Portfolio Health Prioritization

Portfolio Health Prioritization Skill

Purpose: Provides standardized criteria for prioritizing Google Ads accounts that need investigation or action in portfolio health monitoring workflows.

Type: Domain knowledge skill (auto-invoked)

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Quick Reference: Priority Tiers

🚨 Tier 1: CRITICAL (Investigate First)

Criteria:

• Pacing variance >±15% (any portfolio)
• Account completely off pace (2x expected or 50% of expected)
• Major performance degradation (CPA doubled, ROAS halved)

Action Required: Same day, immediately Typical Count: 0-3 accounts per portfolio per day Investigation: Mandatory deep dive

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⚠️ Tier 2: HIGH PRIORITY (Investigate Today)

Criteria:

• Portfolio B/Portfolio C: Pacing variance >±8% (outside tolerance)
• Portfolio A: Pacing variance >±5% (stricter SLA)
• Zero spenders (campaigns with $0 spend MTD)
• Recent pacing deterioration (variance worsening >5% in 7 days)

Action Required: Within 24 hours Typical Count: 3-10 accounts per portfolio per day Investigation: Recommended deep dive

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ℹ️ Tier 3: MEDIUM PRIORITY (Investigate This Week)

Criteria:

• Pacing near threshold (Portfolio B: 5-8%, Portfolio A: 3-5%)
• Conversion tracking issues (sudden drops)
• Ad disapprovals (multiple ads affected)
• Campaign end dates (ending in 7-14 days)

Action Required: Within 7 days Typical Count: 5-15 accounts per portfolio Investigation: Optional, based on capacity

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✅ Tier 4: LOW PRIORITY (Monitor)

Criteria:

• Within tolerance but near threshold
• Historical patterns (seasonal, expected variance)
• Stable performance with minor fluctuations

Action Required: Monitor for 3-5 days Typical Count: Most of portfolio Investigation: Not needed unless pattern changes

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⭕ Tier 5: NO ACTION NEEDED

Criteria:

• Pacing within tolerance (Portfolio B: ±15%
• ⚠️ High: >±5%
• ℹ️ Medium: 3-5%
• ✅ Low: 2-3%
• ⭕ On Pace: ±15%
• ⚠️ High: >±8%
• ℹ️ Medium: 5-8%
• ✅ Low: 3-5%
• ⭕ On Pace: ±15%
• ⚠️ High: >±8%
• ℹ️ Medium: 5-8%
• ✅ Low: 3-5%
• ⭕ On Pace: ±15%?

└─ YES → 🚨 TIER 1 CRITICAL (investigate immediately) └─ NO → Continue to Step 2

### Step 2: Check Portfolio-Specific Thresholds

Which portfolio is this account in? ├─ Portfolio A → Is variance >±5%? │ └─ YES → ⚠️ TIER 2 HIGH PRIORITY │ └─ NO → Continue to Step 3 │ └─ Portfolio B/Portfolio C → Is variance >±8%? └─ YES → ⚠️ TIER 2 HIGH PRIORITY └─ NO → Continue to Step 3

### Step 3: Check Secondary Indicators

Does account have any of these issues? ├─ Zero spender (MTD spend = $0) → ⚠️ TIER 2 HIGH PRIORITY ├─ Recent deterioration (variance +5% worse in 7 days) → ⚠️ TIER 2 HIGH PRIORITY ├─ Conversion tracking issues → ℹ️ TIER 3 MEDIUM PRIORITY ├─ Ad disapprovals → ℹ️ TIER 3 MEDIUM PRIORITY ├─ Campaign ending soon (7-14 days) → ℹ️ TIER 3 MEDIUM PRIORITY └─ None of the above → Continue to Step 4

### Step 4: Check Proximity to Threshold

Is variance approaching threshold? ├─ Portfolio A: 3-5% → ℹ️ TIER 3 MEDIUM PRIORITY ├─ Portfolio B/Portfolio C: 5-8% → ℹ️ TIER 3 MEDIUM PRIORITY ├─ Any portfolio: 2-3% → ✅ TIER 4 LOW PRIORITY (monitor) └─ Within tolerance → ⭕ TIER 5 NO ACTION NEEDED

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## Focus Rules (Investigation Order)

