What is CruiseControl? / Enabling CruiseControl – Shape

What is CruiseControl?

CruiseControl automatically adjusts campaign daily budgets to pace advertising spend toward a target budget.

CruiseControl calculates and applies campaign daily budget adjustments to achieve evenly paced spend throughout a Budget cycle. Each campaign's daily budget will be raised or lowered according to CruiseControl algorithms which analyze how closely campaigns follow the ideal spend pace.

CruiseControl helps Digital Advertisers hit their target budget goals (without manual budget adjustments) even if campaigns are frequently under- or overspending.

How does CruiseControl work?

CruiseControl monitors your campaigns' current spends, your target Budget, and your ideal daily spend (to achieve the target Budget).

CruiseControl calculates how far you are from hitting the ideal daily budget and automatically adjusts your campaign daily budgets up or down to achieve that ideal daily spend.

When setting up CruiseControl, a user will select each campaign's default daily budget, minimum daily budget, and maximum daily budget. These settings (or thresholds) guide Shape to apply automated daily budget changes within tolerable ranges for each campaign.

Default: Campaign daily budgets are raised or lowered from the Default daily budget when a budget is not pacing correctly. If spend is on track, the daily budget will revert to the default.
Min: The Min setting is the lowest possible amount that CruiseControl can set a daily budget.
Max: The Max setting is the highest possible amount that CruiseControl can set a daily budget.

For example, imagine your Client has a Budget with a target spend cap of $3000. The ideal daily spend to hit that target Budget is $100/day. After the first 5 days of the month, your total spend is at $700 (or $140/day). If the Budget is on CruiseControl, your default budget is $100. The Min you've set is $60, and the Max is $200. CruiseControl may automatically decrease your budget to $60/day until spending hits $100/day.

Similarly, imagine you've only spent $250 (or $50/day) in the situation above. Shape would automatically increase your campaign daily budgets on CruiseControl to $150 until spend once again hits $100/day.

Enabling/Disabling CruiseControl

Option 1: Creating a New Budget

1. To create a new Budget from scratch, follow the steps outlined in the Budget Designer. This will guide you through everything from naming your budget and setting your budget cap to enabling automation features such as CruiseControl.

2. When you reach the Automation section, enable CruiseControl by clicking the drop-down menu and selecting "enabled."

3. After you've named your new budget and clicked Save, you'll be asked which campaigns you'd like to allow CruiseControl to make daily budget changes to.

Clicking the green car icon will activate CruiseControl, while the red car icon will disable it.

4. Click the Budget page for your newly created Budget. In the Decision Grid, you'll see the CruiseControl Status column (indicating if CruiseControl is on or off for a specific campaign). You can also click the CruiseControl button in the navigation to show the Default, Min, and Max daily budgets set for your campaigns.

NOTE: Shape will automatically set these based on your current daily budget. We highly recommend adjusting these after creating a new Budget.

5. Clicking the pencil icon to edit the Min, Max, or Default daily budgets will cause the following screen to appear. From this screen, edit these daily budget thresholds for each campaign and save.

NOTE: You can change Min, Max, and Default Daily Budget changes in bulk. Select multiple campaigns, and click Edit (pencil icon). Navigate to the AUTOMATION tab, then scroll down to Cruise Control. You can set or edit all three elements in bulk.

Option 2: Changing Budget Settings

1. Enable CruiseControl on an existing Budget by selecting "Edit Budget."

2. Navigate to the "Automation" section on the left-hand navigation menu. Enable or disable CruiseControl by clicking the drop-down menu and selecting the appropriate option. Click "Save Changes."

3. After you've made your changes and clicked Save, you'll be asked which campaigns you'd like to allow CruiseControl to make daily budget changes to.

Clicking the green car icon will activate CruiseControl, while the red car icon will disable it.

4. Click the Budget page for your Budget. In the Decision Grid, you'll see the CruiseControl Status column (indicating if CruiseControl is on or off for a specific campaign). You can also click the CruiseControl button in the navigation to show the Default, Min, and Max daily budgets set for your campaigns.

NOTE: Shape will automatically set these based on your current daily budget. We highly recommend adjusting these after creating a new Budget.

5. Clicking the pencil icon to edit the Min, Max, or Default daily budgets will cause the following screen to appear. From this screen, edit these daily budget thresholds for each campaign and save.

How Do I Know if CruiseControl is Enabled?

Once enabled, you'll see the CruiseControl icon in multiple places that indicate it is enabled. You'll see the CruiseControl icon on your main dashboard view next to your Budget.

You'll also see the CruiseControl icon displayed on the Client Views on the decision grid. This indicates whether CruiseControl is enabled for a specific Budget.

Finally, the Budget View will indicate if a Budget has CruiseControl enabled and allow you to set the default, min, and max Campaign Daily Budget settings.

Interpreting CruiseControl Statuses - Legend

Budget-Level

CruiseControl Enabled: Campaigns in this budget cannot be put on CruiseControl.

CruiseControl Disabled: Campaigns in this budget can utilize CruiseControl

Campaign-Level

CruiseControl Disabled: CruiseControl is not applied to this campaign. No changes will be made to daily budgets.

CruiseControl Standby: No changes will be made for the rest of the Budget Cycle. At the start of the next Budget Cycle, CruiseControl will be enabled and begin making daily budget changes.

CruiseControl Enabled: CruiseControl is enabled and has permission to adjust the daily campaign budget according to the Default, Min, and Max thresholds.