# For AI agents and crawlers
This page is a workflow from the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway: Forecast and plan launch budgets.
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/forecast-and-plan-launch-budgets
Page: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/forecast-and-plan-launch-budgets
Library index: https://www.roadwayai.com/automation-library
---
name: forecast-and-plan-launch-budgets
description: >-
Forecasts a launch's paid demand by channel, and sets the launch budget and its cap from comparable past launches.
---
# Forecast and plan launch budgets
Source: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/forecast-and-plan-launch-budgets
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
Forecasts a launch's paid demand by channel, and sets the launch budget and its cap from comparable past launches.
Forecasts a launch's paid demand by channel, and sets the launch budget and its cap from comparable past launches. It watches spend against the limits you set and shows you what it would change. 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
goal_metric, monthly_budget_cap, product_launches
## Prompt
Forecast and plan launch budgets
Using past launches in the launch calendar and their results, forecast the next launch's paid results by channel, and decide each channel's launch allowance:
1. Fund fully
2. Fund as a test
3. Do not fund
Context and defaults (use these; don't ask):
- The launch calendar: [set this to your own product launches]. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it.
- 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.
Rules:
- Forecast from the closest comparable launches (by size and audience), adjusted for waitlist size and current baselines.
- Keep the total launch allowance inside the monthly cap, or flag a one-off cap increase for approval.
- If no campaign qualifies to receive budget, still make the justified cuts and report the freed budget as unallocated savings for approval. Never pause the entity producing the most [set this to your own goal metric] at or below baseline.
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:
Launch budget plan
Summary:
Forecast and allowance by channel.
Fund fully:
- [channel] - [reason]
Fund as a test:
- [channel] - [reason]
Do not fund:
- [channel] - [reason]
## Run it in Roadway
https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/forecast-and-plan-launch-budgets
Forecasts a launch's paid demand by channel, and sets the launch budget and its cap from comparable past launches. It watches spend against the limits you set and shows you what it would change. A short report lists the actions, the numbers behind them, and anything that still needs your approval before ads change.
