# For AI agents and crawlers
This page is a workflow from the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway: Take over competitor terms when a rival goes dark in auction insights.
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/take-over-competitor-terms-when-a-rival-goes-dark-in-auction-insights
Page: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/take-over-competitor-terms-when-a-rival-goes-dark-in-auction-insights
Library index: https://www.roadwayai.com/automation-library
---
name: take-over-competitor-terms-when-a-rival-goes-dark-in-auction-insights
description: >-
Reads auction insights daily, and when a competitor drops out, raises bids and budgets on the terms they leave open while the gap lasts.
---
# Take over competitor terms when a rival goes dark in auction insights
Source: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/take-over-competitor-terms-when-a-rival-goes-dark-in-auction-insights
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
Reads auction insights daily, and when a competitor drops out, raises bids and budgets on the terms they leave open while the gap lasts.
Reads auction insights daily, and when a competitor drops out, raises bids and budgets on the terms they leave open while the gap lasts. When a competitor's impression share or overlap rate falls sharply in auction insights, it will take the open share on high-converting terms, and hold the gain only while it pays. It checks for this trigger every time it runs, so you can react 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
auction_insights, auto_approve, competitor_ad_insights, competitors, cost_guardrail, cost_per_goal_baseline, funnel_metrics, goal_metric, max_change_pct, min_sample_size, monthly_budget_cap, site_release_log, surge_budget_pct, task_history
## Prompt
Take over competitor terms when a rival goes dark in auction insights
Compare [set this to your own auction insights] for the last 7 days with the prior 28 days for each competitor in [set this to your own competitors], and decide for each campaign or ad group:
1. Take the open share
2. Test a small raise
3. Hold
4. Pull back
Context and defaults (use these; don't ask):
- Auction insights (impression share, overlap rate, position above rate by competitor): [set this to your own auction insights]. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it.
- Named competitors and their domains: [set this to your own competitors]. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it.
- 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 surge limit: [set this to your own surge budget percent] above the normal daily budget. If not set, 25%.
- Minimum conversions per variant before declaring a test: [set this to your own min sample size]. If not set, 30 conversions per variant.
- 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 site release log: [set this to your own site release log]. If no release log is connected, say so.
- Competitor ad snapshots: [set this to your own competitor ad insights]. If none are stored, pull them from the ad libraries or skip.
- 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:
- A competitor is "going dark" when its overlap rate or impression share falls clearly for 3 days, or it disappears from the auction on a term family you buy.
- Take the open share on terms where there is a clear rise in impression share you can still take (lost to rank or budget) and cost per goal is under [set this to your own cost per goal baseline]: raise budgets or bids up to the surge limit [set this to your own surge budget percent].
- Test a small raise on terms with fewer than [set this to your own min sample size] conversions, and hold on terms where your CPC already fell with their exit (less competition lowers CPC, so do not overpay).
- Pull back when the competitor returns (overlap is back near its old level) or cost per goal on the raised terms passes [set this to your own cost guardrail].
- Check [set this to your own site release log] and [set this to your own competitor ad insights] to tell a real exit from an ad schedule change, a budget cap or a tracking issue before acting.
- 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:
Auction share takeover report
Summary:
The competitors that went dark, the terms and budgets raised, and the gain.
Take the open share:
- [campaign] - [reason]
Test a small raise:
- [campaign] - [reason]
Hold:
- [campaign] - [reason]
Pull back:
- [campaign] - [reason]
## Run it in Roadway
https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/take-over-competitor-terms-when-a-rival-goes-dark-in-auction-insights
Reads auction insights daily, and when a competitor drops out, raises bids and budgets on the terms they leave open while the gap lasts. When a competitor's impression share or overlap rate falls sharply in auction insights, it will take the open share on high-converting terms, and hold the gain only while it pays. It checks for this trigger every time it runs, so you can react 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.
