UPDATE 2013-04-07: A big thank you to FoxSUP for helping me track down an issue with updating the budgets. Fixed line 78 to multiply the current budget by 1+to_change instead of just to_change. Also fixed a bug in calculating the change (line 76).
Here is a request from a reader:
I manage many small business PPC accounts, and some of these accounts have multiple campaigns, and they usually have a relatively small monthly click budget. I'm looking for a way to pause ALL campaigns if the entire account has spent over a certain amount month-to-date.
This is actually a pretty easy script to put together. Below is a script that will do just that. You can set the MONTHLY_BUDGET at the beginning of the script and run this script daily on your account. Once the campaigns have a total cost greater than the budget specified, it will pause all the campaigns in the account.
Then, on the first of the next month, it will enable those campaigns once again. If you make no changes to the script below, it should do just that. But let's go one step further.
You actually have the power to get and set your campaign budgets using scripts. So let's say your monthly budget is $100, but you want to make sure your ads are spaced out through the month. I have added a function below called _adjust_campaign_budget() which can be enabled through the flag ADJUST_BUDGETS at the top of the script.
The script will then attempt to calculate a run rate for your campaign to figure out if you are going to meet your budget or not. If you are going to go over, it will lower the budget of each campaign (weighted by campaign cost) so that you come in at your target. If you are going to under-spend, it will also attempt to increase your campaign budget to try to allow you to hit your goal. I have also added a _reset_budgets() function to the end that gets called on the first of the month. If you run this script more frequently, you should enable the code for checking if it is the first hour of the first day of the month.
Now understandably, this script comes with a few cautions. THIS SCRIPT MAY CAUSE YOU TO SPEND A LOT OF MONEY. I'm sure the campaigns I was testing this on were quite a bit smaller than your campaigns, with budgets to match.
Thanks,
Russ
/******************************************
* Keep Your Campaigns In Budget
* Version 1.1
* ChangeLog v1.1
* - cleaned up code
* - added ability for any dates
* Created By: Russ Savage
* FreeAdWordsScripts.com
******************************************/
// Let's set some constants
var MONTHLY_BUDGET = 5000.00;
//If you want to work with a monthly budget, leave START_DATE and END_DATE blank.
var TIMEFRAME = "THIS_MONTH";
//But if you want to work with a specific timeframe, fill these in.
//Use the format yyyyMMdd, so for Jan 12th, 2014, you would put 20140112.
var START_DATE = '';
var END_DATE = '';
//Set this to true if you want to adjust budgets or
//keep set to false if you want to just pause all the campaigns
//when you hit your budget
var ADJUST_BUDGETS = false;
var DECIMAL_PLACES = 3;
function main() {
var totalCostMTD = getTotalCost();
var isFirstOfTheMonth = ((new Date()).getDate() == 1);
if(START_DATE && END_DATE) {
var today = new Date();
today.setHours(0,0,0,0);
var startDate = new Date(START_DATE.substring(0,4),
parseFloat(START_DATE.substring(4,6))-1,
START_DATE.substring(6,8));
isFirstOfTheMonth = (startDate.getTime() == today.getTime());
}
//if you run this script more than once per day, uncomment the next line
//isFirstOfTheMonth = (isFirstOfTheMonth && ((new Date()).getHour() == 0));
Logger.log("Total cost: " + totalCostMTD +
", Monthly budget:" + MONTHLY_BUDGET +
", isFirstOfTheMonth: "+isFirstOfTheMonth);
if(ADJUST_BUDGETS) {
if(isFirstOfTheMonth) {
resetBudgets();
} else {
adjustCampaignBudget(totalCostMTD);
}
} else {
if(totalCostMTD >= MONTHLY_BUDGET) {
//If we have hit the limit, pause all ads
enableOrDisableCampaigns(true);
} else {
// let's check if it's the first day of the month
if((new Date()).getDate() == 1) {
//enable all the campaigns
enableOrDisableCampaigns(false);
}
}
}
}
// Returns the total cost for the set TIMEFRAME
function getTotalCost() {
var campIter = AdWordsApp.campaigns().get();
var totalCost = 0;
while(campIter.hasNext()) {
if(START_DATE && END_DATE) {
totalCost += campIter.next().getStatsFor(START_DATE,END_DATE).getCost();
} else {
totalCost += campIter.next().getStatsFor(TIMEFRAME).getCost();
}
}
return totalCost;
}
// Enables or Disables All Campaigns In Account
function enableOrDisableCampaigns(shouldDisable) {
var campIter = AdWordsApp.campaigns().get();
while(campIter.hasNext()) {
if(shouldDisable) {
campIter.next().pause();
} else {
campIter.next().enable();
}
}
}
// Calculates run rate and adjusts campaign bids as needed.
function adjustCampaignBudget(myTotalCost) {
var today = new Date();
// Accounting for December
var eom;
if(START_DATE && END_DATE) {
eom = new Date(END_DATE.substring(0,4),
parseFloat(END_DATE.substring(4,2))-1,
END_DATE.substring(6,2));
} else {
eom = (today.getMonth() == 11) ? new Date(today.getFullYear()+1,0,1) :
new Date(today.getFullYear(),today.getMonth()+1,1);
}
var daysLeft = Math.round((eom-today)/1000/60/60/24);
var daysSpent;
if(START_DATE && END_DATE) {
var startDate = new Date(START_DATE.substring(0,4),
parseFloat(START_DATE.substring(4,2))-1,
START_DATE.substring(6,2));
daysSpent = Math.round((today-startDate)/1000/60/60/24);
} else {
daysSpent = today.getDate();
}
var runRate = round(myTotalCost/daysSpent);
var projectedTotal = myTotalCost + (runRate * daysLeft);
var percOver = round((MONTHLY_BUDGET-projectedTotal)/projectedTotal);
changeSpend(percOver,myTotalCost);
}
//Adjusts the budget for a given campaign based on percentage of total spend
//Note: if the cost of a campaign is $0 mtd, the budget is not changed.
function changeSpend(percToChange,myTotalCost) {
var campIter = AdWordsApp.campaigns().withCondition("Status = ENABLED").get();
while(campIter.hasNext()) {
var camp = campIter.next();
var campCost = (START_DATE && END_DATE) ? camp.getStatsFor(START_DATE,END_DATE).getCost()
: camp.getStatsFor(TIMEFRAME).getCost();
var percOfTotal = round(campCost/myTotalCost);
//If there is no cost for the campaign, let's not change it.
var toChange = (percOfTotal) ? (percOfTotal*percToChange) : 0;
camp.setBudget(camp.getBudget()*(1+toChange));
}
}
// Resets the budget evenly across all campaigns
function resetBudgets() {
Logger.log('Resetting budgets at the first of the period.');
var campIter = AdWordsApp.campaigns().withCondition("Status = ENABLED").get();
var campCount = 0;
while(campIter.hasNext()) {
campCount++;
campIter.next();
}
campIter = AdWordsApp.campaigns().withCondition("Status = ENABLED").get();
while(campIter.hasNext()) {
campIter.next().setBudget(MONTHLY_BUDGET/campCount);
}
}
// A helper function to make rounding a little easier
function round(value) {
var decimals = Math.pow(10,DECIMAL_PLACES);
return Math.round(value*decimals)/decimals;
}