### Rule 1: Underspending > Overspending

**Why:**
- Underspending issues typically have **quick fixes** (budget increase, remove bid caps)
- Overspending issues often require **strategic changes** (pause campaigns, reduce bids, improve quality)

**Exception:** Overspending >±15% = critical (may exceed client budget)

**Practical Application:**

Accounts to investigate:

1. Account A: +12% underspending (Portfolio B)
2. Account B: -10% overspending (Portfolio B)
3. Account C: +9% underspending (Portfolio B)

Investigation Order: 1st: Account A (+12% underspending - highest variance, quick fix potential) 2nd: Account C (+9% underspending - quick fix potential) 3rd: Account B (-10% overspending - needs strategic review)

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### Rule 2: Portfolio A > Other Portfolios

**Why:**
- **Stricter client SLA** (±5% vs ±8%)
- **Higher visibility** accounts (larger spend, more frequent reporting)
- **Client escalation risk** (Portfolio A has tighter requirements)

**Practical Application:**

Accounts to investigate:

1. Account A: +6% underspending (Portfolio A)
2. Account B: +9% underspending (Portfolio B)
3. Account C: +6% underspending (Portfolio B)

Investigation Order: 1st: Account A (Portfolio A +6% - outside ±5% tolerance) 2nd: Account B (Portfolio B +9% - higher variance) 3rd: Account C (Portfolio B +6% - within ±8% tolerance, lower priority)

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### Rule 3: Recent Changes > Historical Patterns

**Why:**
- Accounts with **recent budget changes** may be in ramp-up period (normal, monitor only)
- Accounts with **sudden variance shifts** indicate new issues (investigate)
- Accounts with **historical patterns** (seasonal) may not need intervention

**Practical Application:**

Accounts to investigate:

1. Account A: +10% underspending (budget increased 3 days ago)
2. Account B: +10% underspending (was on pace 7 days ago, suddenly shifted)
3. Account C: +10% underspending (historically underspends in Q1 every year)

Investigation Order: 1st: Account B (sudden shift - new issue, investigate root cause) 2nd: Account A (recent budget increase - check if ramp-up on track, may just need monitoring) 3rd: Account C (historical pattern - seasonal, may not need action)

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### Rule 4: High Variance > Near Threshold

**Why:**
- **High variance** (>±10%) = significant impact, needs immediate attention
- **Near threshold** (5-8% Portfolio B, 3-5% Portfolio A) = monitor, may self-correct

**Practical Application:**

Accounts to investigate:

1. Account A: +12% underspending (Portfolio B)
2. Account B: +6% underspending (Portfolio B)
3. Account C: +5% underspending (Portfolio A)

Investigation Order: 1st: Account A (+12% - high variance, well outside tolerance) 2nd: Account C (+5% Portfolio A - exactly at Portfolio A threshold) 3rd: Account B (+6% Portfolio B - within ±8% tolerance, monitor)

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## Daily Briefing Workflow Integration

### Daily Health Check Use Case

**Typical workflow:**

1. **Run your portfolio health check** (a script that flags issues like pacing variance, zero-spenders, conversion drops, etc. — replace with your own equivalent)
 - Returns 50-100 accounts with various issues

2. **Apply Portfolio Health Prioritization Skill**
 - Classify all accounts into 5 tiers
 - Identify top 3-5 accounts for deep investigation

3. **Launch Investigation Agents** (parallel)
 - Tier 1 accounts: All investigated (0-3 accounts)
 - Tier 2 accounts: Top 3-5 investigated
 - Tier 3+: Listed in briefing, not investigated

4. **Generate Briefing**
 - Critical: {count} accounts
 - High Priority: {count} accounts
 - Investigated: {count} accounts (with findings)
 - Other Issues: {count} accounts (monitoring only)

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## Selection Algorithm for Daily Prioritization

