by Arun Sinha

According to Google Ads, the amount you spend in a single day "for most campaigns" can be up to twice your daily spending limit based on your average monthly budget. For example, if your average daily budget is $100, Google Ads can spend up to $200 on days they find your ads are receiving high numbers of clicks and/or conversions.

Regardless of your daily spending limit, Google will never bill you for more than your monthly spending limit, or your average daily budget times 30.4.

While that's good to know, what if you're running a campaign for, say, only one week? It could be a campaign promoting an event or flash sale.

Let's say your campaign budget is $350 for the week, or $50 per day. Under Google Ads policies, you could end up spending $100 per day for the first two days—almost 30% of your total budget!

(Note: Even if your campaign start and end dates are one week apart, Google still multiplies your average daily budget by 30.4 to arrive at the monthly spending limit.)

So how do you stop Google from exhausting your campaign budget prematurely? By using Google Ads's automated rules.

With Google Ads rules, you can create one rule to pause your campaign when your daily spend reaches or exceeds a certain number, and another rule to restart the campaign the next day.

Here's how:

1. Log into your Google Ads account. Click Tools, then Bulk actions and Rules. Make sure you're in the Automated rules tab.

2. Click the blue + icon to create a new rule.

3. Select Campaign rules.

4. Give the rule a descriptive name that explains what the rule does.

5. Choose the campaign(s) the rule applies to.

6. Under Conditions, set the campaign status to Enabled.

7. Click Add condition.

) Google ads rules - adding actions

8. Select Performance, then Cost.

9. Enter the cost condition that will trigger the rule. If your daily budget is $50, as in the example above, enter >= $50.00 and click Apply.

When you set the frequency as Hourly (see step 11 below), there's a chance your spend might hit $50 early in the hour and keep adding clicks and costs until the campaign is paused at the end of the hour. To prevent these extra costs, enter an amount slightly less than $50.00.

10. Select the Action you want to occur, which is Pause campaigns.

Google ads rule to pause campaigns

11. Under Frequency, select Hourly, set the starting time for the rule, and use data from today.

12. Enter an email address if you want results emailed to you.

13. Click Save rule.

Restart Your Paused Google Ads Campaigns

To create a new rule that restarts your paused campaigns the following day, follow this process.

1. Go back to the Rules page. Make sure you're in the Automated rules tab. 2. Click the blue + icon to create a new rule.

3. Select Campaign rules.

4. Give the rule a descriptive name that explains what the rule does.

5. Choose the campaign(s) the rule applies to.

6. Under Conditions, set the campaign status to Enabled, Paused (if not already selected by default).

7. Select the Action you want to occur, which is Enable campaigns.

8. Under Frequency, select Daily, set the time the rule should run, and use data from yesterday.

Set up Google ads rules for daily runs

9. Enter an email address if you want results emailed to you.

10. Click Save rule.



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