On this page
Why it matters
Clients and finance teams agree a monthly figure. Most Google Ads campaigns run on daily budgets. Pacing is the link between the two: each day, is the month heading for the agreed number, above it or below it?
Google's own rules make this harder than dividing by 30. On any one day a campaign may spend up to twice its average daily budget. Over a calendar month, Google charges no more than that daily budget times 30.4. So an account can end the month well over the agreed budget without breaking any Google rule: the agreed budget lives in a contract, not in Google Ads.
Under-pacing costs something too. A month that ends 20% under budget left unbought searches the client was ready to pay for. The budget pacing guide covers the full routine, week by week, and the budget pacing calculator gives the daily budget that lands the month.
Where to find it in Google Ads
- Set the date range to this month, ending yesterday, and read Cost against the agreed monthly budget.
- Work out the target to date: the monthly budget divided by the days in the month, times the days gone.
- Check the Status column: Limited by budget means the daily budget holds the campaign back, not demand.
- Add up the daily budgets of the campaigns that run and multiply by 30.4: that is the most Google can charge this month.
An example
An agency manages a dental chain with an agreed budget of €12,000 a month, spread over campaigns whose daily budgets add up to €480. On day 15 of a 30-day month the account has spent €7,100. The even pace to date is €6,000, so it runs 18% ahead.
Left alone, the account could spend up to €480 × 30.4 = €14,592 this month, and nothing in Google Ads would flag it. To land on €12,000, the 15 days left must average €327. The manager lowers the daily budgets by about a third, starting with the campaigns whose cost per booking is highest.
In Optizads
The Overview opens on a This month card: spent so far, the target to date, the projected month end with its range, and a chip that reads On pace, Over pace or Under pace. Over means the month is heading above 105% of the budget, under means below 90%. It also gives the daily spend that ends the month on budget. On the Goals page, each campaign gets its own projected month end. When the month heads past the monthly budget, the pacing alert usually comes with the daily budget cuts that would land it. When it heads under, no raise is proposed.
Common mistakes
- Judging pace on one day, when Google may spend twice the daily budget on a busy day and less on the next.
- Pacing on an even split when the account has a strong weekday or seasonal rhythm.
- Raising daily budgets in the last week to use up an under-spent month, which buys clicks the campaigns had not found worth buying before.
- Forgetting shared budgets: one campaign's pace depends on what the others in the budget took first.
Checks that look at it
The audit checks Oppy runs on this, each with its own page.
Related terms
- Run rate: The run rate is what a figure will reach by the end of a period if it keeps its pace so far.
- Limited by budget: A campaign status meaning the daily budget holds the ads back.
- Shared budget: One budget used by several campaigns.
- Lost impression share: The searches your ads were eligible for and missed.
