Overview
Budget pacing refers to the process of managing and distributing a campaign's budget evenly or strategically over a specified time period to ensure optimal performance and avoid overspending or underspending. It involves monitoring daily spend rates and adjusting bids, budgets, or campaign delivery settings to align with the campaign's goals and timeline.
It is represented as a percentage where you want your Budget Pacing to be as close to 100% throughout the entire month - this indicates you’ll spend all of your budget by the end of the period and spend it evenly throughout that period.
How Adpulse Calculates Budget Pacing
Pacing in Adpulse is checked and calculated every hour. It takes the total number of minutes for the period (only taking into account scheduled days), then looks at the current minutes elapsed in the period to create a percentage of time elapsed.
It then looks at how much budget has been spent and compares the two to work out if the budget is under or over-pacing.
The Budget Pacing percentage can be used as a gauge as the forecast percentage you'll spend of the target by the end of the period if you keep the spend rate the same.
Budget Pacing calculation examples:
Example 1 - Budget Pacing is on target
You are 50% through the period
The campaigns have spent 50% of the budget
The Budget Pacing is 100% - you’re on track to spend all of your budget this month
Example 2 - Over-pacing
You are 50% through the period
The campaigns have spent 75% of the budget
The Budget Pacing is 150% - You are spending too fast (over-pacing) and will spend more than your target this period
Example 3 - Under-pacing
You are 50% through the period
The campaigns have spent 25% of the budget
The Budget Pacing is 50% - You are spending too slowly (under-pacing) and will spend less than your target this period
The Actual Pacing Formula
Pacing % = ( % of budget spent ÷ % of time elapsed ) × 100
Where:
% of budget spent = Spend to date ÷ Total budget
% of time elapsed = Minutes elapsed ÷ Total scheduled minutes in the period
Example
Start date: Jan 1
End date: Jan 31
Total budget: $3,000
Spend as of Jan 13: $1,207.89
Step 1: % of budget spent
% of budget spent = Spend to date ÷ Total budget
0.4026 (40.26%) = 1207.89 ÷ 3000
Step 2: % of time elapsed (minute-based)
Minutes elapsed ÷ Total scheduled minutes = 0.4194 (41.94%)
(The exact percentage depends on campaign schedules and the precise time of day the pacing check runs.)
Step 3: Pacing calculation
Pacing % = ( % of budget spent ÷ % of time elapsed ) × 100
96.0% = (40.26 ÷ 41.94) × 100
Result
Pacing = 96%
This indicates spend is slightly behind schedule but still closely aligned with the ideal pace needed to fully spend the $3,000 budget by Jan 31.
Important notes for accuracy
Pacing is calculated hourly, not once per day
Partial days are counted precisely using minutes
Non-scheduled days are excluded entirely
Because of this, pacing may differ slightly from simple day-based calculations, especially early in the period or mid-day