Troubleshoot "Limited by budget soon" status

Important: Starting August 17, 2026, Google is updating its bidding systems to deliver more consistent and predictable performance for campaigns that are limited by budget. If your campaigns use Target CPA or Target ROAS, these changes may cause temporary performance and traffic fluctuations. To learn how to prepare, review your settings, and use the new Bid Target Adjustment Tool (available starting on July 6, 2026), visit Changes to target based bid strategies.

“Limited by budget soon” is a forward-looking bid strategy status based on forecasted seasonal events that can increase traffic temporarily. For example, a seasonal event like Mother’s Day can temporarily increase traffic and potentially result in a “Budget constrained” status. Clicking on this status will open the “Budget simulator”, which will provide you with recommendations and the reason for showing the recommendation. Budget recommendations may apply to Enhanced CPC, Manual CPC, Target CPA, Target Impression Share, or Target ROAS campaign types.

Note: The recommendations appear as a result of the simulations that take into account budget scenarios. A recommendation appears because it shows a 5% or more decrease in future weekly traffic at your current budget.

• Where you’ll see it: A bid strategy can have a "Limited by budget soon" button in the campaign table, campaign settings, or in a single campaign view. It indicates that Google Ads has predicted your budget to be lower than the recommended average daily budget for forecasted increase in traffic.
• When does it appear: The “Limited by budget soon” button appears when the budget simulator detects that some of your campaigns may have budget constraints due to an expected increase in future traffic, which can cause a 5% or more decrease in weekly traffic at your current budget.
• What it means: A campaign with the “Limited by budget soon" button can outline the opportunities for you to increase your weekly traffic by increasing your budget.
• What to do next: Click the Budget simulator icon in your campaign table to review how much exposure your campaign might receive if you use a different budget.

Example

Let's say you set an average daily budget of $100 USD, and your campaign is getting about 180 clicks and spending $90 USD per day. Due to a seasonal event, you are now eligible to get 450 clicks at $150 USD. The bid simulator will then show the recommended future budget as $150 USD with a 150% increase in clicks.

If you don’t change your average daily budget, your ads might not capture the demand during the seasonal event.

Related links

• Fix “Limited by budget” status
• Tips for optimizing your average daily budget