Budget Management: Alert Thresholds & Auto-Pause

Stay on top of your Amazon ad budgets using smart alerts, automated pauses, and flexible control across all periods.

Use Budget Management to maintain full control over your account-level budgets and ensure spending aligns with your goals. With this feature, you can:

  • Set Alert Thresholds to receive email notifications when spend reaches a defined percentage of your budget.
  • Enable Auto-Pause to automatically prevent overspend once your defined budget is fully consumed.
  • Reduce manual monitoring by automating campaign pauses and resumes.

Maintain visibility and control across daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly budgets. 

Accessing the Budget Management Dashboard

You can access the Budget Management dashboard in two ways:

  1. From Navigation Panel
    Amazon Sponsored Ads → Settings → Budget Management
  2. From Overview Dashboard
    Click the Settings icon in the Budget Overview card to navigate directly to the Budget Management dashboard.

How Budget Management Works

Step 1: Alerts Trigger

  • The system monitors spend in real time using Amazon Marketing Stream (AMS) data.
  • Email notifications are sent to the selected watchers when spend crosses defined thresholds (e.g., 70%, 90%).

Step 2: Budget Exhaustion

  • When total spend reaches or exceeds your defined budget, Auto-Pause activates (if enabled).
  • All active campaigns within the account are automatically paused.

Step 3: User Overrides

  • Any manual user action or campaign state change rule created after Auto-Pause triggers will execute and take precedence.
    Example: If Auto-Pause triggers at 6 PM and the user re-enables or creates a campaign state change rule at 7 PM, those campaigns will resume.

Step 4: Resume Behavior

Campaigns automatically resume when:

  • The budget period resets (daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly).
  • The budget is increased mid-period.

Auto-Pause is manually disabled.

Key Features

Feature

Description

Alert Thresholds

Receive email notifications when spend reaches set thresholds (e.g., 70%, 90%).

Auto-Pause

Automatically pauses all active campaigns when total spend reaches 100% of the budget.

Resume Logic

Auto-resume occurs after a period reset, budget top-up, or manual Auto-Pause disable.

User Intervention Priority

Manual user actions (enable/disable, new campaigns, or newly created state change rules post auto pause enabled rule triggers) always take precedence — even beyond the set budget.

Automation Rules

Existing automation rules are suppressed during Auto-Pause. Any new campaign state change rule created after Auto-Pause triggers is treated as a valid user action and will execute normally.

Timing Note

Once the budget hits 100%, pausing may take 30–60 minutes due to AMS data latency and rule execution time. Minor overspending during this time is expected.

Notes on Data and Timing

Intentwise relies on Amazon Marketing Stream (AMS) data for real-time spend tracking.
Occasional AMS reporting delays may cause a lag between budget exhaustion and campaign pausing, which can lead to minor overspending.
This is expected behavior and not a system error.

Auto-Pause Use Cases

Scenario

System Behavior

Notes

Budget Exhausted (100%)

All active campaigns are paused automatically.

Campaigns resume after period reset or budget top-up. Automation suppressed.

User Enables Campaign Post-Pause

Manual enable honored.

User actions always take precedence; campaigns may exceed budget.

Budget Decreased Mid-Period (Spend > New Budget)

Pauses all campaigns.

Prevents spend from exceeding new reduced budget.

Budget Increased Mid-Period

Resumes auto-paused campaigns.

Previously paused campaigns by auto pause enabled rule resume automatically.

New Campaign Created During Exhausted Budget

Campaign is created and active.

Treated as user action; may exceed budget.

Automation / AI Conflicts

Suppresses existing automation.

Auto-Pause cannot be overridden.

Recovery / Period Reset

Resumes auto-paused campaigns.

Only campaigns paused by Auto-Pause resume.

Auto-Pause Disabled (after budget hit)

Resumes all paused campaigns.

Disabling Auto-Pause resumes campaigns.

Campaign state change Rule Created Post Auto-Pause

Executes normally.

Treated as a new user action.

Auto-Pause & Rule Execute Simultaneously

Auto-Pause takes precedence.

Auto Pause rules always run first.

Takeaways

✅ Prevent overspend automatically with Auto-Pause.
✅ Maintain full control with manual overrides and user-created rules.
✅ Gain clear visibility into budgets across daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly periods.
✅ Rely on automated alerts and smart controls to reduce manual intervention.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What happens when I hit 100% of my budget?
If Auto-Pause is enabled, all active campaigns in your account are paused automatically.

What if I reduce my budget mid-period and my spend is already higher?
The system pauses all active campaigns since your spend now exceeds the revised budget.

What if I manually enable a campaign after Auto-Pause triggers?
Your manual action takes precedence — the campaign will remain enabled even if the budget is exhausted.

What if I disable Auto-Pause after my campaigns were paused?
All campaigns paused by Auto-Pause automatically resume once Auto-Pause is disabled.

