# For AI agents and crawlers
This page is a workflow from the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway: Pull spend from products and campaigns with high return rates.
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/pull-spend-from-products-and-campaigns-with-high-return-rates
Page: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/pull-spend-from-products-and-campaigns-with-high-return-rates
Library index: https://www.roadwayai.com/automation-library
---
name: pull-spend-from-products-and-campaigns-with-high-return-rates
description: >-
Watches return and refund rates by product, campaign and audience, and cuts the spend that brings buyers who send things back.
---
# Pull spend from products and campaigns with high return rates
Source: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/pull-spend-from-products-and-campaigns-with-high-return-rates
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
Watches return and refund rates by product, campaign and audience, and cuts the spend that brings buyers who send things back.
Watches return and refund rates by product, campaign and audience, and cuts the spend that brings buyers who send things back. When return rate for a product or campaign climbs above your category norm, it will cut or exclude it from prospecting, and fix the promise that caused it. It keeps watching for this trigger, so you can respond within hours instead of at the next review. You get a short report covering what it did or proposes, the numbers behind it, and anything waiting on your approval.
## 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
approved_claims, auto_approve, funnel_metrics, goal_metric, margin_data, max_change_pct, monthly_budget_cap, return_rates, return_target, task_history
## Prompt
Pull spend from products and campaigns with high return rates
Read [set this to your own return rates] by product, campaign and audience for the last 30-60 days, and decide for each:
1. Cut budget
2. Exclude from prospecting
3. Fix the ad promise
4. Keep
Context and defaults (use these; don't ask):
- Return rates by product and category: [set this to your own return rates]. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it.
- Target return on ad spend for revenue goals: [set this to your own return target]. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it.
- The approved claims: [set this to your own approved claims]. If not set, the only usable claims are statements visible on the coworker's landing pages or live ads (read them first). Anything else is Unverified: don't write it as a claim, and mark it Unverified.
- Product margin data (price, cost of goods, shipping cost): [set this to your own margin data]. 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.
- 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:
- Net revenue = revenue - refunds and returns, adjusted for return lag. Judge return on spend on net revenue, not gross.
- A problem is a return rate 1.5x the category average with 50+ orders, or a campaign whose net return on spend falls under [set this to your own return target] after returns.
- Cut budget by up to [set this to your own max change percent] for products whose net return on spend is under break-even. Exclude from prospecting when the return reason is quality or fit that ads cannot fix.
- Fix the ad promise when returns say "not as described": check the ad creative, sizing claims and page copy against [set this to your own approved claims] and update them.
- Keep when the return rate is high but the margin in [set this to your own margin data] and repeat purchase rate make it profitable.
- 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:
Return rate spend report
Summary:
The products and campaigns flagged, the spend changes, and net return on spend effect.
Cut budget:
- [product or campaign] - [reason]
Exclude from prospecting:
- [product or campaign] - [reason]
Fix the ad promise:
- [product or campaign] - [reason]
Keep:
- [product or campaign] - [reason]
## Run it in Roadway
https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/pull-spend-from-products-and-campaigns-with-high-return-rates
Watches return and refund rates by product, campaign and audience, and cuts the spend that brings buyers who send things back. When return rate for a product or campaign climbs above your category norm, it will cut or exclude it from prospecting, and fix the promise that caused it. It keeps watching for this trigger, so you can respond within hours instead of at the next review. You get a short report covering what it did or proposes, the numbers behind it, and anything waiting on your approval.
