Control the pacing: whether you're spending at the right pace

In two lines: pacing is the pace of your spend: it compares how much you've invested against how much of the period has already elapsed. If by mid-month you spent 80% of the budget, you're going too fast; if you spent 20%, too slow.

Why does pacing matter so much?

In advertising, how much you invest matters, but at what pace you invest it matters just as much. Two classic mistakes cost results:

Spending too fast: you use up the budget before the period ends and your ads run out of funds right when there was the most traffic.
Spending too slow: the end of the month arrives with unused budget, that is, sales opportunities you let slip by.

Pacing exists so that neither of the two takes you by surprise: you see it during the month, not when it's already too late.

Where do I see the pacing?

In the Planner, inside an active plan. There the pacing appears in two places:

The Global Investment Pace indicator, which summarizes the pace of the whole plan: what percentage of the budget you've used against what percentage of the period has passed.
The Pacing column of each campaign, to see which are ahead and which are behind.

For the full breakdown of a campaign, open the Pacing Detail: it compares the Expected investment (what you should have spent by this point) against the Actual investment.

Pacing is calculated with your platforms' actual spend. For it to be reliable, the plan's campaigns must be linked to the real ones and with up-to-date costs (Sync costs). See Build your media plan and budget with the Planner.

How do I read whether I'm on track or not?

MB Suite classifies the pace into three states, comparing what's been spent against what's expected at this point in the period:

OK — you're in line with what's expected. There's nothing to adjust.
High — you're spending faster than planned. At this pace, the budget runs out early.
Low — you're spending slower than planned. At this pace, you'll finish the period with unused balance.

What do I do with each signal?

If you're High: review which campaigns are consuming too much and lower their daily budgets, or confirm that pace is intentional (for example, a strong commercial date).
If you're Low: raise budgets, expand audiences, or check if any campaign is limited or paused by mistake. The important thing is to react in time, not on the last day.

Don't chase the perfect "OK" every day. Pacing is a guide to correct in time, not an exact target: small deviations are normal.

Still have questions?

Ask MIA, the MB Suite AI assistant: open it with the MB AI button (⌘J) in the top bar. MIA knows the section you're in, so you can ask it about what you see on screen — and it can also answer how-to questions about using MB Suite.