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What are Budget Management Groups?
Budget Management lets you group your Perpetua goals into a Group and set one budget cap for the whole group. When the Group's spend reaches a threshold you choose, Perpetua alerts you. You can plan by category, brand, client or campaign and stay inside that budget without adding up spend by hand.
A Group can hold Sponsored Ads goals, DVA goals, or both. That means one cap can cover your search and display spend on Amazon together.
Before you start
Access: Budget Management is available to customers in the beta.
Permissions: Any user who has access to the account can create or modify a Group.
Your goals: Your Sponsored Ads or DVA goals need to already exist in Perpetua. A Group groups existing goals; it doesn't create new ones.
One Group per goal: Each goal can belong to only one Group. Decide how you want to group your goals before you start, whether by category, brand, client or campaign.
How to create a Group and set its budget cap
Open the Budget Management tab in Perpetua. You'll see the Groups landing page, which lists any Groups you already have. Click the Create Group button.
Name your Group. Pick a name that matches how you plan your budget, like the brand, category or client.
Add your goals. Select the Sponsored Ads and DVA goals you want in this Group. You can search for the goal or use the available filters. You'll see them listed as part of the Group as you select them. Goals that already belong to another Group can't be added.
Set the budget cap and flight period. Choose whether the cap resets every month or covers a set date range, then enter the most you want this Group to spend. Once you've added at least one goal, Perpetua shows a Suggested amount under the budget field. Click Apply suggested to use it, or type your own amount. The suggested budget updates if you change the goals or the period. You'll see the cap and dates in the Group summary.
Choose the alert threshold. When the Group reaches the chosen threshold percentage, all users within the account will get notified in-app. The threshold is set to 80%, by default.
Create your Group. Click the "Create Group" button, your new Group will appear on the Groups landing page, and Perpetua starts tracking its spend against the cap.
Check how your Group is spending
To see how a Group is spending, go to the Budget Management tab. It shows all your Groups at a glance. Click a Group to open its deep dive, where you'll see the goals in it and their spend summary:
Good to know
A goal can be in only one Group. Every dollar a goal spends counts against a single cap, so the totals stay accurate.
Sponsored Ads and DVA can share a cap. You don't need DVA to use Groups, though; a Group of only Sponsored Ads goals works the same way.
The suggested budget is the most your goals can spend, not a forecast. Perpetua adds what the goals in your Group have already spent this period to each goal's daily budget for every day left in the period. For DVA goals, it takes what's left of each flight's budget, spreads it evenly over the flight's remaining days, and counts only the days inside your Group's period. If your goals usually spend less than their daily budgets, your actual spend will come in under the suggested budget. To hold spend back, set a lower cap.
Monthly Groups start counting on the 1st. For a monthly Group, the period is the current calendar month. If you create the Group partway through the month, the suggested budget already includes what your goals have spent since the 1st.
Paused goals count toward the suggested budget. A paused goal adds its full configured budget. If you don't expect a goal to spend, leave it out of the Group.
The latest days count at full budget. Days whose spend hasn't finished reporting are counted at each goal's full daily budget in the suggested budget, not at what was actually spent.
Perpetua Groups aren't Amazon Groups. A Perpetua Group groups your Perpetua goals. It's separate from any Groups you've set up in Amazon's ad console.
Changing settings later: Budget cap threshold and Group flight period can be edited haver saving by clicking the "Edit Group" button on the top right within the Group deep-dive:
What Groups don't do
Groups don't spread your budget across the flight. The cap limits total spend; it doesn't control how fast the Group spends day to day. To slow spend down, adjust the budgets on the individual goals.
Groups don't stop spend. When your Group's spend reaches your threshold, you get an alert. Your goals keep spending until you change their budgets or pause them.
Groups don't move budget between goals. Each goal keeps its own budget, and the Group watches the total.
Groups don't change your bids or targets.
Groups work on Amazon only.
Have any questions or run into any issues? Reach out to your CSM or open a chat with our Customer Experience team!