GMV Max Automations

GMV Max automations are rules that watch your TikTok GMV Max campaigns and act for you. Instead of digging through creatives to find which videos deserve more spend, and which are quietly burning budget, you set the thresholds once and Cruva handles the rest.

There are two kinds of rule:

• Boosting automations put dedicated daily ad spend behind specific videos, chosen by performance or by creator list.
• Exclusion automations remove videos from a campaign, chosen by performance, by creator blacklist, or by video blacklist.

You'll find them under Ads → TikTok Ads → Automations. Automation rules are on the Scale plan, and they need your TikTok Ads account connected.

At a glance

How rules run

• Rules run automatically each time Cruva syncs your TikTok Ads data, not in real time. Each run refreshes the last week of ad stats first (TikTok attributes sales late), then evaluates every rule.
• Only Active rules run. Paused rules and Drafts are saved but do nothing.
• Every rule targets either a single GMV Max campaign or All campaigns (the toggle next to the campaign picker). Only Product GMV Max campaigns are eligible. With All campaigns on, the rule picks up new campaigns automatically, and its budgets and caps are shared across all of them rather than applied per campaign.
• Money values (budgets, Spend, Revenue, CPA) are in your TikTok ad account's currency.

Boosting automations

A boost is a session of dedicated daily ad spend on one video in one campaign, on top of the campaign's normal delivery. A boosting rule starts boosts on videos that qualify, and keeps each one running until an exit trigger stops it.

Boost method 1: By performance

Boost videos that hit your performance thresholds.

Start conditions define what "winning" means. Build them from any condition (ROI, Revenue, Orders, Spend, CTR, CVR, CPA, Views, 2s/6s view rate, AI content, Copyrighted music, External audio, Transcript, Video length), for example ROI ≥ 2 AND Orders ≥ 5. Combine several with AND (all must be true) or OR (any one is enough). At least one start condition is required.

Lookback period (default 3 months; days, weeks, or months) is the window the metrics are added up over. It's a metrics window, not a posting-date filter: a video posted a year ago that's spending and selling this month still qualifies, and a video that crushed it months ago but has gone cold drops out. Cruva keeps about 6 months of ad history, so longer windows behave like 6 months.

A video only shows up as a candidate if it had ad activity (spend or revenue) in that campaign during the lookback window. Brand-new creatives with no ad spend yet can't qualify on performance.

Boost method 2: By creator list

Boost every video from creators you choose. There are no start conditions: being on the list is enough.

• Add creators by handle, CSV upload, or straight from your CRM (up to 10,000). Handles are matched case-insensitively, with or without the @.
• Only boost videos posted within (optional, in weeks or months) limits boosting to recent videos. Leave it blank to boost a listed creator's videos regardless of age.
• The video still has to be running in the campaign with ad activity in the last 3 months (or in your posted-within window, if you set one), and Cruva has to have the video on record so it can match the creator.

Everything below (status filter, budgets, exit conditions, schedule) applies to both boost methods.

Only boost videos in status

Optionally restrict boosting to videos currently in certain TikTok delivery statuses: Delivering, In queue, and/or Learning. The status is checked against TikTok's report on every run. Leave all unchecked to allow any status.

Which videos are never boosted

Whatever your conditions, a rule skips:

• Videos TikTok reports as Excluded, Rejected, Unavailable, or Authorization needed (so an excluded video is never boosted back in).
• Videos whose product already has an active max-delivery session on TikTok.
• Videos this rule is already boosting in that campaign.
• Videos with no product attached (TikTok can't boost them).

Which videos go first

When more videos qualify than you have open slots, Cruva boosts the ones with the highest ROI over the window first, then fills the remaining slots in order.

Budget controls

• Per video (daily): how much each boosted video gets per day. TikTok's minimum is $10/day (or the equivalent in your ad account's currency). Default $10.
• Max total budget spend: a hard ceiling on cumulative spend across every boost this rule has ever started. When it's hit, Cruva stops all of the rule's live boosts and pauses the rule (the boosts end with the reason Budget exhausted). Before starting a new boost, Cruva also reserves a day's budget for each boost already running, so new boosts only start while there's room. Leave it blank for no ceiling.
• Max concurrent boosted videos: how many of this rule's videos can be boosted at once, 1–100 (default 10). With All campaigns on, this is the total across all campaigns.