Do automation rules run during Auto-Pause?
No. Existing rules are suppressed, but any new campaign state change rule created after Auto-Pause triggers executes normally.

What if AMS data is delayed or Amazon API fails temporarily?
Intentwise relies on AMS data. If there’s a delay, overspend may occur until data syncs. The system ensures campaigns are safely paused once updated data is received.

How long does pausing take once the budget is hit?
Pausing may take 30–60 minutes due to AMS data refresh and rule execution timing.

Will new campaigns created during Auto-Pause remain active?
Yes. Any new campaign or manual state change is treated as a user action and will remain active.

Can I still use Watchers and Alerts if Auto-Pause is enabled?
Yes. Watchers continue to receive alerts when thresholds are hit, regardless of Auto-Pause status.

Budget Management Cheat Sheet

Quick reference for Alert Thresholds, Auto-Pause, and Edge Cases

1.Budget Exhaustion & Spend States

Scenario

System Behavior

Notes / Takeaways

Acceptance Criteria

Exact 100% spend hit

Pause all active campaigns

AUTO_BUDGET token applied

All campaigns move to PAUSED:AUTO_BUDGET

Latency overshoot

Pause campaigns, log overshoot

Minor overspend possible due to reporting latency

Overshoot logged, campaigns paused

Daily / Weekly / Monthly / Yearly budget exhausted

Pause until period reset

Resume campaigns automatically at {RESET_AT} or after budget increase, or when auto pause is disabled post auto pause enabled was executed

Only auto-paused campaigns resume

Budget decreased mid-period (spend > new budget)

Immediate pause

Ensures spend never exceeds new budget; manual overrides allowed

All active campaigns paused within 30-60 minutes

Budget set to 0

Pause all campaigns

AUTO_BUDGET token applied

Campaigns paused within scope

2. User Actions While Paused

Scenario

System Behavior

Notes / Takeaways

Acceptance Criteria

User enables paused campaign in IW

Campaign resumed

Manual action takes precedence

Campaign stays enabled

User enables from Amazon console

Campaign resumed

User action takes precedence; may overspend

Campaign stays enabled

User edits targeting / budgets

Changes applied

Changes applied but campaign remains paused

Changes applied

User changes bids

Changes applied

Bid update happens but campaign remains paused

Bid values change

User creates new campaign

Campaign created and active

User action takes precedence; may exceed budget

Campaign stays enabled

User archives campaign

Archive overrides pause

Tokens cleared

No resume on budget reset

3. Automation & AI Conflicts

Scenario

System Behavior

Notes / Takeaways

Acceptance Criteria

Automation tries to unpause

Suppressed

Cannot override Auto-Pause

Automation does not override budget token

AI bidding adjustments

Bidding suppressed

Budget token prevents bidding

No bid changes applied

Scheduled automation resumes campaign

Suppressed

Only runs after budget reset or token cleared

Logged as suppressed

User creates campaign state change rule post Auto-Pause

Rule executes

Treated as user action

Campaigns updated as per rule

Auto-Pause & Auto Enable scheduled together

Auto-Pause takes precedence

Ensures budget is respected

Auto-Pause runs first

4. Recovery & Rollover

Scenario

System Behavior

Notes / Takeaways

Acceptance Criteria

Period reset (Daily / Weekly / Monthly / Yearly)

Clear tokens, resume campaigns

Auto-paused campaigns resume

Only auto-paused campaigns resume

User increases budget mid-period

Clear token, resume campaigns

{N} auto-paused campaigns resumed

Only auto-paused campaigns resume

User decreases budget mid-period

Pause campaigns

Budget token reapplied

Campaigns paused 

5. Account level

Scenario

System Behavior

Notes / Takeaways

Acceptance Criteria

Account budget exhausted

Pause all active campaigns under account

All active campaigns

paused

All active campaigns paused

6. Failures & Edge Conditions

Scenario

System Behavior

Notes / Takeaways

Acceptance Criteria

API outage

Retry with failsafe

Ensures campaigns are safe-paused

System retries until success

Spend data delayed

Late pause, notify overshoot

Minor overshoot may occur

Pause triggered when data arrives

System crash during pause

Recovery on restart

Campaigns safe-paused

Campaigns remain paused post-recovery

Auto-Pause Logic & System Notes

  • Auto-Pause triggers when spend ≥ 100% of budget.
  • Resume triggers
    • Next period reset (daily/weekly/monthly/yearly)
    • Budget increase mid-period
    • Manual Auto-Pause disabling
  • User actions always take precedence (manual enables/disables, campaign creation, or state change rules post Auto-Pause enabled is triggered).
  • Latency note: 30–60 minute delay may occur due to AMS reporting; minor overspend possible.
  • Auto-Pause + Automation: Automation rules suppressed during Auto-Pause; user-created campaign state change rules post Auto-Pause execute normally.