Set a monthly spend limit for AI Journeys

Spend Guardrails lets you set a monthly dollar limit for AI Journeys. You can check your month-to-date spend against that limit in AI Journeys. When you get close to the limit, AI Journeys pauses on its own, so nobody has to watch a report or turn AI traffic down to manage your budget.

What is it?

Spend Guardrails is a tab in AI Journeys Settings where you set how much you want to spend on AI Journeys each month. It works like this:

• Monthly limit: You set a dollar limit for the current month and a default limit for future months. Attentive tracks your month-to-date AI Journeys cost against your limit.
• Pausing: When your month-to-date cost reaches 95% of your limit, AI Journeys stops sending. Triggered messages (welcome, cart abandonment and so on) go through your standard journeys instead.
• Resuming: On the 1st of each month, month-to-date cost resets to zero and AI Journeys starts sending again using your default limit. You can also raise your limit at any time to start sending again right away.

Spend Guardrails only applies to AI Journeys, not to other Attentive products. Setting a limit doesn't change your contract with Attentive, including any minimum committed spend.

How do I use it?

You must be an AI Journeys customer to access this feature. To enable Spend Guardrails in your account, reach out to your CSM or Attentive Support.

Set your monthly limit

1. In the left navigation, go to Journeys > AI Journeys.
2. Click Settings > Spend Guardrails.
3. Enter this month's limit as a dollar amount. It can't be lower than what you've already spent this month.
4. In Default Spend Guardrail, enter the limit to use for future months. It's applied automatically on the 1st of each month.
5. Click Save.

• If the amount you enter would pause AI Journeys right away, you'll see a warning before you save. You can still save it. This is one way to stop AI Journeys spend immediately.

Check your spend and pause status

The Spend Guardrails tab shows your month-to-date cost against your limit. If AI Journeys is paused because of your limit, the tab tells you.

You won't get an email when AI Journeys pauses or starts sending again. Check the Spend Guardrails tab for current status.

Change your limit or resume sending

1. Go to Journeys > AI Journeys > Settings > Spend Guardrails.
2. Enter a new amount.
3. Click Save. The change applies right away.

To start sending again after a pause, raise your limit so that 95% of the new amount is higher than your month-to-date cost. For example, if your month-to-date cost is $9,600, your new limit has to be more than about 10,106(9,600 ÷ 0.95).

What happens when AI Journeys pauses

• Some spend continues after the pause. Messages already scheduled are still delivered, and clicks keep adding to cost. That's why the pause happens at 95% instead of 100%. Treat your limit as a strong guardrail, not a hard cap.
• Spend shown on screen runs about two hours behind. On busy days, your actual spend may be a little higher than what you see.
• Subscribers keep their AI or control assignment. Subscribers who were getting AI Journeys messages before the pause get them again once sending resumes.
• Your traffic split stays the same. AI Journeys resumes at the traffic split you already have.
• Paused periods are left out of performance metrics. Clicks, conversions, revenue, lift and opt-out rate leave out paused periods, so a pause doesn't look like a performance drop. Control messages sent during a pause also don't count toward A/B test results.
• You can change the 95% threshold. If it leaves you too much or too little room, change the threshold in the UI. See the How do I use it? section above.

Why should I use it?

Spend Guardrails keeps AI Journeys spend within your monthly budget without anyone watching it. Subscribers keep getting triggered messages through your standard journeys while AI Journeys is paused. Since paused periods are left out of performance metrics, your AI Journeys results still compare correctly after a pause.