Changing a rule's daily budget only affects boosts it starts afterwards. Boosts already running keep the budget they started with; to change a live one, edit it from the Boosted creatives tab.

Exit conditions

Exit conditions are the kill triggers. When a boosted video trips one, for example ROI ≤ 1.5 or Spend > $100, the boost stops. They use the same conditions as start conditions and default to OR (any single trigger ends the boost); switch to AND if every condition must be true.

Things to know:

• Exit conditions are evaluated over the rule's lookback window, the same metrics as the start conditions, not just the period since the boost started. ROI < 2 looks at the video's ROI across the whole window.
• Max spend per video stops a boost once the spend on that video in the campaign since the boost started reaches the amount, regardless of performance. It counts all GMV Max spend on the video in that period (the boost and the campaign's own delivery together). Because rules run on each sync, spend can go a little past the limit before the boost is stopped.
• A boost also ends if the video stops qualifying entirely: it no longer has ad activity in the window, TikTok moves it to Excluded/Rejected/Unavailable, or its product gets its own max-delivery session.

Schedule

• Boost until exit conditions kill it: boosts run continuously and only stop on an exit condition, max spend per video, the total budget cap, or the video no longer qualifying.
• Boost for a fixed number of days: each boost runs for the duration you set, then TikTok ends it. Exit conditions can still end it earlier.

If you pick the continuous schedule with no exit conditions and no max spend per video, your boosts never stop on their own (only the total budget cap, if you set one, will end them). The configurator warns you about this. Always give each boost at least one kill trigger.

Re-boosting

A video whose boost has ended can be boosted again on a later run if it still meets the start conditions (or is still on the creator list). If you don't want a video boosted again, exclude it, or add an exit-style condition to the start conditions (for example ROI ≥ 2 AND Spend < $500).

Exclusion automations

Exclusion rules remove creatives from GMV Max campaigns: TikTok stops using the video as an ad creative in that campaign. The organic TikTok post isn't touched.

• Exclusions only apply to enabled, auto-selection Product GMV Max campaigns (campaigns where TikTok picks the creatives). Other campaigns are skipped; a disabled campaign is picked up again once it's re-enabled.
• An exclusion is permanent: no rule ever adds a video back. You can restore one by hand from the Excluded creatives tab (see below), but if a rule still matches it, the rule may exclude it again on its next run.
• Once any rule (or a manual exclusion) has removed a video from a campaign, other rules leave it alone there.

Exclusion method 1: By performance

Remove videos that trip your thresholds, for example Spend > $1,000 AND ROI < 1 (the default). Use any condition and combine with AND (default) or OR.

• Lookback period (default 3 months) is the window metrics are added up over, same as for boosting.
• Only exclude videos posted before N days ago gives new creatives a trial period: only videos posted at least that many days ago can be excluded. Leave it blank for no minimum.
• Videos in TikTok's In queue, Learning, Delivering, Not delivering, Unavailable, or Not active statuses are evaluated.

Non-performance conditions are useful here too: AI content = Yes alone removes every AI-generated creative, Copyrighted music = Yes removes every creative with a licensed song, and Transcript includes any of "giveaway", "free" removes videos that say those words.

Exclusion method 2: By creator blacklist

Remove videos from creators you select.

• Add creators by handle, CSV upload, or from your CRM (up to 10,000). Handles are matched case-insensitively, with or without the @.
• Only apply to videos posted within (weeks or months) limits removal to recent videos. If you leave it blank, the rule currently covers videos posted in the last 3 months.
• Cruva matches a video to its creator from its own video records, so a video Cruva hasn't picked up yet (or whose post date is unknown) isn't matched until it has.

Exclusion method 3: By video blacklist

Remove specific videos rather than whole creators.

• Browse and tick videos from your shop (with the same product filter and sorting as the creator-brief picker), paste TikTok video IDs or video URLs, or upload a CSV with a column of either (up to 10,000 videos).
• Cruva keeps just the numeric video ID and removes that video from every campaign the rule covers.
• There's no age window, since you've named the exact videos.

Condition reference

Every condition list (boosting start conditions, exit conditions, and performance exclusions) offers the same metrics. Metrics are totals over the rule's lookback window, then divided where needed.

Percent values are entered as the percentage itself: CTR ≥ 1.5 means 1.5%.

