Budget bid strategy won't spend targeted amount

A budget bid strategy optimizes budgets and bids to spend the targeted amount and any custom amounts, but sometimes a budget bid strategy can't do both. This means that the budget bid strategy will overspend or underspend, or even stop spending.

Budget strategy will overspend or underspend

The custom allocations that remain in the plan will prevent the budget bid strategy from spending to match the desired amount because the budget strategy will set budgets and bids to spend each remaining custom amount and sacrifice the plan’s budget.

Edit target spend or custom allocations in the plan

To edit the target spend or custom allocations in the plan, do the following:

1. Sign in to your Search Ads 360 experience.
2. Navigate to a manager or sub-manager account.
3. In the left page menu, click Bidding & Planning.
4. Click All plans in the sub-menu.
5. Locate your campaign in the table and click its checkbox.
6. In the bar above the table, click Edit, then select Edit Plans in the dropdown.
7. On the “Adjust forecast” page, update Date range, Key metric and Campaigns. Click Continue.
8. To edit target spend, do the following:
   1. On the “Set up plan” page, enter your new spend target in the “Amount” box.
   2. Click Update plan.
9. To edit custom allocations, do the following:
   1. On the “Set up plan” page, click the pencil icon in the Performance targets section.
   2. In the “Spend allocation” window, click Set custom spend.
   3. Select a date range and your custom amount.
   4. Click Done.
   5. Click Update plan.

Entire budget spent before end of plan

Scenario: The budget bid strategy spent the entire budget before the end of the plan. The budget bid strategy will reduce spending severely. If you want your campaigns to run for the length of the plan, increase the budget. If you want to wait until the next plan starts, you aren't required to change anything in either plan.

Edit the plan to increase the budget

To increase the budget of your plan, do the following:

1. Sign in to your Search Ads 360 experience.
2. Navigate to a manager or sub-manager account.
3. In the left page menu, click Bidding & Planning.
4. Click All plans in the sub-menu.
5. Locate your campaign in the table and click its checkbox.
6. In the bar above the table, click Edit, then select Edit Plans in the dropdown.
7. On the “Adjust forecast” page, enter your new amount in the “Spend” column.
   • Alternatively, you can enter your new amount in the “Your Plan” window or in the Performance targets section on the “Set up plan” page.