# For AI agents and crawlers
This page is a workflow from the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway: Pace daily spend against the budget cap for X 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/pace-daily-spend-against-the-budget-cap-for-x-ads
Page: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/pace-daily-spend-against-the-budget-cap-for-x-ads
Library index: https://www.roadwayai.com/automation-library
---
name: pace-daily-spend-against-the-budget-cap-for-x-ads
description: >-
Keeps X month-to-date spend on the curve that lands exactly at the channel budget, without overspend or a dead last week.
---
# Pace daily spend against the budget cap for X Ads
Source: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/pace-daily-spend-against-the-budget-cap-for-x-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
Keeps X month-to-date spend on the curve that lands exactly at the channel budget, without overspend or a dead last week.
Keeps X month-to-date spend on the curve that lands exactly at the channel budget, without overspend or a dead last week. It keeps spend inside 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
auto_approve, channel_budget_allocation, cost_guardrail, funnel_metrics, goal_metric, max_change_pct, monthly_budget_cap, seasonality_calendar, task_history
## Prompt
Pace daily spend against the budget cap for X Ads
Compare X Ads Manager month-to-date spend against the ideal pacing curve for the channel budget this month, and decide for each campaign:
1. Slow down
2. Speed up
3. On pace
4. Hard stop
Context and defaults (use these; don't ask):
- 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 seasonality calendar: [set this to your own seasonality calendar]. If not set, assume no seasonal adjustment and say so.
- 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 cost guardrail: [set this to your own cost guardrail], from the coworker's Guardrails. If not set, 1.3x the baseline cost per goal. A workflow qualification bar (for example "cost per lead under $100 to build a page") is not a ceiling.
- 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:
- Ideal pace = channel budget × (days elapsed / days in month), adjusted for weekday patterns and the seasonality calendar.
- Slow down when projected month-end spend is over the allocation. If not set, more than 105% of the allocation. Cut the budgets of the least efficient campaigns first and protect brand and the best performers. Remember that campaign daily and total budgets and the funding instrument limit.
- Speed up when projected spend is clearly under the budget and the efficient campaigns are budget-limited. If not set, under 90%. Never speed up inefficient campaigns just to spend the money.
- Hard stop: if spend will cross the monthly cap or the channel allocation before month end at current pace, cap budgets so the projection lands on the allocation. Cut the worst cost per goal first and pause only campaigns above the cost guardrail; keep the best [set this to your own goal metric] producer running at a reduced budget unless the cap is already exhausted.
- Check pacing once a day, not intraday: projected month-end spend = month-to-date spend + (average of the last 7 days x days left). Adjust only when the projection is meaningfully off the channel budget. If not set, more than 5% off.
- 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.
- Delivery-constrained (budget-limited) means it spent nearly all of its daily budget on most recent days. If not set, 95%+ of the daily budget on 4+ of the last 7 days.
- 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:
X pacing report
Summary:
Month-to-date spend vs plan, projected month-end, and the budget changes proposed.
Slow down:
- [campaign] - [reason]
Speed up:
- [campaign] - [reason]
On pace:
- [campaign] - [reason]
Hard stop:
- [campaign] - [reason]
## Run it in Roadway
https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/pace-daily-spend-against-the-budget-cap-for-x-ads
Keeps X month-to-date spend on the curve that lands exactly at the channel budget, without overspend or a dead last week. It keeps spend inside 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.
