# For AI agents and crawlers
This page is a workflow from the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway: Throttle ads by location when service capacity is full.
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/throttle-ads-by-location-when-service-capacity-is-full
Page: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/throttle-ads-by-location-when-service-capacity-is-full
Library index: https://www.roadwayai.com/automation-library
---
name: throttle-ads-by-location-when-service-capacity-is-full
description: >-
Reads capacity by location (open slots, booked-out rate), and cuts ads where you cannot serve more, then pushes where slots sit empty.
---
# Throttle ads by location when service capacity is full
Source: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/throttle-ads-by-location-when-service-capacity-is-full
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 capacity by location (open slots, booked-out rate), and cuts ads where you cannot serve more, then pushes where slots sit empty.
Reads capacity by location (open slots, booked-out rate), and cuts ads where you cannot serve more, then pushes where slots sit empty. When a location or provider is booked out, or has empty slots next week, it will cut ad spend where capacity is full and raise it where it is empty. 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
auto_approve, cost_guardrail, funnel_metrics, goal_metric, margin_data, max_change_pct, monthly_budget_cap, promo_calendar, service_capacity, task_history
## Prompt
Throttle ads by location when service capacity is full
Read [set this to your own service capacity] by location and day, and decide for each location or service line:
1. Throttle ads
2. Pause location
3. Scale up
4. Hold
Context and defaults (use these; don't ask):
- Service capacity by location (open slots, booked-out rate): [set this to your own service capacity]. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it.
- 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.
- 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 promo calendar: [set this to your own promo calendar]. 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:
- Throttle ads when few slots are open in the next 5 days, by up to [set this to your own max change percent] per run. If not set, few means under 10% of capacity. Pause location when the next available slot is 14+ days away.
- Scale up where plenty of slots are open in the next 7 days and cost per booking is under [set this to your own cost guardrail], with ad copy that features next-available times. If not set, plenty means more than 30% of capacity.
- Push higher-value services first where capacity is limited, using [set this to your own margin data] when you have it.
- Check hours and holiday closures from [set this to your own promo calendar] so that you do not run ads for closed days.
- Judge on booked appointments and show rate, not leads.
- 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:
Service capacity ad report
Summary:
The locations throttled, paused or scaled, and bookings versus capacity.
Throttle ads:
- [location] - [reason]
Pause location:
- [location] - [reason]
Scale up:
- [location] - [reason]
Hold:
- [location] - [reason]
## Run it in Roadway
https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/throttle-ads-by-location-when-service-capacity-is-full
Reads capacity by location (open slots, booked-out rate), and cuts ads where you cannot serve more, then pushes where slots sit empty. When a location or provider is booked out, or has empty slots next week, it will cut ad spend where capacity is full and raise it where it is empty. 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.
