Budgeting in Fluency vs. in advertising partners
The budgeting workflow in Fluency has some differences from advertising partners. Here are the foundational terms to understand:
Spend Limit. The maximum amount you want the account to spend each month. You set this manually, so it doesn’t change when budgets are added or removed. When an account reaches its Spend Limit, Fluency can pause campaigns to prevent overspend when Enable Overspend Protection is toggled on.
Budget. An individual budget assigned to a specific campaign or multiple campaigns. Budget types include:
Monthly. Recurs every month at a set amount.
Flighted. Runs between a start and end date. Partner-paced flighted budgets appear as flighted (lifetime) in Fluency, and as lifetime budgets in Meta.
💡 Find out how to check whether a flighted budget is Fluency-paced or partner-paced.
Total Budget. The sum of all monthly budgets assigned to campaigns, plus the monthly portion of any flighted budget that Fluency paces. Flighted budgets that the advertising partner paces over their full dates are not included, because those dates often span more than one month.
Cost. What the account has spent across all budgets (monthly and flighted).
What's included in Total Budget vs. in Cost
Total Budget and Cost don’t count every budget the same way. This table shows which budget types feed into each metric. Note: Spend Limit isn’t listed because it’s a cap you set, not a sum of budgets.
Metric | Monthly budgets | Flighted budgets |
Total Budget | Included | Only Fluency-paced budgets |
Cost | Included | Included |
When Total Budget doesn’t match Spend Limit
Whether Total Budget should match your Spend Limit depends on the types of budgets on the account. With flighted budgets, a mismatch is expected and doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong.
Accounts using only monthly budgets
For accounts using only monthly budgets, Total Budget should ideally equal the Spend Limit. If the Total Budget is greater, part of the budget could go unspent.
Accounts using flighted budgets
If an account uses flighted budgets, alone or alongside monthly ones, keep in mind:
Total Budget may not match your Spend Limit, because flighted budgets paced by the partner aren’t counted in Total Budget. Cost can be higher than Total Budget, and sometimes higher than the Spend Limit, because it includes spend from flighted budgets.
To see a flighted budget’s amount and progress, open that budget in the budgets table.
Fluency doesn’t count partner-paced flighted budgets toward monthly totals because the partner may pace them unevenly over weeks or months, and that spend shouldn’t trigger overspend protection on the rest of the account.
Finding an account’s budget and spend
Budget, total budget, and spend limit can be found in different locations:
Total budget and spend limit
Hover over Manage (globe icon) in the left menu, and select Accounts.
Choose an account from the list.
Locate the metrics row above the budgets table.
Note: The Total Budget appears in red when it doesn't match the Spend Limit. If the account uses flighted budgets, a mismatch is expected and doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong.
Finding a budget's settings
Hover over Manage (globe icon) in the left menu, and select Accounts.
Click on an account in the list.
In the budgets table, click on a budget.
Go to Budget Settings near the top.
After making updates to the budget's settings, select Save.
To close the budget settings drawer, click the X icon in the top-right.
You can also manage an account’s budget settings.
Checking whether a flighted budget is Fluency-paced or partner-paced
To find out which type of flighted budget you have, open the budget’s settings and check the Budget Type.
Follow steps 1-4 above to open the budget’s Budget Settings.
Under Basic Settings, locate the Budget Type dropdown.
Check which budget type is selected:
Flighted is paced by Fluency. You’ll also see a Pacing Strategy, a Monthly Pacing Plan, and a Lifetime Metrics graph in the budget settings.
Flighted (Lifetime) is paced by the partner. You’ll only see a Lifetime Metrics graph.
Available budget settings
Basic settings
Budget Type
Monthly: The same budget will reoccur on a monthly basis and will run for the entire month at a set value.
Flighted: Budgets will have start and end dates and run for that duration.
Recurring Monthly: The monthly amount for the budget
Advertising Channel: Partner for the budget
Group: Grouping for the budget
Monthly pacing plan: View a performance graph to help you visualize the month’s spend progress. Available for monthly budgets and flighted budgets, not available for flighted (lifetime) budgets.
Pacing: Pacing strategies automatically adjust your daily budgets to spend 100% of your account budget.
Budget automation: Set up budget automations to decrease the amount of manual work.
Underspend mitigation: Automatically address any underspend issues as a month progresses.
Strategies for managing account and campaign budgets
🚀 Ready to create a budget? Learn more here.