CPA with no orders is 0. A video that has spent but never sold has a CPA of 0, so CPA < 20 matches it. Pair CPA with Orders ≥ 1 if you only mean videos that sell.

AI content

The AI content condition reads the AI-generated flag from Cruva's video analysis, the same flag behind the AI content filter on the Videos page and the AI check in Content moderation. It's based on TikTok's own AI-generated content (AIGC) label. See Manage creator content.

• AI content = Yes matches AI-generated videos. AI content = No matches everything else.
• ROI ≥ 2 AND AI content = No boosts only winning human-made videos; AI content = Yes as a performance exclusion clears AI creatives out of a campaign.

A video that hasn't been analyzed yet counts as No: it will never be caught by AI content = Yes, and it will pass an AI content = No condition.

Audio conditions

Two more Yes / No conditions read the video's sound, as TikTok reports it:

• Copyrighted music: Yes when TikTok matched the audio to a released song. TikTok sets this even when the sound is labeled "original sound", so it catches songs a creator re-uploaded as their own.
• External audio: Yes when the sound isn't the creator's own: a track from TikTok's sound library, or another account's original sound.

ROI ≥ 2 AND Copyrighted music = No boosts only winners without licensed music, and Copyrighted music = Yes as a performance exclusion clears those creatives out of a campaign.

Unlike AI content, a video whose sound couldn't be read matches neither Yes nor No. It won't be boosted by a Copyrighted music = No start condition, and it won't be removed by a Copyrighted music = Yes exclusion.

Transcript

Match words or phrases in what's said in the video.

• Choose includes or does not include, then any of (at least one term) or all of (every term).
• Type a term and press Enter (or a comma) to add it, up to 100 terms.
• Matching is case-insensitive and finds the term anywhere in the transcript, including inside longer words: "art" matches "start". Use a longer phrase if that matters.

A video without a transcript yet matches neither includes nor does not include. Transcript does not include "discount" won't boost (or exclude) videos that haven't been transcribed.

Video length

Compare the video's length in seconds with ≥, >, ≤, or <. There's no "=", since lengths are fractional; for a range, add two conditions with AND (Video length ≥ 15 AND Video length ≤ 60).

Videos whose length hasn't been measured yet, and photo slideshows, never match a Video length condition.

How unknown values combine

Where a value is unknown (audio, transcript, or length not available yet), only that one condition fails. With AND, the video doesn't match the rule; with OR, it can still match through another condition.

Setting up a rule

1. Go to Ads → TikTok Ads → Automations and click Create rule.
2. Step 1: name the rule, choose Boosting automation or Exclusion automation, pick the method, set a status, and pick a GMV Max campaign or turn on All campaigns.
3. Step 2: for boosting, set your start conditions and lookback (or creator list and posted-within window), the status filter, and the budgets. For exclusion, set your conditions, creator blacklist, or video blacklist. Exclusion rules finish here.
4. Step 3 (boosting only): set exit conditions, max spend per video, and the schedule.
5. Click Create rule, or Save as draft to finish later.

Status: Active rules run on the next sync. Paused rules are saved but idle. Drafts let you finish the setup later; clicking Create rule on a draft makes it active.

You can edit, pause, or delete a rule at any time from the rules page. Edits save in place.

Turning off a boosting rule

If you turn off a rule that has boosts running on TikTok, you choose what happens:

• Just pause rule (keep boosts running): the rule stops starting new boosts, and the existing boosts keep running on TikTok. A paused rule no longer checks them, so exit conditions, max spend per video, and the total budget cap stop applying to them. They end only when their fixed duration runs out or you stop them from Boosted creatives.
• Kill boosts: stops all of the rule's boosts on TikTok immediately.

Tracking results

The rules page shows your automations' combined impact (revenue generated, ad spend, ROI, orders, and active boosts), and each rule card shows its own numbers and settings. Exclusion rules show how many creatives they've removed.

Click into any rule for the full breakdown:

• Boosting rules: every boost session with its spend, revenue, orders, and dates, and why it ended: Exit condition met, Hit max spend, Budget exhausted, or Expired on TikTok (a fixed-duration boost that ran its course, or a boost ended on TikTok's side). You can stop a live boost from here.
• Exclusion rules: every video the rule removed, why (blacklisted creator, blacklisted video, or performance), when, and whether it's since been restored.

