Fix "Limited by budget" bid adjustments

This article will help you understand and resolve the "Limited by budget" status.This status indicates your average daily budget is lower than the recommended amount, potentially limiting your campaign's performance. We'll cover common reasons why this status appears and how to address it.

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Understanding the "Limited by budget" status
Considerations before troubleshooting
Resolve common issues
FAQs

Understanding the "Limited by budget" status

“Limited by budget” is a campaign status indicating that your average daily budget is lower than the recommended amount to capture all available impressions and clicks for your current settings. This can happen for various reasons, including:

Bid adjustments: Increasing your bids (for example, for specific locations, devices, or audiences) can make your ads eligible for more auctions. If your budget doesn't increase proportionally, it can become limited.
Bid strategy choice: Some automated bid strategies, like Target CPA or Target ROAS, might aim for outcomes that require higher bids. If your budget isn't sufficient to support these bids consistently, you might find this status.
Low initial budget: Simply setting a daily budget that's too low for your targeting and keyword competitiveness can lead to this status.

Considerations before troubleshooting

A campaign that's "limited by budget" can still be successful and help you meet your advertising goals. However, if your campaign becomes "limited by budget" after setting a bid adjustment, consider increasing your budget to increase clicks, or lowering your bid adjustments to get more clicks within your budget.
Some bid adjustments may be ignored when using select automated bidding strategies. Location, time, audience, call and demographic bid adjustments are all ignored by most automated bidding strategies, with the exception of Maximize clicks.

Resolve common issues

When your bid strategy is "limited by budget,” ads aren't regularly showing as often as they could. Here’s what you can do to resolve these issues:

Click the budget simulator in the campaigns table to review how much exposure your campaign might receive if you use a different budget. You can also lower your bid adjustment to try to fit more clicks or video views within your budget.

Example

Let's say you set a bid of $1 and an average daily budget of US$100, and your campaign is getting about 200 clicks and spending US$95 per day (it isn't “limited by budget”). Then, you set a bid adjustment that results in a +100% increase for searches in Chicago on mobile devices for a resulting bid of US$2.00.

Since your increased resulting bid causes your ad to be eligible for more auctions, you would need to spend US$150 to acquire all the possible clicks for your newly available traffic. But if your average daily budget remains US$100, your traffic will be "limited by budget." If you don’t change your average daily budget, your ads might get fewer clicks.

FAQs

Where can I check if my campaign is “limited by budget”?

The "Limited by budget" status appears in the "Status" column of the campaigns table in your Google Ads account. This indicates your average daily budget is lower than the recommended amount.

Why does “limited by budget” appear?

This status appears when your budget isn't sufficient to cover all the potential traffic (impressions and clicks) available for your current campaign settings (keywords, targeting, bids, and more). To prevent your budget from depleting too quickly, Google Ads reduces the frequency of your ad appearances. While your ads may still show, they won't appear as often as they could if the budget were higher.

What does it mean for my campaign performance?

A campaign that's "limited by budget" can still achieve some of your advertising goals. However, it signifies that you're likely missing out on additional impressions, clicks, and potential conversions due to the budget constraint. Increasing your budget could lead to greater exposure and improved results. If you're also encountering a "Limited by bid strategy" status, it means your bidding goals (like a low Target CPA or high Target ROAS) are also restricting performance, often in conjunction with budget limitations.

What if my campaign is "Eligible (Limited)" or "Limited by bid strategy" instead of "Limited by budget"?

"Eligible (Limited)": This status can appear for various reasons, including policy restrictions or if your campaign is in a learning period after recent significant changes (for example, budget increase, bid strategy change). If due to policy, edit your ads or targeting to comply. If due to recent changes, allow 7-10 days for the system to adjust. Sometimes, this status is a recommendation; if performance is good, dismissing the recommendation might resolve it after 24-48 hours.
"Limited by bid strategy": This status means your chosen automated bidding strategy is constrained, often by your bid limits (for example, Max CPC too low) or targets (for example, Target CPA too low, Target ROAS too high). Review and adjust these limits/targets. Ensure your budget is adequate, as it can interact with bid strategy limitations. Check Google Ads recommendations for specific guidance.

My campaign isn't spending its full budget. Is this related?

If your campaign isn't spending its full budget and is not marked "Limited by budget", other factors might be at play:

Learning phase: New campaigns or those with recent significant changes need time (1-2 weeks) to optimize.
Narrow targeting or Low search volume: Your audience might be too small.
Low bids or Aggressive targets: Even if not "Limited by bid strategy", your bids might be too low to win auctions, or your CPA/ROAS targets too restrictive.
Ad strength or quality: Poor ad relevance or low Quality Score can limit impressions. For Performance Max, ensure sufficient, high-quality assets and relevant audience signals or search themes.
Conversion tracking issues: For conversion-based bidding, ensure tracking is working correctly.