In an example, a method includes obtaining, for a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) system having a plurality of a wide area network (WAN) links for an SD-WAN service, a first service level agreement (SLA) rule that matches a first application, the first SLA rule having a first priority that indicates a priority of the first application; obtaining, for the SD-WAN system, a second SLA rule that matches a second application, the second SLA rule having a second priority that indicates a priority of the second application; assigning, for the SD-WAN system, the first application and the second application to a first WAN link of the plurality of WAN links; and in response to determining that the first WAN link has violated the first SLA rule that matches the first application, assigning, by the SD-WAN system, the second application to a second WAN link of the plurality of WAN links.