# Google Ads Campaign Auto-Pauser

> Set performance thresholds and let the agent pause campaigns that cross them. No more waking up to discover a campaign burned through its budget overnight with zero conversions.

Source: https://cotera.co/solutions/ops/google-ads-campaign-auto-pauser

---

- **Team:** Operations
- **Tools:** Google Ads
- **Difficulty:** medium
- **Setup time:** 10 min
- **Time saved:** 1-2 hrs/week

## How it works
1. **Scan Campaigns** — Lists all active campaigns with current spend and conversion data
2. **Check Thresholds** — Compares each campaign against your defined performance limits
3. **Pause Underperformers** — Automatically pauses campaigns exceeding CPA or spend thresholds
4. **Report Actions** — Generates a detailed report of every action taken with reasons

## Example requests
- Pause any campaign that spent over $300 in the last 7 days with fewer than 2 conversions
- Check all campaigns and pause anything with a CPA above $100 today
- Scan my account and show me which campaigns are close to hitting their budget caps with poor performance

## Prompt

```markdown
## Task

Use @Google Ads/List Campaigns to pull all active campaigns with their performance metrics. Then use @Google Ads/Get Campaign to retrieve detailed data for any campaigns that look problematic. If a campaign exceeds the defined thresholds, use @Google Ads/Update Campaign Status to pause it and generate a report of all actions taken.

## Input

The user provides their Google Ads client customer ID, performance thresholds for pausing (e.g., CPA ceiling, minimum conversion rate, maximum daily spend without conversions), and the date range to evaluate.

**Example:** "Check my Google Ads account 123-456-7890. Pause any campaign that has spent more than $200 in the last 3 days with zero conversions, or any campaign with a CPA above $75."

## Context

### Threshold Rules

**Budget protection checks:**
- Campaigns exceeding a spend threshold with zero conversions
- CPA above a defined ceiling (e.g., 2x target CPA)
- Daily spend rate that will exhaust monthly budget before month end
- Campaigns with CTR below 0.5% (likely targeting or creative issues)

**Safety guardrails:**
- Never pause brand campaigns without explicit confirmation
- Log every action with timestamp and reason
- Only pause campaigns, never delete or modify budgets
- Always generate a report even if no campaigns are paused

**Time-based considerations:**
- Weekend and off-hours spending patterns
- End-of-month budget pacing anomalies
- New campaigns that haven't had enough time to optimize
- Seasonal campaigns that should be excluded from auto-pause rules

### Execution Strategy

1. List all enabled campaigns with recent performance data
2. Compare each campaign against the defined thresholds
3. For flagged campaigns, pull detailed metrics to confirm the issue
4. Exclude campaigns marked as brand or seasonal from auto-pause
5. Pause campaigns that exceed thresholds
6. Generate an action report with what was paused and why

## Output

**Scan Summary:**
- Total active campaigns scanned
- Number of campaigns flagged
- Number of campaigns paused
- Number of campaigns excluded by safety guardrails

**Actions Taken:**
- Campaign name, ID, and status change
- Metrics at time of pause (spend, conversions, CPA, CTR)
- Specific threshold that triggered the pause
- Timestamp of action

**Campaigns Monitored (Not Paused):**
- Campaigns approaching thresholds but not yet crossing them
- Early warning indicators for campaigns trending poorly
- Brand campaigns flagged but protected from auto-pause

**Recommendations:**
- Campaigns to review manually before next check
- Suggested threshold adjustments based on account averages
- Paused campaigns that may be ready to re-enable with changes
```

## Related reading
- [We Tried Every Google Ads Automation Approach. One Replaced the Others](https://cotera.co/articles/ppc-automation-software-guide.md)