How to Analyze the Heatmap in the Automation History Section of Your Dashboard

When managing automation rules, understanding when your rules are most active is essential to optimizing performance and efficiency. 

One of the most effective tools to do this is the Heat Map available in the Automation History section of your dashboard.

This guide will walk you through how to read and analyze the heat map, what patterns to look for, and how it can help improve your automation strategy.

What is a Heat Map?

A heat map is a data visualization that uses a color gradient to show the density or intensity of data. In this case, it reflects the number of actions triggered by your automation rules over time.

The color intensity helps you quickly identify when the most (or fewest) actions occurred. Darker shades indicate higher activity, while lighter shades show lower activity.

Where to Find It

1. Go to your Ads section.

2. Click on the History tab.

Select Heat Map to check details

How to Read the Heat Map

• X-Axis: Displays months.

• Y-Axis: Represents days of the week (Monday to Sunday).

• The map reflects data from the last 90 days.

• The 5-color gradient ranges from light (fewer actions) to dark (more actions).

Hovering your mouse over any square on the heatmap reveals:

• Exact date

• Total actions taken

• Manual actions

• Automated actions

• Dayparting actions

• Additional insights (if available)

This makes it easier to deep-dive into specific days and understand the distribution and source of activity.

How to Analyze It

1. Identify High-Activity Days

Look for the darkest colored areas. These are the days when most automation actions were triggered. Are they clustered around certain weekdays? End of the month? This might suggest rules tied to calendar dates, campaign peaks, or reporting cycles.

2. Spot Inactive Periods

Lighter areas indicate periods of low activity. These may be opportunities to increase automation coverage or highlight areas where your business doesn’t require automation (e.g., weekends).

3. Understand Patterns by Day and Time

Since the heatmap shows days of the week on the y-axis, you can spot recurring trends:

• Are Mondays consistently busier?

• Do weekends show lower activity?

• Are mid-month days more intense?

This can inform your dayparting strategies or highlight the effectiveness of scheduled rules.

4. Compare Manual vs. Automated Actions

By hovering over a cell, you can compare manual actions vs automated ones. A spike in manual actions on specific days may indicate a need to refine or introduce new automation rules.

Pro Tips

• Use the heatmap to review the success of recent automation changes.

• If certain days show high manual intervention, consider converting those tasks into automation rules.

• Leverage this view during monthly reviews to evaluate the consistency of automation performance.

Ultimately, the heatmap in the Automation History section isn’t just a pretty visualization, it’s a powerful analytical tool. With just a glance, you can detect trends, gaps, and opportunities in your automation strategy. 

Use it regularly to stay informed, optimize performance, and get the most value from your automated processes.

Additional readings:

1. Automate Amazon Ads: A Complete Guide to Maximizing Sales

2. Thousands of Amazon keywords at your fingertips