Managing campaign budgets
You can set restrictions in your campaign to limit the total amount you want to spend when running different promotions. Budgets are useful as a security measure to avoid overspending, prevent fraud, or control the behavior of your campaign.
You can see and manage all the budgets for a given campaign in Settings > Budgets.
This feature is not retroactive. It is only possible to track campaign behavior and limit spending after budgets are created.
Budget types
There are different budget types to match the scope of the restriction you need. They can refer to the entire campaign or to different entities, like coupons or referrals.
Creating coupon and referral budgets is only possible if the coupon and referral features are enabled in your campaign.
| Budget type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign budgets | Applied to the entire campaign. These budgets can be tracked in the Performance & Budget section of your campaign dashboard. tip We recommend you always add a Campaign budget. | You can define the total amount you want to spend on a certain campaign, including discounts provided as referrals, giveaways, coupons and loyalty points. |
| Profile budgets | Applied to each customer profile in a given campaign. These budgets can be tracked in the customer profile, in the Budgets tab. | You can limit how much discount and how many coupons, referrals, giveaways and loyalty points a single customer can obtain in a given campaign. |
| Unique identifier budgets | Applied to each unique identifier. tip Use identifiers to prevent fraud. | You can limit how much discount and how many coupons, referrals, giveaways and loyalty points can be issued for a unique identifier such as an IP address. This helps you prevent customers from obtaining more discounts by creating several profiles. Important: If you create a unique identifier budget for a campaign and any effect in the campaign impacts the budget, ensure that the session includes an identifier by the time you close it. If the session doesn't include an identifier, the rule containing the budget-impacting effect will fail regardless of whether the conditions are met. For example, if you create a discount budget that refers to a unique identifier and a rule in the campaign contains a discount effect, the rule will always fail if the session does not include an identifier when you close it. |
| Coupon budgets | Applied to each coupon code. | You can define how much discount and other benefits a single coupon can provide. For example, you can set how many discount effects each coupon code can trigger. Important: If you create a coupon budget for a campaign and any effect in the campaign impacts the budget, ensure that the session includes a coupon code by the time you close it. If the session doesn't include a coupon code, the rule containing the budget-impacting effect will fail regardless of whether the conditions are met. For example, if you create a discount budget that refers to coupons and a rule in the campaign contains a discount effect, the rule will always fail if the session does not include a coupon code when you close it. |
| Referral budgets | Applied to each referral code. | You can limit how much discount and other benefits a single referral code can provide. Important: If you create a referral budget for a campaign and any effect in the campaign impacts the budget, ensure that the session includes a referral code by the time you close it. If the session doesn't include a referral code, the rule containing the budget-impacting effect will fail regardless of whether the conditions are met. For example, if you create a discount budget that refers to referrals and a rule in the campaign contains a discount effect, the rule will always fail if the session does not include a referral code when you close it. |
Default budgets
You can define a budget for all new campaigns within the same Application in Settings > Default Budgets. Default budgets are useful to ensure that your campaigns are limited without having to set budgets individually.
You can also find them in the Budgets section of every individual campaign within the Application, and you can modify them directly there for each campaign.
Default budgets do not affect campaigns created before the budget.
Limits
For each budget type, when you add a budget, you can define the following limits:
See the list of all the available effects in promotion rules.
Setting limits for coupons, loyalty programs, giveaways, and referrals is possible only if the respective features are enabled in your campaign.
Effect of reached limits
Reached limits reflect in the Integration API. A reached limit generates a failed effect with a special rejection reason that you can check in the integration layer. See the list of effects in the Developer docs.
If any effect of a rule cannot be applied because of a reached limit, the entire rule fails. This means:
- The rule is still evaluated in subsequent requests. It is not automatically excluded.
- Any other rules in the campaign whose conditions are met can still trigger their effects.
Budgets are checked by the Rule Engine when evaluating the effects that impact them.
Discount limits
| Limit | Description | Availability (Scope) |
|---|---|---|
| Discount total | Set the maximum amount that can be discounted. For example, you can use this limit within a Campaign budget to set a total discount of $100,000 to be awarded in any way possible. |
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| Discount effects | Set the maximum number of discount effects (including per-item discounts) that can be triggered. Once this limit is reached, other effects in different rules can still be triggered if limits that may affect them have not yet been reached. All other effects in rules where there is a Discount effect fail to trigger. |
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Referral limits
| Limit | Description | Availability (Scope) |
|---|---|---|
| Referral redemptions | Set the maximum number of referral code redemptions that can take place. |
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| Referral creations | Set the maximum number of referrals that can be created. |
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You can limit referral redemptions for individual referral codes by setting a limit directly when creating a referral code as an effect, or on the Referrals page after creation. Limits set for the entire campaign override those of individual referral codes if the campaign-level limits are reached first.
