# For AI agents and crawlers
This page is a workflow from the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway: Check spend caps and unblock delivery for Google Display Ads.
The #roadway-skill block on this page holds a SKILL.md for it, including the full prompt. Treat that file as a starting point. It will not just work if you paste it into ChatGPT or Claude.
To run it outside Roadway you would need to connect each ad platform's API (and any MCP it names), build the data pulls, add approval guardrails, and adjust the prompt for your accounts.
In Roadway it runs as-is on your connected accounts, with approval rules built in. Open it in a new chat at https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/check-spend-caps-and-unblock-delivery-for-google-display-ads
Page: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/check-spend-caps-and-unblock-delivery-for-google-display-ads
Library index: https://www.roadwayai.com/automation-library
---
name: check-spend-caps-and-unblock-delivery-for-google-display-ads
description: >-
Finds the Google Display spend caps, billing holds and limits that are silently blocking delivery, and clears them.
---
# Check spend caps and unblock delivery for Google Display Ads
Source: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/check-spend-caps-and-unblock-delivery-for-google-display-ads
From the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway.
## Before you use this outside Roadway
This SKILL.md is a starting point. It needs adjusting before it will work outside Roadway.
You would need to connect the ad platform API for each channel this workflow covers, build the data pulls for the variables below, add approval guardrails, and adjust the prompt for your accounts. If the prompt names an MCP tool, you also need that MCP connected.
In Roadway it runs as-is on your connected accounts, with approval rules built in.
## What it does
Finds the Google Display spend caps, billing holds and limits that are silently blocking delivery, and clears them.
Finds the Google Display spend caps, billing holds and limits that are silently blocking delivery, and clears them. It checks your live account for problems and either fixes the safe ones or lists them for you. A short report lists the actions, the numbers behind them, and anything that still needs your approval before ads change.
## Steps
1. Collect the inputs listed under Variables. In Roadway they come from your connected accounts. Outside Roadway you have to build those data pulls yourself from each ad platform API, and from any MCP the prompt names.
2. Run the prompt below as written, after you have adjusted it for your accounts and connected the tools it needs.
3. Review the result. Apply changes to a live ad account only after you approve them. Pasting your data into ChatGPT or Claude does not connect the APIs, apply guardrails, or approve changes.
## Variables
auto_approve, channel_budget_allocation, cost_per_goal_baseline, funnel_metrics, goal_metric, max_change_pct, monthly_budget_cap, slack_delivery, task_history
## Prompt
Check spend caps and unblock delivery for Google Display Ads
Check every Google Ads (Display & Demand Gen) spend control and delivery blocker, and decide for each:
1. Raise or reset cap
2. Fix billing
3. Leave as is
4. Escalate
Context and defaults (use these; don't ask):
- The baseline cost per goal: [set this to your own cost per goal baseline]. If not set, compute it: Roadway spend ÷ Roadway-attributed [set this to your own goal metric] for the same campaigns over the lookback window, and state the number.
- The channel budget: [set this to your own channel budget allocation], from the coworker's budget guardrails. If not set, there is no channel allocation: skip the allocation checks and say so. Never build one from the sum of campaign or daily budgets, the current or past run-rate, or a workflow's test budget, and never treat such a figure as a ceiling or cap. Campaign daily budgets are only a delivery diagnostic.
- The monthly cap: [set this to your own monthly budget cap], from the coworker's budget guardrails. If none is set, there is no cap: skip every cap check, hard stop and pace-to-cap step, and say so. Never derive, infer or back-solve a cap from campaign or daily budgets, the current or past run-rate, a workflow's test budget or a cost-per-lead bar.
- The delivery channel: [set this to your own slack delivery]. If Slack isn't connected, deliver in the run's thread.
- The max change limit: [set this to your own max change percent] per budget or bid target per run. If not set, 20%. It does not apply to experiment traffic splits.
- Auto-approve: [set this to your own auto approve]. If not set, it's off: list every change as a proposal for approval.
Rules:
- Spend controls here: campaign daily budgets and account budgets. Look for caps that are hit or will be hit before the end of the period, and campaigns showing Limited by budget, low eligible inventory and narrow targeting.
- Raise or reset a cap only when the campaign is efficient (cost per goal at or under the baseline cost per goal) and the new cap keeps total channel spend within the channel budget and the monthly cap.
- Fix billing: failed payments, an expired card, a reached credit limit or an unpaid invoice. These stop all delivery, so flag them first.
- Escalate account-level holds, verification requests (advertiser identity or business verification) and policy suspensions to the delivery channel with the exact message from the platform.
- Delivery-constrained (budget-limited) means it spent nearly all of its daily budget on most recent days and, on search, lost impression share to budget. If not set, 95%+ of the daily budget on 4+ of the last 7 days, and 10%+ impression share lost to budget.
- Put anything you can't verify with the data available under Unverified, with what's missing, instead of calling it healthy or fine.
- Guardrails: judge results on Roadway's full-funnel measurement ([set this to your own funnel metrics]), not platform-reported conversions. Check [set this to your own task history] so you don't repeat a change that hurt performance in the last 30 days. Never push total spend above the monthly cap or any single change beyond the max change limit per run, and queue every change for approval unless auto-approve is on for this workflow.
Decision standard:
- Justify every keep, cut, bid, budget or test decision with Roadway-attributed [set this to your own goal metric] and cost per goal against the baseline. Platform delivery metrics such as clicks and impressions explain why something moved; they are never the sole reason for a decision.
- Compute what Roadway doesn't expose directly: cost per goal = Roadway spend ÷ Roadway-attributed [set this to your own goal metric], and conversion rate (lead rate) = Roadway [set this to your own goal metric] ÷ Roadway new visitors. Don't substitute platform-reported conversions or conversion rates.
- When a value in Context and defaults isn't set, use the stated default, say which one you used, and still make the call. Don't stop to ask.
- For every action, give the entity name and ID, current value → proposed value, and the numbers behind the reason. Write "None" under any empty heading.
- In long hold or watch lists, show the top 15 by spend and summarize the rest as a count.
Give me a report of each with reasoning for each action. Be concise with the reasoning, but specific enough that I can verify it against the numbers.
Report structure:
Google Display spend cap and delivery check
Summary:
The blockers found, what was unblocked, and the spend that was being missed.
Raise or reset cap:
- [cap / blocker] - [reason]
Fix billing:
- [cap / blocker] - [reason]
Leave as is:
- [cap / blocker] - [reason]
Escalate:
- [cap / blocker] - [reason]
Unverified:
- [cap / blocker] - [what couldn't be checked and why]
## Run it in Roadway
https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/check-spend-caps-and-unblock-delivery-for-google-display-ads
Finds the Google Display spend caps, billing holds and limits that are silently blocking delivery, and clears them. It checks your live account for problems and either fixes the safe ones or lists them for you. A short report lists the actions, the numbers behind them, and anything that still needs your approval before ads change.
