What the status means
Limited by budget means the campaign's budget is below what it needs to show for all the searches it qualifies for, so Google shows the ads less often. It is not an error, and it is not always a reason to spend more.
Check how much you are missing
Add the Search lost impression share (budget) column. It shows the share of eligible searches where your ads didn't show because the budget ran out. Google describes impression share as a good way to understand whether your ads might reach more people if you increase your bid or budget.
Raise it only if it's profitable
- Work out your break-even ROAS: 1 divided by your margin after product cost and fees. A product with a 40% margin breaks even at 2.5x ROAS.
- If the campaign's ROAS is comfortably above break-even and it loses a large share to budget, more budget is likely to make money.
- If ROAS is near or below break-even, fix the waste first: products and search terms that don't sell.
Target ROAS campaigns after August 2026
Since 17 August 2026, Google says budget-limited campaigns on Target ROAS or Target CPA stay closer to their target when you change the budget, so you can increase budget to capture more conversions at your stated target. Campaigns that were beating their target may now drift towards it, so check the target reflects what you actually want.
Campaigns on Maximize conversion value with no target spend their full budget, so their ROAS moves as the budget changes.
Raise in steps
Increase by around 10 to 20% at a time and judge the result over your conversion cycle. Google can spend up to twice the average daily budget on a busy day, but no more than 30.4 times it in a month.
How UltraROAS.ai does this for you
UltraROAS.ai raises budgets on profitable campaigns that are held back, in small, steady steps, and lowers them where spend isn't paying back. You set the daily spend and the largest single increase it can make.