date ranges


June Release Notes

Key updates include:

  • Global Search Ads: New Promoted Products tab

  • Campaign Portfolio: Bulk end-date editing

  • Sponsored Products: Placement bid bulk editing

  • Smart Creation: Supports AI Action Space configuration

  • New store authorization needs ~3 days before Smart Creation works normally

  • Campaign tagging supported

  • Bid strategy supports Rest of Search placement boosts

  • Targeting can select keywords directly

  • Smart Optimization scheduled retirement in July


May Release Notes

AI Upgrade: Stronger AI Copilot

More Transparent AI

AI actions and performance are now more visible and explainable.

Smart Center Dashboard has been upgraded into an AI Dashboard, making AI impact clearer.

Highlights:

  • Global AI vs manual campaign comparison

  • Optimization action breakdown with drilldowns

  • Multi-dimensional analytics for best ad strategies


Configurable AI: Action Space Control

Action Spaces can now be individually toggled, enabling sellers to:

  • Use AI only where needed

  • Combine operational expertise with AI decisions

  • Control key actions:

    • Bid ranges

    • Keyword harvesting

    • Negative keyword automation

    • Budget redistribution

(Feature is in early access — contact your CSM for enablement.)


Ad Management Upgrade

Ad Management now supports:

  • Cross-store management

  • Cross-ad-type management

  • Faster operations:

    • Create

    • Filter

    • Bulk edit

  • Richer visual insights

  • Quick AI + Automation entry points


Permission Management Upgrade

New capabilities:

  • Group-level user management with multi-select and cloning

  • Bulk permission/resource assignment

  • Faster resource search and allocation


New Help Center Launched

A brand-new entry point for SparkX documentation:

  • More complete content

  • Better categorization

  • Improved search experience


Product Center Upgrade

Vendor store improvements:

  • Added sellingProgram + distributorView filters

  • Fixed missing report issues when vendor is not the manufacturer

Filter improvements:

  • Product line multi-select

  • ASIN tags

  • Metric-based filtering

  • Promoted product count filtering

Sorting improvements:

  • Quick sort by key metric trends


April Release Notes

Updates include:

  • Custom Dashboard chart types added (pie, bar)

  • Dashboard/card deletion support

  • Official starter dashboards and templates for new users

  • Dashboard sharing via external links

Budget Management improvements:

  • Store-level budget groups

  • Daily budget distribution enabled

  • Campaign restrictions relaxed (paused + automation campaigns now supported)


March Release Notes

Updates include:

  • Menu & UI redesign for clearer feature grouping

  • Smart Creation naming rules upgraded to customizable naming

  • Negative targeting control refined by targeting strategy

  • Placement Lock enhancements:

    • Manual campaigns with enabled exact-match keyword groups supported

    • Multi-keyword + multi-ASIN placement lock supported


February Release Notes

New Feature: Custom Dashboard

Entry path: Data Dashboard → Custom Dashboard
Release date: Feb 29, 2024

Highlights:

  • Unified cross-store + cross-ad-type analytics

  • Flexible metric + chart configuration


New Feature: Custom Reports

Entry path: Data Center → Custom Reports
Release date: Feb 29, 2024

Highlights:

  • Custom data export center supporting store scope, metrics scope, and scheduled delivery


Feature Optimizations

  • Sponsored Brands Product Collection custom images are now mandatory

  • Budget Management list upgraded with totals + quick edit for current/next month budgets


January Release Notes

Managed Groups in Smart Creation Now Support Sponsored Brands

Entry path: Smart Center → Smart Creation → Add Managed Group → SB
Release date: Jan 29, 2024

Highlights:

  • SB Managed Groups support AI actions including:

    • Budget Optimization

    • Bid Optimization

    • Targeting Optimization


Sponsored Brands Smart Creation Officially Released

Entry path: Smart Center → Smart Creation → Sponsored Brands
Release date: Jan 25, 2024

Supported marketplaces:

UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, US, France, Spain, Italy, Japan

Highlights:

  • Bulk campaign creation for efficiency

  • Recommended ACOS + budget targets

  • Targeting strategy recommendations (keyword, PAT)


Additional Optimizations

  • Budget Management upgraded to daily budget distribution

  • Budget list sorting + deletion + bulk operations supported

  • Ad Management adds ROAS filter support

  • Smart Creation supports SBV video uploads (MOV format)

  • Product Center adds daily trend tables with downloads

  • Keyword libraries opened to all marketplaces

  • Ranking Monitoring supports rank data download

  • Automation bid multipliers support 2-decimal precision

  • Automation rules add campaign activation caps

  • Dayparting bid automation now requires edits within SparkX only (Amazon-side edits will be overwritten)

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