Budget Optimizer

Overview

Most ad accounts have the same problem: budget spread evenly across campaigns when performance isn’t even close to even. This skill finds where your money works hardest and recommends shifts.

Reports

Efficiency Analysis

Rank campaigns/adsets by cost efficiency (CPA, ROAS, or CPC depending on objectives). Invocation:

"Where's my money working best?"
"Analyze spend efficiency"

Script:

./scripts/budget-optimizer.sh efficiency [--account act_123] [--preset last_7d]

Example Output:

💰 Spend Efficiency Ranking — last_7d
========================================

Campaigns ranked by efficiency (CTR/CPC ratio):

#1 Summer Sale - Retargeting
   Spend: $700.45 | CTR: 2.1% | CPC: $0.52 | Score: 4.04

#2 Summer Sale - Prospecting
   Spend: $1,050.23 | CTR: 1.2% | CPC: $0.85 | Score: 1.41

#3 Q2 Brand Awareness
   Spend: $450.12 | CTR: 0.8% | CPC: $1.15 | Score: 0.70

Budget Shift Recommendations

Compare performance across campaigns, recommend moving budget from losers to winners. Invocation:

"How should I shift my budget?"
"Optimize my ad spend"

Script:

./scripts/budget-optimizer.sh recommend [--account act_123]

Example Output:

💡 Budget Shift Recommendations
================================

TOP PERFORMERS (increase budget):
  🏆 Summer Sale - Retargeting — CTR: 2.1%, CPC: $0.52
  🏆 Summer Sale - Prospecting — CTR: 1.2%, CPC: $0.85

UNDERPERFORMERS (decrease budget):
  🩸 Q2 Brand Awareness — CTR: 0.8%, CPC: $1.15
  🩸 Product Launch - Cold — CTR: 0.5%, CPC: $1.87

⚠️  These are recommendations only. Approve before I make changes.

Budget changes are high-risk actions. This skill always shows current vs. recommended budget, explains the reasoning with data, and waits for explicit “yes” before executing.

Spend Pacing

Check if campaigns are on pace for their daily/lifetime budgets. Invocation:

"Am I overspending or underspending?"
"Check spend pacing"

Script:

./scripts/budget-optimizer.sh pacing [--account act_123]

Example Output:

📊 Spend Pacing Check
======================

Account Status:
  Daily Budget: $500
  Spend Today: $247.32 (49% of budget at 11am)
  Pacing: 15% above target

Campaign-level spend (today):

Campaign                     Spend      Impressions  Clicks
Summer Sale - Prospecting    $150.23    42,187      1,767
Summer Sale - Retargeting    $97.09     31,254      1,512
Q2 Brand Awareness           $0.00      0           0

Script Implementation

Efficiency Ranking

The script calculates an efficiency score based on CTR/CPC ratio:

# Pull campaign insights
social --no-banner marketing insights $ACCOUNT_ARG \
  --preset "$PRESET" --level campaign \
  --json --fields "campaign_name,campaign_id,spend,impressions,clicks,ctr,cpc,actions,cost_per_action_type"

# Calculate efficiency score
jq 'map(. + {efficiency: ((.ctr | parse_num) / (if (.cpc | parse_num) > 0 then (.cpc | parse_num) else 1 end))})'

# Sort by efficiency descending
jq 'sort_by(-.efficiency)'

Budget Recommendations

Compares campaigns by CTR and recommends shifts:

# Top performers (top 1/3 by CTR)
$all[:($n / 3 | ceil)]

# Underperformers (bottom 1/3 by CTR)
$all[($n * 2 / 3 | floor):]

Spend Pacing

Checks account status and today’s spend:

# Account status
social --no-banner marketing status $ACCOUNT_ARG

# Today's campaign-level spend
social --no-banner marketing insights $ACCOUNT_ARG \
  --preset today --level campaign --table \
  --fields "campaign_name,spend,impressions,clicks"

Command Reference

./scripts/budget-optimizer.sh efficiency \
  [--account act_123] \
  [--preset last_7d]

./scripts/budget-optimizer.sh recommend \
  [--account act_123]

./scripts/budget-optimizer.sh pacing \
  [--account act_123]

Invocation Pattern

Pull campaign and adset level insights
Calculate efficiency metrics (CPA, ROAS, CPC relative to spend)
Compare against benchmarks in ad-config.json
Identify top and bottom performers
Calculate recommended budget shifts (% based)
Present recommendations with clear reasoning
Never adjust budget without explicit approval
Log decisions to workspace/brand/learnings.md

Safety Protocol

Budget changes are high-risk actions. This skill:

Always shows current vs. recommended budget
Explains the reasoning (data-backed)
Waits for explicit “yes” before executing
Logs every budget change for audit trail

Example Approval Flow

AI: "I recommend increasing Summer Sale - Retargeting budget from $100/day to $150/day.
     It has 2.1% CTR and $0.52 CPC vs the account average of 1.2% CTR and $0.85 CPC.
     Offset by reducing Q2 Brand Awareness from $75/day to $25/day (0.8% CTR, $1.15 CPC).
     
