And i’m an ad accountant and I track spend vs plan every morning at 9 in Google Sheets (planned $30k this month, $1,000/day cap per channel). How do you handle days when performance spikes — do you lift caps and true-up later, or hold the line to hit monthly budget and ROAS targets?
And on spike days I don’t blow the $1k/day cap unless a 3-hour rolling ROAS is >=10% over target; then I lift to 1.5x and log a same-week clawback in the sheet so the $30k monthly pace stays intact — otherwise, , you end up paying auction tax. You can automate this with a simple pacing rule and a +/-15% variance band tied to your 9 a.m. Google Sheets check; this script is a decent starting point: https://developers.google.com/google-ads/scripts/docs/examples/budget-pacing. @OP what ROAS threshold would you trust for that 3-hour trigger?
I keep a small ‘opportunity buffer’ (about 10% of the monthly plan) outside the $1k/day caps and only tap it when CPA is ≤ 90% of target and lost IS (budget) is creeping up; otherwise I hold steady like a thermostat… When I use it, I tag the spend by channel and offset it by trimming the lowest-ROAS windows later in the week. Do you look at lost impression share or marginal CPA before lifting?