Attribution: how boost results are counted

A boosted video keeps running in its campaign while it's boosted, and TikTok reports one spend and one revenue figure per video per day for both together. Cruva knows the boost's own spend and the video's total spend, but not which sales the boost drove. The Attribution toggle on the rules pages lets you choose how to read it (your choice is remembered in your browser):

• Full credit (default): every sale the video made while boosted, against the boost's own spend. The most flattering view.
• Whole video: every sale the video made while boosted, against everything spent on it (boost and campaign together). The creative's real performance, not the boost's.
• Boost share: sales scaled by the boost's share of the video's spend, against the boost's own spend. The best estimate of what the boost itself returned.

Boosted creatives and Excluded creatives tabs

Two tabs next to your rules track every action, whether a rule or a person triggered it. Both can be filtered by campaign, product, date, and metric ranges (views, video GMV, units, CTR, and more), and sorted by any column.

• Boosted creatives: every boost session with its source (Manual or the rule's name), daily budget, spend, revenue, ROI, orders, start date, and status. Toggle Show ended to include finished sessions. You can stop a live boost, or edit its daily budget. TikTok can't edit a running boost, so it's recreated with the new budget, and its metrics keep accumulating. If a rule created the boost, the rule may boost the video again on its next run.
• Excluded creatives: every video removed from GMV Max delivery (manually, by moderation scans, or by rules), with when and by what it was excluded, and a Restore button that re-adds it to the campaign as an eligible creative.

Boosting and excluding by hand

You don't need a rule to boost or exclude. Manual actions show up in the same tabs with the source Manual, and rules don't stop or cap them.

• GMV Max page: expand a campaign, tick creatives, and use Boost or Exclude (each row also has its own exclude button).
• Spark Ads page: select videos and boost or exclude them. Only the videos actually running as GMV Max creatives are affected, and the dialog previews the match count first.
• Videos page (Content → Videos): tick videos and use Exclude from GMV Max or boost them, across every campaign they run in. See Manage creator content.
• Content moderation scan results: exclude, boost, or later restore a scan's flagged videos in one go. See Content moderation.

A manual boost takes a daily budget per video (TikTok's $10/day minimum applies) and an optional duration in days; leave the duration blank to boost until you stop it. Videos without a product are skipped.

Recipes

• Scale proven winners: Boost by performance, ROI ≥ 2.5 AND Orders ≥ 5, lookback 14 days, $20/day, max 10 concurrent. Exit on ROI ≤ 1.5, max spend per video $300.
• Back your best creators' new posts: Boost by creator list with your top affiliates, posted within 2 weeks, status Learning or In queue, fixed 7-day boosts.
• Only boost brand-safe content: add AI content = No AND Copyrighted music = No to any boost's start conditions.
• Cut the money pits: Exclude by performance, Spend > $200 AND Orders = 0, only videos posted at least 7 days ago, All campaigns.
• Hook test: Boost by performance with 6s view rate ≥ 25 AND CTR ≥ 1.5 to back videos that hold attention and get clicks.
• Short-form only: add Video length ≤ 30 to boost only videos of 30 seconds or less.
• Keep off-brand claims out of ads: Exclude by performance with Transcript includes any of "cure", "guaranteed".
• Drop a creator everywhere: Exclude by creator blacklist, All campaigns.

FAQ

My rule is active but nothing is being boosted. Check that videos actually meet the start conditions over the lookback window (only videos with ad activity in the campaign count), that the status filter isn't too narrow, that the total budget cap hasn't been hit (that pauses the rule), and that you haven't already used up your concurrent boosts. Rules act on the next sync, not instantly.

Why did my boost end so quickly? Exit conditions read the whole lookback window, not just the boost period, so a video that was already below your exit threshold over that window can be stopped on the next run. Look at the end reason on the rule's page.

Will a rule exclude a video I restored? It can. If the video still matches the rule, the rule may exclude it again. Change or pause the rule if you want it to stay.

Can boosting and exclusion rules conflict? Exclusion wins: a video TikTok reports as excluded is never boosted, and an excluded video ends any boost on it.

Do rules work on Max Delivery or LIVE GMV Max campaigns? No. Rules only work on Product GMV Max campaigns, and exclusions only on auto-selection Product GMV Max campaigns.