Blog

AdsPlane vs Perpetua: Control vs Hands-Off Automation

If you sell on Amazon and have outgrown manual bid spreadsheets, two tools that come up are AdsPlane and Perpetua. Perpetua (formerly Sellics) is a mature, goal-based retail-media platform: you set an objective and a target ACOS, and its engine optimizes bids and tactics automatically across Amazon and other marketplaces. AdsPlane is a newer Amazon Ads control plane built on the opposite instinct. A deterministic engine proposes every change, and nothing goes live until it clears your guardrails and an explicit approval step.

The real decision is not which one optimizes better. It is how much you want to hand off versus how much you want to keep your hand on the wheel.

Perpetua is built for breadth and hands-off automation: broad channel coverage, an intelligence data layer, and an engine that acts toward your goal on its own. AdsPlane is built for control and predictability on the Amazon sponsored-ads funnel: every action is reviewable, every change is logged, and pricing is a flat monthly fee rather than a slice of your ad spend. This post lays out where each one is genuinely strong so you can match the tool to how you actually want to run your account.

What Perpetua does well

Perpetua is a mature, well-known platform with a real track record (it carries the Sellics heritage) and named enterprise customers like Crocs and Hero Cosmetics. That maturity shows up in a few concrete strengths.

For an established or high-spend brand or agency that wants one platform to cover a wide surface and largely run itself, that is a coherent package.

Where AdsPlane takes a different approach

AdsPlane is narrower on channels, deliberately. It focuses on the Amazon sponsored-ads funnel (SP/SB/SD) and invests its difference in the control model rather than in breadth.

The core idea is determinism with a human gate. A deterministic Python engine decides every bid, budget, pause, and negative; AI narrates and explains, never decides. Each daily Runbook runs Pull, Analyze, Manifest, Approve, Execute, Reconcile. Every recommendation lands in a reviewable Manifest that executes only after it clears a versioned Guardrail Policy and an Approval Gate — you approve from the web dashboard or from Telegram. New accounts start in Shadow Mode, which previews the full plan and executes nothing. Auto-Approval is opt-in per account and gated on confidence plus guardrails, but even then no AI decides whether an action runs.

The safety scaffolding is the product. There is a dry-run before live changes, before/after snapshots, mandatory Reconciliation after execution, an append-only Execution Ledger, a per-recommendation Data Confidence Score, and an emergency pause/kill switch. You set the hard guardrails yourself: max bid/budget move per action, a daily spend-movement cap, max actions per run, protected brand terms, campaigns, and ASINs, no-pause and no-negative lookback windows, and a minimum confidence threshold.

Beyond the daily loop, AdsPlane adds Rally-Control (intraday runs, 2/4/6 per day by tier), ML near-real-time auto-bidding on T3/T4 that is dayparting-aware and proposes inside your guardrails, Boost Reach (a seller-triggered up-only reach push on T3/T4), Placement and Top-of-Search optimization (T3/T4), and a Growth Engine that mines search terms into new exact-match campaigns, adds targets to existing campaigns, and gives advisory data for under-advertised but already-selling ASINs. It also reads AMC path-to-conversion and the AMS live stream, supports multi-account (3 on T3, 10 on T4) and multi-marketplace, and ships a portfolio dashboard with role-based access. Pricing is flat monthly and never a percentage of ad spend.

Feature comparison

CapabilityAdsPlanePerpetua
Pricing modelFlat monthly, never % of spendFlat at entry; flat + % of ad spend at Growth tier
Auto-execution with per-action approvalYes, Approval Gate (web or Telegram)Auto-executes; no published approval gate
Versioned guardrail policyYes, seller-set hard capsAdvanced levers, no formal policy version
Shadow / preview modeYes, new accounts start in Shadow ModeNot publicly stated
Reconciliation + audit ledgerYes, append-only Execution LedgerNot publicly stated
Search-term harvestingYes, into new exact-match campaignsYes, automated keyword harvesting
Intraday optimizationYes, Rally-Control 2 to 6 runs/dayYes, via Amazon Marketing Stream
ML biddingYes, T3/T4, dayparting-awareYes, always-on goal-based bidding
Campaign creation from scratchNo, on roadmapGoal-based campaign launch
Channels (SP/SB/SD, DSP, Walmart)Amazon SP/SB/SD onlySP/SB/SBV/SD + DSP + Walmart + more
Multi-account / marketplaceYes, up to 10 accts / 6 marketplacesYes, multi-channel
Market-intelligence layerAMC + AMS dataCompetitor data, SoV, digital shelf, AMC
Support modelSelf-serve softwareSelf-serve or managed service

