One custom column tells you the percent of daily budget a campaign has actually used over the last seven days — and it saves you an embarrassing amount of manual checking.
Why you need this
Google shows you spend. It shows you budget. It does not, on its own, show you whether a campaign is actually hitting that budget — which means you’re left calculating under-delivery by hand, campaign by campaign. That gets old fast, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that quietly costs you hours every week.
What it tells you
Call the column “Budget Spent L7D.” It reports the percent of daily budget used over the last seven days, and you can scan an entire account in about ten seconds instead of clicking into each campaign one at a time.
Rough thresholds to work from: 95% or higher, the campaign’s healthy. 70–94%, there’s mild throttling — check bids and targeting. Below 70%, something’s actually wrong: low budget, weak bids, or ad disapprovals. Start troubleshooting there first.
Setting it up (two minutes, tops)
Go to Columns → Modify columns → Custom columns, then “+ New custom column.” Name it “Budget Spent L7D.” Formula: Cost (last 7 days) ÷ 7 ÷ Daily Budget. Set the format to Percent. Save it and add it to your campaign view.
This is one of the first things I add when I take over a new account — it gives instant visibility into problems that would otherwise sit unnoticed for weeks.
When a campaign is underperforming
First, check for ad disapprovals — easy to miss in a big account, so use the Policy Manager if you’re not sure. Second, look at bids and targeting; low bids are a common, boring cause of under-delivery. Third, check daily and shared budgets — caps show up in unexpected places more often than you’d think.
For deeper diagnostics: Google Ads Help has a good breakdown of budgets and delivery here, Search Engine Journal covers case studies and advanced strategy, and the Google Ads developer docs are worth a look for auction mechanics.
Why it’s in every account I run
It cuts out repetitive manual work and catches under-delivery early, instead of a week or two after the fact when the damage is already done.
For your next audit
Save this, build the column, and use the thresholds above to triage fast. Pair it with conversion and ROAS data for the full picture.
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