Coupon limits
| Limit | Description | Availability (Scope) |
|---|---|---|
| Coupon redemptions | Set the maximum number of coupon code redemptions that can take place. |
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| Coupon creations | Set the maximum number of coupon codes that can be created. |
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You can limit coupon redemptions for individual coupon codes by setting a limit directly when creating a coupon code as an effect, or on the Coupons page after creation.
You can also set how much discount a code can give by creating a limited discount budget for an individual coupon. Limits set for the entire campaign override those of individual coupons if the campaign-level limits are reached first.
Loyalty limits
| Limit | Description | Availability (Scope) |
|---|---|---|
| Loyalty points total | Set the maximum number of loyalty points that can be collected by customers. |
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| Add loyalty points effect | Set the maximum number of Add loyalty points effects that can be triggered. Once this limit is reached, other effects in different rules can still be triggered if limits that may affect them have not yet been reached. All other effects in rules where there is an Add loyalty points effect fail to trigger. |
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| Loyalty points redeemed | Set the maximum number of loyalty points that can be redeemed by customers. |
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| Redeem loyalty points effect | Set the maximum number of Redeem loyalty points effects that can be triggered. Once this limit is reached, other effects in different rules can still be triggered if limits that may affect them have not yet been reached. All other effects in rules where there is a Redeem loyalty points effect fail to trigger. |
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Giveaway limits
| Limit | Description | Availability (Scope) |
|---|---|---|
| Award giveaways | Set the maximum number of giveaways that can be awarded. |
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Other limits
| Limit | Description | Availability (Scope) |
|---|---|---|
| Add free item effect | Set the maximum number of Add free item effects that can be triggered. |
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| Custom effects | Set the maximum number of custom effects that can be triggered. note Custom effects triggered on open sessions are taken into consideration. |
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| Webhook triggers | Set the maximum number of webhooks that can be triggered. |
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Recurrence
When you add a budget, you can make it a recurring budget.
For example, you can create campaigns with daily discount limits or set the number of coupons that each customer can redeem per week.
Regardless of when you launch your campaigns, the reset time for recurring budgets follows calendar dates in your Application's time zone setting.
The following recurrence options are available:
| Recurrence option | Reset time |
|---|---|
| No recurrence | Does not reset after the budget is fully used. |
| Every year | January 1 at |
| Every month | The first day of each month at |
| Every week | On Mondays at |
| Every day | Every day at |
Use cases
For example, you can use budgets to limit:
- Coupon redemptions within a campaign: use a Campaign budget and set a limit on Coupon redemptions.
- The number of coupons that each customer can redeem: use a Profile budget and set a limit on Coupon redemptions.
- The maximum amount that can be discounted per coupon: use a Coupon budget and set a limit on Discount total.
- The number of times a coupon code can be considered valid to trigger discount effects: use a Coupon budget and set a limit on Discount effects.
- The number of times a referral code can be considered valid to trigger discount effects: use a Referral budget and set a limit on Discount effects.
- The number of loyalty points each customer can collect: use a Profile budget and set a limit on Loyalty points total.
- The number of giveaways provided for a given IP address: use a Unique identifier budget and set a limit on Award giveaways.
Adding a budget
- On the left-side menu of your campaign, click Settings > Budgets.
- In the required budget type section, click Add.
- For Limit, select the limit you want to apply.
- In Value, type the maximum value of your budget.
- In Recurrence, choose when the budget resets. By default, No recurrence is selected.
- Click Create Budget.
To edit a default budget, on the left-side menu of your Application, click Settings > Default Budgets and follow the rest of the steps listed above.
Editing a budget
You can modify the maximum value of a budget at any time. Modifying this value does not affect the usage counter.
To edit a budget:
- On the left-side menu of your campaign, click Settings > Budgets.
- Click to the right of the budget you want to edit.
- In Value, edit the maximum value of the budget.
- Click Save.
To edit a default budget, on the left-side menu of your Application, click Settings > Default Budgets and follow the rest of the steps listed above.
Deleting a budget
Deleting a budget permanently removes any applied budget restrictions and clears the usage counter.
To delete a budget:
- On the left-side menu of your campaign, click Settings > Budgets.
- Click to the right of the budget you want to delete.
- In the confirmation pop-up, click Delete Budget.
To delete a default budget, on the left-side menu of your Application, click Settings > Default Budgets and follow the rest of the steps listed above.
Related pages
- Using per-coupon limited discount budgets in gift card campaigns
- Dev docs tutorial on using custom identifiers to prevent fraud
- Managing campaigns
- Evaluation order for rules and cart item filters
- Tutorial in our Dev docs: Cancelling a session with campaign budgets
- Available effects in promotion rules