The one calculation
Pace = spend to date ÷ (daily rate × days elapsed)- 1.0 is exactly on plan.
- Above 1.0 is running hot and will exhaust the budget early.
- Below 1.0 is underspending and will leave money unspent at the end.
When to act
Not every variance is a problem. Acting on noise is how a campaign gets reset out of its learning phase every week.Underspending is a delivery problem first
The instinct is to raise budgets. Check the cause first, because raising the budget on a campaign that can’t spend what it already has does nothing.What to change, in order of preference
1
1. Fix delivery
Widen the audience, resolve rejections, consolidate ad sets. This is the only intervention that adds volume rather than moving it.
2
2. Shift between channels
Move budget from a channel underdelivering on cost per result to one that isn’t. Record the shift and the reason, because it will explain a movement in next week’s report.
3
3. Adjust the daily rate
Recalculate against the remaining days, not the original flight. Raising the daily rate late in a flight buys less than the arithmetic suggests, since the platform still needs time to spend it.
4
4. Release the reserve
Only if the release condition set in budget planning is met. A reserve released because a campaign is underspending, rather than because it is working, is just a larger loss.
5
5. Accept the underspend
A legitimate outcome. A campaign that cannot spend efficiently should not spend. Record it so the retrospective can ask why the plan assumed it could.
Record every change
Any budget change explains a movement in a later report. Undocumented changes are why a report says performance improved when what actually happened is that someone moved $4,000. Log the date, what changed, by how much, who decided, and why. The campaign QA checklist checks this weekly, and budget reporting reads from it.Exceptions
Always-on budgets pace against a monthly rate rather than a flight. The calculation is the same with the month as the denominator, and the month-end cliff is the thing to watch: a campaign that paces at 1.15 all month stops delivering in the last four days.Related resources
- Budget concepts Why a budget is spent at a rate rather than as a total.
- Budget planning process Where the daily rate comes from.
- Budget reporting process Reporting pace on a cadence.
- Campaign QA checklist The weekly pass that includes pacing.
- Campaign structure best practices Why split budgets underdeliver.
- Glossary: pacing The short definition.