When using Increase, Decrease, Scale budget by target, and Set budget tasks in automation, it’s important to note that if several budget-modifying tasks are placed inside the same rule with “once a day” frequency cap, only one task can change the budget of a specific item (ad set, campaign, etc.) during one day.
In other words, the first task whose conditions are met will change the budget. After that, other budget-modifying tasks in the same rule won’t apply to that item until the next day.
Modifying the budget once per day max
If you want to make a budget modification based on the performance once a day max for each item, you can create one rule with multiple budget changing tasks inside. Each task would have a “once a day” frequency cap.
Since the task’s frequency cap applies to all budget-modifying tasks, “once a day” is the cumulative limit for all tasks inside the same rule. If an item’s budget has been changed by one of the tasks already during a day, other tasks won’t trigger for the same item even if the conditions are met.
Let’s say you want to increase an ad set's budget once a day, based on its daily budget spend pace by midday. This is to ensure it has a high enough budget to compete in the auction and be delivered to the right audience. Let’s take a look at this setup:
The rule will check every hour how the ad sets’ actual spend compares to its daily budget. Depending on the spend-to-budget proportion of each ad set, its budget will be adjusted no more than once a day by one of the tasks below:
Increase the budget by 10% once a day if the ad set’s spend is within 10-20% of the daily budget.
Increase the budget by 20% once a day if the ad set’s spend is within 20-30% of the daily budget.
Increase the budget by 30% once a day if the ad set’s spend is within 30-40% of the daily budget.
Increase the budget by 40% once a day if the ad set’s spend is equal to or more than 40% of the daily budget.
Applying multiple budget changes during a day
If you want the budget for each item to be modified multiple times a day, but limit each type of change to once a day, we recommend splitting the tasks into separate rules.
For example, if you want the budget to be increased and decreased based on its CPA, potentially applying both types of changes during the day, like decreasing it if the trend is negative, but leaving an opportunity for a budget boost if it improves later, you can create 2 rules with a ‘once a day’ cap each.
If you create two rules, each task will have its own frequency cap and a chance to affect the item separately. So, if you have a similar setup, all you have to do is separate the tasks to ensure each change takes place. By splitting the rule into two separate ones, one item’s budget can be:
Rule #1: increase by 10% once a day if:
0 < Cost per purchase ≤ $20 AND
ROAS ≥ 1 AND
Spend > $50
Rule #2: Decrease by 10% once a day if:
Cost per purchase > $25 AND
Spend > $50
OR
ROAS = 0 AND
Spend > $50
To sum it up, budget modification tasks with "Once a Day" frequency behave differently depending on how the rule is built.
If your setup has multiple budget-changing tasks with “Once a Day” frequency caps, only one budget change can be executed per item per day.
If your setup consists of multiple rules, each with one budget-changing task with "Once a Day" frequency cap, each rule can change the budget once per day.