How KPI performance affects budget distribution

After Budget Allocation adjusts campaign budgets for under-spend or over-spend, it uses the selected key performance indicator (KPI) to shift part of the budget toward better-performing campaigns.

The adjustment works the same way for CPA, CPI, and CPG allocation groups. Only the performance metric and data period used to rank campaigns change.

Performance metric used for each KPI

Budget Allocation KPI	Metric used to rank campaigns
CPA	Cost per install
CPI	Cost per attributed install
CPG	Cost per the selected goal

A lower CPA, CPI, or CPG represents better performance in the ranking.

For definitions and setup requirements, see About Budget Allocation KPIs, goals, and attribution settings.

Performance data periods

Budget Allocation uses a single day’s average KPI value. It does not use a multi-day average.

CPA

CPA uses the previous day’s average cost per install. The calculation uses the tap-through claim type.

CPI

CPI uses the previous day’s average cost per attributed install. The calculation follows the settings selected when the allocation group was created:

Attribution Type
Claim Type

CPG

CPG uses a single day’s average cost per selected goal. The day used depends on the allocation group’s Attribution Delay.

Attribution Delay	Data used
1 day	Data from 2 days ago
3 days	Data from before the last 3 days
7 days	Data from before the last 7 days
14 days	Data from before the last 14 days

The calculation follows the CPG settings selected when the allocation group was created, including:

Goal
Attribution Type
Claim Type
Reporting Time
Attribution Delay

When Reporting Time is set to Event time, Attribution Delay is automatically set to 1 day.

The delayed period applies only to the CPG performance metric. Spend and Daily Budget Consumption continue to use the previous day’s data.

How campaigns are ranked

Budget Allocation ranks the included campaigns from the lowest KPI value to the highest:

The campaign with the lowest CPA, CPI, or CPG is ranked first.
The campaign with the highest value is ranked last.
The ranked campaigns are divided into two groups:

Better-performing half
Weaker-performing half

When an allocation group contains an odd number of campaigns, the middle-ranked campaign is included in the weaker-performing half.

How budget is transferred

After the campaigns are divided into two groups, Budget Allocation calculates a limited transfer between them.

Each campaign has a daily transfer limit of 5% of its newly assigned daily budget.
The system calculates how much the weaker-performing half can give.
It calculates how much the better-performing half can receive.
The smaller of these two totals becomes the amount transferred.
The amount is added to the better-performing campaigns, starting with the best-ranked campaign.
The same amount is removed from the weaker-performing campaigns, starting with the worst-ranked campaign.

This keeps the total budget unchanged during the KPI-based adjustment.

The transfer limit keeps changes gradual. A campaign does not give or receive its full budget in one daily adjustment.

Example of a KPI-based adjustment

This example uses a CPA-based adjustment, but the same process applies to CPI and CPG. Assume four campaigns have the following budgets after the initial under-spend or over-spend adjustment:

Campaign	Current budget	Average CPA	Performance group
A	$100	$2	Better-performing half
B	$80	$3	Better-performing half
C	$60	$5	Weaker-performing half
D	$40	$8	Weaker-performing half

The campaign transfer amounts in this example are:

Campaign	5% amount
A	$5
B	$4
C	$3
D	$2

The better-performing half can receive up to $9:

$5 + $4 = $9

The weaker-performing half can give up to $5:

$3 + $2 = $5

The smaller amount is $5, so $5 is transferred.

Add budget to the better-performing campaigns

Budget is added starting with the best-ranked campaign:

Campaign A receives $5.
Campaign B receives $0 because the full transfer amount has already been used.

Remove budget from the weaker-performing campaigns

Budget is removed starting with the worst-ranked campaign:

Campaign D gives $2.
Campaign C gives the remaining $3.

Result

Campaign	Budget before	Change	Budget after
A	$100	+$5	$105
B	$80	$0	$80
C	$60	−$3	$57
D	$40	−$2	$38
Total	$280	$0	$280

The total budget remains $280, but $5 moves from the weaker-performing campaigns to the best-performing campaign.

After this adjustment, Budget Allocation applies campaign bid safeguards. See About minimum daily budgets and bid safeguards.

Need more help?

If you have further questions on the process, contact your dedicated Customer Success Manager or contact the support team via live chat.