# For AI agents and crawlers
This page is a workflow from the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway: Shift budget to what's converting during demand surges.
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/shift-budget-to-whats-converting-during-demand-surges
Page: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/shift-budget-to-whats-converting-during-demand-surges
Library index: https://www.roadwayai.com/automation-library
---
name: shift-budget-to-whats-converting-during-demand-surges
description: >-
When conversion rate jumps on a channel or campaign (seasonality, press, a launch, a competitor stumble), moves budget to what is converting in measured steps while the surge lasts, inside the cap.
---
# Shift budget to what's converting during demand surges
Source: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/shift-budget-to-whats-converting-during-demand-surges
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
When conversion rate jumps on a channel or campaign (seasonality, press, a launch, a competitor stumble), moves budget to what is converting in measured steps while the surge lasts, inside the cap.
When conversion rate jumps on a channel or campaign (seasonality, press, a launch, a competitor stumble), moves budget to what is converting in measured steps while the surge lasts, inside the cap. 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
auto_approve, channel_budget_allocation, cost_guardrail, funnel_metrics, goal_metric, max_change_pct, monthly_budget_cap, surge_budget_pct, task_history
## Prompt
Shift budget to what's converting during demand surges
Check every campaign for a conversion-rate anomaly vs. its 28-day baseline over the last 24-72 hours, and decide for each:
1. Shift budget in
2. Hold
3. Shift budget back
4. Ignore
Context and defaults (use these; don't ask):
- The surge limit: [set this to your own surge budget percent] above the normal daily budget. If not set, 25%.
- 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 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:
- A surge is real when the conversion rate is clearly above baseline on 2+ consecutive days, the attributed [set this to your own goal metric] confirms it (not just platform conversions), and the jump isn't explained by a tracking change. If not set, 30%+ above baseline.
- Shift budget in from campaigns with the worst cost of the next goal, by at most the max change limit per campaign per step and up to the surge limit over the surging campaign's normal daily budget, inside the channel budget and the monthly cap. Wait 3+ days between steps on the same campaign.
- Shift budget back in steps too, when the conversion rate falls back near baseline, or cost per goal on the extra spend passes the cost guardrail. Never swing a campaign up and back down inside 3 days.
- Ignore single-day spikes and low-volume campaigns with fewer than 15 conversions in the window.
- 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:
Demand surge reallocation report
Summary:
The surges found, the budget moved and where it came from, and the result on cost per [set this to your own goal metric].
Shift budget in:
- [campaign] - [reason]
Hold:
- [campaign] - [reason]
Shift budget back:
- [campaign] - [reason]
Ignore:
- [campaign] - [reason]
## Run it in Roadway
https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/shift-budget-to-whats-converting-during-demand-surges
Shift budget to what's converting during demand surges
Shift budget to what's converting during demand surges
When conversion rate jumps on a channel or campaign (seasonality, press, a launch, a competitor stumble), moves budget to what is converting in measured steps while the surge lasts, inside the cap.
When conversion rate jumps on a channel or campaign (seasonality, press, a launch, a competitor stumble), moves budget to what is converting in measured steps while the surge lasts, inside the cap. 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.