**Goal:** Select **3-5 accounts** for deep investigation from potentially 20-30 flagged accounts

**Algorithm:**

```python
# Pseudocode for account selection
accounts = get_all_flagged_accounts()

# Step 1: Separate by tier
tier_1 = [acc for acc in accounts if acc.variance > 15]
tier_2_a = [acc for acc in accounts if acc.portfolio == 'Portfolio A' and acc.variance > 5]
tier_2_other = [acc for acc in accounts if acc.portfolio != 'Portfolio A' and acc.variance > 8]
tier_2_zero = [acc for acc in accounts if acc.mtd_spend == 0]

# Step 2: Prioritize within tiers
tier_2_underspend = [acc for acc in (tier_2_a + tier_2_other) if acc.variance > 0]
tier_2_overspend = [acc for acc in (tier_2_a + tier_2_other) if acc.variance ±15%): 2 accounts
- Portfolio B - ProClean: +18.5% underspending
- Portfolio A - Best HVAC: -16.2% overspending

Tier 2 (High Priority):
- Portfolio A (>±5%): 3 accounts
 - City Dental: +6.8% underspending
 - Account E: +5.3% underspending
 - Acme Plumbing PCV: -5.1% overspending

- Portfolio B (>±8%): 8 accounts
 - Quick Fix: +12.3% underspending
 - Metro Auto: +9.7% underspending
 - Account G: -10.2% overspending
 - [5 more accounts between ±8-10%]

- Zero Spenders: 3 accounts

Tier 3 (Medium Priority): 9 accounts (near threshold, ad disapprovals, etc.)

Apply Prioritization:

1. All Tier 1 accounts (2 accounts):

• Portfolio B - ProClean (+18.5%)
• Portfolio A - Best HVAC (-16.2%)

1. Top 3 from Tier 2 (using focus rules):

• Priority 1: Portfolio B - Quick Fix (+12.3% underspending - high variance + underspending)
• Priority 2: Portfolio A - City Dental (+6.8% underspending - Portfolio A priority)
• Priority 3: Portfolio B - Metro Auto (+9.7% underspending - underspending focus)

Investigation List (5 accounts):

1. Portfolio B - ProClean (+18.5%) - CRITICAL
2. Portfolio A - Best HVAC (-16.2%) - CRITICAL
3. Portfolio B - Quick Fix (+12.3%) - HIGH PRIORITY
4. Portfolio A - City Dental (+6.8%) - HIGH PRIORITY (Portfolio A)
5. Portfolio B - Metro Auto (+9.7%) - HIGH PRIORITY

Not Investigated (mentioned in briefing only):

• 5 other Portfolio B accounts with ±8-10% variance
• 2 other Portfolio A accounts with ±5% variance
• 3 zero spenders
• 9 Tier 3 accounts

Briefing Summary:

• Investigated: 5 accounts (with root cause + recommendations)
• Other High Priority: 10 accounts (listed, not investigated)
• Medium Priority: 9 accounts (listed by category)
• On Pace: ~70 accounts (count only)

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When to Use This Skill

Auto-Invoked When:

• Running daily portfolio health checks
• Determining which accounts need investigation
• Prioritizing daily actions across portfolio
• User asks "what needs my attention today"
• Portfolio health check workflows
• Selecting accounts for batch optimizations

Manual Invocation:

• Custom portfolio queries ("Show me high priority Portfolio B accounts")
• Weekly/monthly portfolio reviews
• Client reporting (prioritized account lists)
• Ad-hoc "what should I look at first?" questions

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Integration with Other Skills

Skills This Prioritization Feeds Into:

Directly Used By:

• Your portfolio settings audit agent/workflow (external — replace with your own)

Indirectly Impacts:

• Your underspending investigation workflow (external)
• [portfolio-pacing-rules](../portfolio-pacing-rules/) - References same thresholds
• [budget-recommendation-calculator](../budget-recommendation-calculator/) - Urgency affects recommendation timing

Skills Referenced By This Skill:

• [portfolio-pacing-rules](../portfolio-pacing-rules/) - Pacing thresholds (±8% Portfolio B, ±5% Portfolio A)
• Your sheets-lookup helper (external — internal data plumbing, replace with your own sheet-reading code)

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Related Skills & Documentation

Related Skills:

• [portfolio-pacing-rules](../portfolio-pacing-rules/) - Pacing thresholds and budget management philosophy
• [budget-recommendation-calculator](../budget-recommendation-calculator/) - Used after prioritization to generate recommendations

External (replace with your own):

• Sheets-lookup helper — data source for pacing variance
• Underspending investigation agent/workflow — investigates accounts flagged by prioritization

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Created: 2025-11-01 Based On: Portfolio health monitoring best practices Status: Active

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: fourteenwm
• Source: fourteenwm/ppc-ai-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.