Budget pacing calculator

Check whether a client's Google Ads or Meta ad spend is on pace for the month. Enter the monthly budget, the days elapsed and the spend so far. You get expected spend to date, the variance in euros and per cent, and where the month lands if nothing changes. Free, no signup.

The formula

Budget pacing compares what has been spent against what should have been spent by this point in the month. Four lines of arithmetic:

daily budget  = monthly budget / 30.4
expected      = daily budget * days elapsed
variance %    = (actual - expected) / expected * 100
projected     = actual / days elapsed * 30.4

A positive variance means overspending. A negative one means underspending, which costs a client just as much: budget that does not get spent does not get results, and an under-delivered month is a renewal risk rather than a saving.

Some tools report the same comparison as a pacing percentage: actual spend divided by expected spend, times 100, where 100% is on plan. A +10% variance is 110% pacing. This calculator calls anything within 5% either way on track.

The budget pacing formula post works the same arithmetic through a euro example and covers month-to-date against rolling windows.

Why 30.4 and not the actual month

30.4 is the average length of a month across a year. Using it means the daily budget is stable no matter which month you are in, which is what you want when you are comparing clients side by side.

It also means the expected line never matches an even split of the budget over the month you are actually in. In a 31-day month the synthetic month is shorter, so the expected line runs ahead of an even split and a client spending evenly reads about 1.9 per cent under. In a 28-day February it is longer, so the same client reads about 8.6 per cent over. Know which month you are in before you quote a number to a client.

Adswave uses the same constant, so its expected-spend line matches this one for the same number of days.

To set the daily budget that goes with a monthly figure, use the Google Ads daily budget calculator. If a client is already off course, the mid-month budget adjustment calculator gives the daily figure that recovers the month.

Doing this for every client

One client is a calculator. Twelve is a spreadsheet you have to remember to open. Adswave connects Google Ads and Meta, tracks pacing per client, and alerts you when one drifts. It is read-only, so it tells you and you decide.

Read how to spot the drift in catching a client overspend, start a sheet from the budget pacing template, or see pricing.