Budget Headroom Report
Finds the reallocation hiding in plain sight: efficient campaigns losing volume to budget caps, idle budgets that could fund them, and full budgets funding poor CPAs.
by Dmytro Tonkikh·chiliad.io
Overview
Budget Headroom Report cross-references three signals per campaign — impression share lost to budget, average daily budget utilization, and CPA vs the account average — and produces three lists: STARVED WINNERS (efficient campaigns capped by budget, where extra money buys efficient volume), IDLE BUDGET (campaigns using well under their daily budget), and FUNDED LOSERS (near-full budgets converting far above the account CPA). Together they make the budget-shift decision nearly mechanical.
Setup
- 1Open your Google Ads account and go to Tools → Bulk Actions → Scripts.
- 2Click the + button to create a new script and paste the code below.
- 3Tune the three thresholds to your account's scale.
- 4Set EMAIL_ADDRESS to be alerted when efficient campaigns are being starved.
- 5Preview once to verify, then schedule weekly.
Configuration Variables
| Variable | Default |
|---|---|
DATE_RANGE | LAST_30_DAYS |
BUDGET_LOST_MIN_PCT | 10 |
IDLE_UTILIZATION_PCT | 60 |
CPA_LOSER_MULTIPLIER | 1.5 |
MIN_COST |
Expected Output
=== Budget Headroom Report (LAST_30_DAYS) === Account CPA: 41.20 Campaigns: 24 --- STARVED WINNERS - efficient campaigns losing volume to budget (1) --- Brand — Exact budget lost IS: 22.4% CPA: 29.88 daily budget: 80.00 --- IDLE BUDGET - campaigns using under 60% of daily budget (2) --- Display — Remarketing using 34% of 50.00/day (avg spend 17.10) --- FUNDED LOSERS - full budgets, poor CPA (1) --- Competitor — Phrase spend: 1240.55 CPA: 96.11 (account avg 41.20) Suggested move: shift budget from the idle/loser lists into the starved winners, in 10-20% steps, and re-check in a week. Email sent to you@example.com
Notes
Budget-lost impression share is a Search metric, so Display/Video campaigns can only appear in the idle and loser lists. Campaigns on shared budgets are marked — move money at the pool level for those. Make shifts in 10-20% steps; doubling a budget overnight destabilizes Smart Bidding.