Budget pacing spreads out a budget over a set period, typically a month. The goal is to optimize your daily spend so your budgets reach the monthly spend limit.
Need a refresher on budgets and pacing strategies? Check out the budget pacing playbook.
Setting a budget pacing strategy
Go to Manage (globe icon) in the left menu.
Select Accounts.
Click on an account in the list.
In the Budgets tab, click on a budget from the budgets associated with the account.
Go to Settings & Tools under Budget Actions near the top.
Scroll to the Pacing section, and select a pacing strategy. Select Show More Pacing Strategies to see the full list.
Select Save.
Click the X icon in the top-right to close the settings drawer.
List of pacing strategies you can configure
Fluency offers multiple options to achieve your ideal budget pacing:
Note: Most budgets use an "Even" pacing strategy, spending about the same amount every day of the month. If you have different needs, discuss with your Advertising Engineer which is the right pacing strategy.
Budget pacing automation settings
You can configure additional automation settings below the pacing strategies.
Target Full Spend. Select a time in the month (represented as a percentage) to spend the full budget. This helps speed up spending or mitigate underspending. For example, targeting full spend at 75% will adjust pacing accordingly to spend the full budget by around the 23rd of the month.
Enable Budget Overspend Protection. When this budget is exhausted, all linked campaigns are paused.
Receive Paused Campaign Alerts. Receive an email when campaigns linked to this budget are paused. To add this email:
Go to Settings & Tools (gear icon) > Customer Info.
Click the + under System Messaging.
Select Budget Manager Status Email.
Enter your email address, or add multiple email addresses separated by a comma.
Click Save.
Allow Reallocation. Receive notifications to approve or reject budget reallocation recommendations, allowing you to move spend to higher performing campaigns.
Prorate Budget Amount. With this option enabled, the total budget is divided evenly for the remaining days of the month. For instance, a $100 budget starting on the 15th will be prorated to $50 by the end of the month.
Temporary Budget Adjustment. Make specific budget changes until the end of the month without affecting pacing. The budget will revert back to the original budget at the beginning of the next month.
Partner Allocations. Allocate a percentage or fixed amount to distribute between Google and Microsoft ads. Note: Setting an amount greater than 0% will trigger the automatic creation of a new campaign with that partner.
Note: If this budget is connected to a Blueprint, making a change in Manage will lock the field, preventing the Blueprint from overriding the setting during future launches. To sync the budget with the Blueprint again, select the lock to unlock the field and click Save.
Tracking budget pacing
Follow along with the video or use the instructions below.
Go to Manage (globe icon) in the left menu.
Select Accounts.
Click on an account from the list.
Click the Budgets tab, and find the Pacing column in the budget table.
(Optional) To identify budgets that aren't performing as well, click filter icon to the right of the Pacing column header to sort your budgets by ascending.
Note: The Adj. Pacing column shows a percentage relative to a selected pacing strategy. For example, if you have "Strong Start" selected as a pacing strategy, the adjusted pacing could be 100% at the beginning of the month, but more than 100% in the pacing column.
Holiday budget adjustments
Automatically adjust your budget around the holidays to optimize spend during key shopping periods. This can be set up for all accounts as a global setting or for individual budgets.
For all accounts:
Go to Settings & Tools (gear icon) in the left menu.
Select Customer Info.
Toggle on Enable Holiday Adjustments.
Under Timing Adjustment, choose Before or After from the dropdown.
Enter the number of days for when the budget adjustment should begin.
Under Percentage Adjustment, choose Increase or Decrease from the dropdown.
Enter the percentage budget increase (or decrease) during the adjustment period.
(Optional) Under Restricted Holidays, select the holiday(s) for applying the budget adjustment or choose one or more custom date(s). Leave this empty to apply adjustments to all holidays.
Click Save.
For individual budgets:
Go to Manage (globe icon) in the left menu, select Account and an account from the list.
Select the Budget tab.
Click on a budget from the list of budgets.
Go to Settings & Tools under Budget Actions near the top.
Scroll to the bottom and find Holiday Adjustment.
Toggle on Enable Holiday Adjustments.
Follow steps 4–8 from above.
Click Save.