Pricing

PlanAdsPlanePerpetua
Entry / freeT1 Local Lite, $0 (local Shadow-Mode preview)No free tier published
StarterT2 Hosted Starter, $35/mo (30-day trial)Essentials, $695/mo for up to $10k/mo spend
GrowthT3 Hosted Growth, $79/moGrowth, $695/mo + % of ad spend, over $10k/mo
Pro / enterpriseT4 Hosted Pro, $235/moPremium, Custom, over $500k/mo spend
Self-hostedT5 Private Local Pro (annual)Not offered

The distinction is not the headline number but the model behind it. AdsPlane is flat monthly at every tier, so a $79/mo plan costs $79/mo whether you spend $5k or $50k. Perpetua's Essentials tier is a flat $695/mo for accounts up to $10k/mo in spend, but its main Growth tier is $695/mo plus an undisclosed percentage of ad spend, and Premium is custom and demo-gated. So the true cost of the tier most growing brands land on can't be calculated from the public page, and it rises with the very spend you are trying to optimize. Which model is cheaper depends on your spend level. Which is predictable does not.

What AdsPlane doesn't do (yet)

A few honest gaps matter specifically in this matchup:

Each of these is a scope choice. AdsPlane is built by a real Amazon seller (WOODFRESS cold-pressed oils, six-plus years on Amazon.in) and the full build is published openly as the book "The 5:30am Machine." It makes no guaranteed-sales claims. A better ads engine cannot fix weak products, listings, reviews, or inventory.

Which should you choose

Choose Perpetua if you are an established or high-spend brand or agency that wants broad multi-channel coverage — Amazon DSP and AMC plus Walmart and Sponsored Brands Video — with hands-off goal-based automation and a strong intelligence layer, and you are comfortable with flat-fee-plus-percentage-of-ad-spend pricing and a managed-service option.

Choose AdsPlane if you run Amazon SP/SB/SD with real volume and want deterministic, approve-before-execute control — Manifests, a versioned Guardrail Policy, Shadow Mode, Reconciliation, and an Execution Ledger — with flat monthly pricing that never scales with your ad spend.

Perpetua sells breadth and hands-off automation. AdsPlane sells control and predictable, flat pricing on the Amazon sponsored-ads funnel. Pick the one that matches how much you want to hand off.

For the wider field, see our ranking of the top 21 Amazon PPC tools or browse the best Perpetua alternatives.

Frequently asked questions

Is AdsPlane a good alternative to Perpetua?

Yes, if you run Amazon Sponsored Ads (SP/SB/SD) and want approve-before-execute control rather than hands-off goal-based automation. AdsPlane focuses on the Amazon sponsored-ads funnel with Manifests, a versioned Guardrail Policy, Shadow Mode, and an Execution Ledger, whereas Perpetua is broader across channels (Amazon DSP, Walmart) but does not publish an approval gate. It is a weaker fit if you need multi-channel coverage or a managed service.

How does AdsPlane's pricing compare to Perpetua?

AdsPlane is flat monthly and never a percentage of ad spend, ranging from a free T1 Local Lite tier to T2 at $35/mo, T3 at $79/mo, and T4 at $235/mo. Perpetua starts at a flat $695/mo Essentials tier for accounts up to $10k/mo in spend, but its main Growth tier is $695/mo plus an undisclosed percentage of ad spend, and Premium is custom and demo-gated.

Does Perpetua have an approval gate before changes go live?

No. Per our research, Perpetua uses goal-based always-on automation that auto-executes toward your target ACOS, exposing advanced levers but no published approval gate, Shadow Mode, dry-run, or versioned guardrail policy. AdsPlane requires every change to clear a versioned Guardrail Policy and an explicit Approval Gate (web or Telegram) before it goes live, and new accounts start in Shadow Mode that executes nothing.

Want to see the Runbook on your own account? Start a free trial → or see how it works →

← All posts