# For AI agents and crawlers
This page is a workflow from the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway: Up budgets when competitor status pages go down for Google Search 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/up-budgets-when-competitor-status-pages-go-down-for-google-search-ads
Page: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/up-budgets-when-competitor-status-pages-go-down-for-google-search-ads
Library index: https://www.roadwayai.com/automation-library
---
name: up-budgets-when-competitor-status-pages-go-down-for-google-search-ads
description: >-
An opt-in workflow that watches competitor status pages and, during a major outage, proposes a surge of Google Search spend on switch-intent audiences with pre-approved copy. Every surge waits for your approval, even if auto-approve is on.
---
# Up budgets when competitor status pages go down for Google Search Ads
Source: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/up-budgets-when-competitor-status-pages-go-down-for-google-search-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
An opt-in workflow that watches competitor status pages and, during a major outage, proposes a surge of Google Search spend on switch-intent audiences with pre-approved copy. Every surge waits for your approval, even if auto-approve is on.
An opt-in workflow that watches competitor status pages and, during a major outage, proposes a surge of Google Search spend on switch-intent audiences with pre-approved copy. Every surge waits for your approval, even if auto-approve is on. 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, competitor_status_pages, competitors, cost_guardrail, cost_per_goal_baseline, funnel_metrics, goal_metric, max_change_pct, monthly_budget_cap, social_mentions, surge_budget_pct, task_history, top_landing_pages
## Prompt
Up budgets when competitor status pages go down for Google Search Ads
Check competitor status pages for active incidents. For each competitor, decide the Google Search response:
1. Surge now
2. Prepare but hold
3. Wind down surge
4. No action
Context and defaults (use these; don't ask):
- Competitor status pages: [set this to your own competitor status pages]. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it.
- Social mentions: [set this to your own social mentions]. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it. Source: public posts the agent can read, or a connected social MCP. Roadway has no native Meta, X or Reddit mention feed.
- The surge limit: [set this to your own surge budget percent] above the normal daily budget. If not set, 25%.
- 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 [set this to your own cost per goal baseline]. A workflow qualification bar (for example "cost per lead under $100 to build a page") is not a ceiling.
- The top landing pages: [set this to your own top landing pages]. If not set, rank pages by Roadway lead rate ([set this to your own goal metric] ÷ new visitors) for the same intent over the lookback window.
- 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:
- Never surge on your own. Every surge waits for a person's approval, even when auto-approve is on.
- Surge only for a major or partial outage affecting core functionality that has lasted 2+ hours or is trending on social mentions. Ignore scheduled maintenance and minor degraded performance.
- Raise budgets and loosen targets on competitor campaigns (bidding on [set this to your own competitors] brand terms and "[set this to your own competitors] down", "alternative" or "status" queries) and on high-intent category campaigns. Switch in pre-approved "having issues with X?" RSA headlines that are allowed under Google Ads trademark policy, and never use the competitor's trademark in ad text where it is restricted.
- Size the surge to at most the surge limit above normal daily budget for the duration of the incident plus 24-48 hours, and stay within the monthly cap.
- Wind down when the status page shows resolved for 24+ hours or cost per goal on surge campaigns rises above the cost guardrail. Prepare but hold when an incident is starting and not yet confirmed.
- Send the landing traffic to a migration or comparison page from the top landing pages, not the homepage.
- 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:
Google Search competitor outage response report
Summary:
The active competitor incidents, the surge applied (budget, campaigns, copy), and the results during the window.
Surge now:
- [competitor] - [reason]
Prepare but hold:
- [competitor] - [reason]
Wind down surge:
- [competitor] - [reason]
No action:
- [competitor] - [reason]
## Run it in Roadway
https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/up-budgets-when-competitor-status-pages-go-down-for-google-search-ads
Up budgets when competitor status pages go down for Google Search Ads
Up budgets when competitor status pages go down for Google Search Ads
An opt-in workflow that watches competitor status pages and, during a major outage, proposes a surge of Google Search spend on switch-intent audiences with pre-approved copy. Every surge waits for your approval, even if auto-approve is on.
An opt-in workflow that watches competitor status pages and, during a major outage, proposes a surge of Google Search spend on switch-intent audiences with pre-approved copy. Every surge waits for your approval, even if auto-approve is on. 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.