     Proceed with these budget changes?"

User: "Yes, make the changes"

AI: [Executes budget shifts]
    [Logs to workspace/brand/learnings.md]
    "Budget updated. Summer Sale - Retargeting now at $150/day. Q2 Brand Awareness now at $25/day."

Budget Change Commands

Only use these after explicit user approval.

# Set campaign daily budget (amount in cents)
social marketing set-budget campaign CAMPAIGN_ID --daily-budget 15000

# Set adset daily budget (amount in cents)
social marketing set-budget adset ADSET_ID --daily-budget 5000

# Set lifetime budget
social marketing set-budget campaign CAMPAIGN_ID --lifetime-budget 100000

Integration with Other Skills

Workflow

meta-ads          → Daily check shows uneven performance across campaigns
budget-optimizer  → Analyze efficiency, recommend budget shifts
[User approval]   → "Yes, shift $50/day from Brand to Retargeting"
budget-optimizer  → Execute budget changes via social-cli
meta-ads          → Monitor impact over next 7 days

Data Sources

optional

Target benchmarks for CPA, ROAS, CTR by campaign objective

optional

Stored target CPA/ROAS goals

output

Logs budget shift decisions and outcomes

Benchmarks

Read ad-config.json for target benchmarks. If not configured, use sensible defaults based on campaign objective:

Objective	Good CTR	Good CPC	Good CPA
Traffic	Over 1.5%	Under $0.50	N/A
Conversions	Over 1.0%	Under $1.00	Under $50
Lead Gen	Over 2.0%	Under $0.75	Under $25
Brand Awareness	Over 0.8%	Under $0.30	N/A

Example Learnings Log Entry

## 2026-02-26 — Budget Optimization

**Action:** Shifted $50/day from Q2 Brand Awareness to Summer Sale - Retargeting

**Reasoning:**
- Retargeting: 2.1% CTR, $0.52 CPC, 89 conversions (7d)
- Brand Awareness: 0.8% CTR, $1.15 CPC, 12 conversions (7d)
- Efficiency ratio: 4.04 vs 0.70 (5.8x difference)

**Changes:**
- Summer Sale - Retargeting: $100/day → $150/day
- Q2 Brand Awareness: $75/day → $25/day

**Expected Impact:**
- +$350/week to high-performing retargeting
- Minimal impact to brand awareness (already underdelivering)

**Monitor:** Check impact in 7 days (2026-03-05)

# Get campaign budgets and spend
social marketing campaigns --fields "name,id,daily_budget,lifetime_budget,spend_cap,status"

# Campaign insights for efficiency analysis
social marketing insights \
  --preset last_7d \
  --level campaign \
  --fields "campaign_name,spend,impressions,clicks,ctr,cpc,actions,cost_per_action_type" \
  --json

# Adset-level budget and performance
social marketing insights \
  --preset last_7d \
  --level adset \
  --fields "adset_name,daily_budget,spend,ctr,cpc" \
  --table

Next Steps

Meta Ads — Daily checks identify uneven performance
Ad Creative Monitor — Understand why some campaigns underperform (fatigue?)
Ad Copy Generator — Create fresh creative for underperforming campaigns

Get Started

Core Concepts

Skills

Configuration

Reports

Actions

Advanced

Overview

Reports

Efficiency Analysis

Budget Shift Recommendations

Spend Pacing

Script Implementation

Efficiency Ranking

Budget Recommendations

Spend Pacing

Command Reference

Invocation Pattern

Safety Protocol

Example Approval Flow

Budget Change Commands

Integration with Other Skills

Workflow

Data Sources

Benchmarks

Example Learnings Log Entry

Next Steps

​Overview

​Reports

​Efficiency Analysis

​Budget Shift Recommendations

​Spend Pacing

​Script Implementation

​Efficiency Ranking

​Budget Recommendations

​Spend Pacing

​Command Reference

​Invocation Pattern

​Safety Protocol

​Example Approval Flow

​Budget Change Commands

​Integration with Other Skills

​Workflow

​Data Sources

​Benchmarks

​Example Learnings Log Entry

​Direct social-cli Commands

​Next Steps

Overview

Reports

Efficiency Analysis

Budget Shift Recommendations

Spend Pacing

Script Implementation

Efficiency Ranking

Budget Recommendations

Spend Pacing

Command Reference

Invocation Pattern

Safety Protocol

Example Approval Flow

Budget Change Commands

Integration with Other Skills

Workflow

Data Sources

Benchmarks

Example Learnings Log Entry

Direct social-cli Commands

Next Steps