Account budgets are required for advertisers who pay by monthly invoicing. They can be used to control the amount spent over a period of time. This article will show you how to create, edit, and remove an account budget.
Before you begin
- To create an account budget, you need to log in with Admin, Standard, or Billing-only access to the paying manager account and from there, navigate to the client account.
- The paying manager account needs to be linked to the payments profile. Learn more about payments profile link types and permissions.
Create a new budget
- Sign in to your Google Ads manager account.
- Click the Accounts icon , then click Performance.
- Select the client account where you want to create the budget.
- Click the Billing icon , then click Account budgets.
- Click the blue plus button.
- In the “Service agreement” section choose Use master service agreement to apply the contract to all future budgets. Otherwise, select Create budget service agreement.
- If you select Create budget service agreement you will need to select the agreement language and an email for a payments contact.
- In the "Budget amount" field, select Unlimited if you don't want the total spend for all your Google Ads campaigns to be limited to a particular amount. If you'd rather limit the combined amount that all your Google Ads campaigns spend, select the second option next to "Budget amount" and enter your amount.
- Select a Requested start date and, if applicable, an End date.
- Enter the Budget name and, if you'd like, the Purchase order, Notes, or both.
- Click Save.
Your account will stop serving ads if your budget is spent or a specific end date is reached. Check your account budgets regularly to make sure that your ads continue serving.
Remove, end, or edit a budget
Want to change an account budget? Just follow these steps:
- Sign in to your Google Ads manager account.
- Click the Accounts icon , then click Performance.
- Select the client account where you want to update the budget.
- Click the Billing icon , then click Account budgets.
- Click the blue plus button.
- Find the budget order you'd like to remove, end, or edit.
Your past budget can’t be edited under the following circumstances:
- More than 90 days have passed since the end date
- Another live budget is already active in the account
- A new active budget is created above it in the account
- Once you find the budget, look under the "Actions" column. To remove a budget that's pending activation or review, click Cancel. To end an active budget order, click End.
- To edit a budget, click Edit. Here you can change your budget, end date, budget name, purchase order, or notes.
- When finished, click Save.
If you edit an active budget, or one that's pending activation or review, you'll see this reflected in the table on the Account budgets page. Just look at the original budget in the table; you'll see the requested changes in italics right below. If you click Cancel the original budget will stand. If you remove the original budget, both the budget and the change request will be removed.
Created account budget but ads aren’t serving
Sometimes you might find that your ads aren't serving after you've created an account budget. Besides reaching your end date or your spend amount, here are some other reasons why this can happen:
- Your campaigns might be created and your ads are ready, but no ads will serve until you've reached the start date. Usually, we recommend setting the requested start date as soon as possible. Wait for the start date to arrive or adjust it on your budget order by following the steps below:
- In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon .
- Click Account budgets.
- Find your order and under the column "Action", click Edit.
- Your account budget might be pending approval and activation. For example, if a service agreement is required, the budget will be "Under review" until the agreement is accepted and approved. Once all the required steps are completed, the budget status will turn to "Pending". When it reaches the requested start date, it'll become "Active", allowing your ads to serve. Wait for the account budget to be approved and activated.
If you've reached the start date for your budget and your budget has been approved and activated, troubleshoot to find out why you may not see your ad.