Budget and limits
Every budget layer is optional, and where you set none the model picks the amount. That is the single idea behind this page. A group is not obliged to have a number on it; leaving it blank is an instruction, not an omission.
The two group-level layers sit side by side at the top of the Budget box on Global settings. The other two are set elsewhere and are covered at the end.
Group Monthly Budget
The most this group may spend across the whole month.
Set it and the Monthly Setting calendar becomes a plan: DataGlass paces the amount across the month, holds back for the days it expects to be worth more, and re-spreads what is left whenever a day comes in under or over.
Leave it on Auto and there is no month-level ceiling. DataGlass projects the month from its forecast, and the calendar shows those amounts as a forecast rather than a commitment.
Group Daily Budget
The amount for an ordinary day. Leave it on Auto and DataGlass sizes each day for you.
What Auto spends
Auto is not "no limit". Each day is sized from the model's forecast, and two things keep it in check:
- Each campaign gets what it can spend profitably. The model stops adding budget where the next baht stops earning, and it weighs how much each campaign can actually spend — a campaign that usually spends ฿80 a day is not handed ฿5,000.
- New highs are reached step by step. Past the most a campaign has spent before (plus 15%), its budget climbs a little each day instead of jumping, at the speed set in Growth → Settings. Cuts apply at once.
Going past the plan on purpose is Growth's job, and only on Grow.
A budget is a limit, not a promise
Setting an amount caps what DataGlass hands out. It does not guarantee the group spends it:
- In Ceiling mode DataGlass may allocate less, where the rest would not pay.
- What it allocates becomes each campaign's daily budget on Shopee, and Shopee's bidder decides the actual spend from the auctions it wins. With a target ROAS it only bids where it expects that return, so a high target can leave budget unspent — even in Target mode.
Mode
What the amount means. Two cards under the budgets, each showing the amount it applies to.
| Mode | Reads as | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|
| Ceiling (default) | Up to the amount | Spends only when it's profitable. Actual spend may be lower |
| Target | About the amount | Tries to spend all of it across the group, even where the last of it earns less |
Ceiling is the safe default. Choose Target when the money is committed and the question is only where it goes — a launch week, a platform campaign, a budget you have to use.
Setting neither
With both layers on Auto, the group has no limit you wrote. The model sizes every day from what it expects to be worth spending, and the calendar shows those amounts as Projected rather than planned.
This is a legitimate way to run a profit group: profit is self-limiting, so the solver stops where the next baht stops earning its place. It is not available to a GMV or Orders group — those need a budget or a constraint, because they don't count what the ads cost. See Choosing an objective.
Campaign Daily Budget
An optional ceiling on a single member, set on the Campaigns tab, so one campaign cannot take too large a share. Left unset it reads Managed automatically — the group decides.
It is a ceiling on the group's own allocation, not a budget you are promising to spend. And, as above, it does nothing while the group spends to a target.
The platform minimum
Shopee will not run a campaign below ฿100 a day. So a campaign the solve allocates less than ฿100 is paused for the day instead of being underfunded, and its share goes to the others. It comes back the next day the allocation can fund it properly.
That is also why a group's limits have to cover ฿100 × the number of campaigns you are launching when you create product ads.
Target ROAS
Each campaign has its own target ROAS — the return Shopee's bidder aims for on that campaign. Set it on the Campaigns tab: click the campaign's Target ROAS and type a new value. It goes to Shopee straight away. Only supported manual campaigns can be edited, and not while paused.
With no target, the bidder spends the budget whatever the return. With a target it cannot reach, it spends less than the budget allows.
Growth
Under the mode, Growth decides whether DataGlass may test budgets between campaigns, and whether it may spend past the day's budget on good days. See Growth.
The other two layers
| Layer | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Day lock / day ceiling / pause | Monthly Setting | One date's own amount. It replaces the daily layer for that date rather than sitting under it, so a higher amount is spent in full |
| Change point budget cap | Timeline | A running day-to-date ceiling. It is a total, not an evening allowance, so it can only rise as the day goes on |
Reading it back
The Allocation panel beside Global settings shows what the current settings produce per campaign, with today's budgets as a ghost behind the proposal. Watch for:
- Unallocated — budget the solve deliberately left unspent, usually because funding another campaign would break the constraint.
- Unfunded — campaigns that got nothing. Loosen the constraint or raise the budget.
- Stranded — campaigns the model funded that are paused on the platform, so the money cannot reach them. Resume them on the Campaigns tab.
- Uncertain reserve — held back for campaigns whose creation is not yet confirmed, so the group cannot overspend if they turn out to exist.