# Raise and lower budgets

> Move daily budgets up or down as demand and results change, so budget follows the campaigns that are earning it.

This automation moves daily budgets both ways. It raises the budget of campaigns that are spending
everything you give them and performing, and lowers the budget of campaigns that are not spending
what they have.

If you only want budgets to go up, use
[Raise budgets that run out](/docs/automations/raise-budgets-on-limited-campaigns) instead.
The two are not meant to run together on the same campaigns.

## How it decides

Like its counterpart, this automation works from **how much of its budget a campaign spends**: what
it spent over a window, compared with what its daily budget allowed across that window. You pick the
window under **Measured over**: 2, 3, 7, 14 or 30 days, with 7 as the default. A budget that follows
demand has to react quickly, so the shorter windows suit this automation better than they suit its
counterpart.

There are two figures, one at each end:

- Above **Raise when budget spent is above**, the campaign is using its budget and is a candidate
  for more.
- Below **Lower when budget spent is below**, it is not using what it has and is a candidate for
  less.

Between the two, nothing happens. That gap is deliberate: without it, a campaign sitting near one
number would be adjusted every single run.

Either direction can be switched off independently, so you can run it as increase only or decrease
only while you build confidence.

## Performance checks

**Minimum conversions** applies in both directions. Below it, the campaign is left alone.

**Performance check** then decides which results are looked at, and this is where the automation is
cleverer than it first looks. The checks are read in the direction of the change:

- Increasing asks whether performance is **good enough to deserve more** budget.
- Decreasing asks whether performance is **poor enough to justify less**.

So a minimum ROAS of 400% means "raise only campaigns bringing in at least four times what they
spend" and "lower only campaigns below that". The same number, read from both sides. ROAS is entered
as a percentage; CPA (cost per acquisition) is an amount in the account currency.

Set the check to match how you judge the account. It is a dropdown with three options, and only the
target for the one you pick is shown:

- **No performance check** looks at results not at all. How much of the budget was spent decides.
- **ROAS** uses the minimum ROAS.
- **CPA** uses the maximum CPA.

A target of 0 skips the check. A campaign with spend and no conversions has no ROAS and no CPA, and
fails a check rather than passing it.

## Conversion lag

Conversions arrive after the click, sometimes days after. Judging a window that runs up to
yesterday makes recent performance look worse than it is, and would have the automation cutting
budget on campaigns that are actually fine.

**Conversion lag** shifts the data window back by that many days, so the automation reads a period
whose conversions have mostly landed. Set it to roughly how long your conversions typically take.

## How much it moves

Each change is a percentage of the current daily budget, clamped between a smallest and a largest
amount in the account currency. The largest always wins, so the automation cannot move a budget
further than you allowed even if the smallest is set higher than the largest by mistake.

A campaign is never left on a zero or negative budget, since that would pause it. If a change would
do that, it is skipped.

## Settings

**Filters** restricts the automation to campaigns carrying a campaign label.

**Date range** holds the window budget spent is measured over and the conversion lag.

**Thresholds** holds the two budget-spent figures, minimum conversions and the performance check
with its target.

**Actions** holds the two direction switches, how much each change moves the budget, and its
smallest and largest amounts.

## Suggested approach

Start with decreases switched off. Increases are easier to judge, since you can see whether the
campaigns being raised are ones you would have raised.

Widen the gap between the two figures if you see the same campaigns being changed every run. A narrow
gap makes the automation restless.

Every run changes budgets in Google Ads, so read the reason column on the first few. It names how
much of the budget the campaign spent and the figure it passed, which is the quickest way to tell
whether your settings are where you think they are.