Hey Sage · Free ad budget pacing planner · AUD
Pace the
actual month
Promo-aware ad budget pacing planner
A sale month is not a flat month. Weight the days that matter, compare spend to a transparent plan and see the daily budget required from here—without pretending the platform will spend in a perfectly straight line.
Weight the calendar. Keep the assumptions visible.
A flat daily budget is easy to calculate and often wrong for promotion-heavy ecommerce. This planner gives sale days and weekends explicit weights, then allocates the working budget in proportion to those weights.
Core formulas: date weight = promo factor × weekend factor. Planned daily spend = working budget × date weight ÷ all period weights. Pace ratio = actual spend ÷ expected spend to the closed date. Weighted projection = actual spend + historic spend per elapsed weight × future weights.
The 95–105% “on pace” band and 90–110% watch band are Hey Sage operating heuristics, not platform rules. The tool withholds a strong verdict until at least three days have closed.
The approved media ceiling for this exact date range. Agency fees, production and GST are not added unless you put them in.
Budget deliberately kept unassigned for late opportunity, overspend protection or a genuinely stronger trading day.
A 2× weight gives a promo day twice the planned spend of an equivalent normal day. It does not promise twice the revenue.
The share of working budget assigned to dates that have closed—not calendar days divided by total days.
The remaining budget is reallocated across future weights. It may be operationally unrealistic even when the arithmetic is correct.
A simple continuation of realised spend per weighted day. It is a pacing signal, not a platform or sales forecast.
Sources reviewed 14 July 2026: Meta’s ad budget and delivery guidance; Google Ads spending limits, seasonal budget adjustments and conversion-rate seasonality adjustments. Platform rules can change; check the live account before a major promotion.
Pacing is a control system, not a daily panic button.
Close the data before reacting
Use spend through yesterday or the latest fully reconciled day. Same-day spend can be incomplete, and conversion reporting commonly trails media delivery.
Change the curve when the business changes
Stock, margin, promotion dates and channel capacity can justify a new plan. Yesterday’s ROAS moving by itself is not a budgeting strategy.
Respect platform delivery rules
Meta and Google can deliver above the displayed average daily budget on individual days. Use their account-level budget reporting and billing limits alongside this planning curve.
Separate spend pacing from performance
An account can be exactly on budget and commercially poor. Review marginal CPA, contribution and new-customer quality separately before releasing the reserve.
Ad budget pacing FAQ
How do I calculate ad spend pacing?
Divide actual spend by the amount the plan expected through the latest closed day. This tool improves on flat calendar pacing by weighting promotion days and weekends before calculating that expected amount.
What does it mean when ad spend is ahead of pace?
Actual spend is above the weighted plan for the days already closed. Confirm the data, inspect where the excess occurred and reduce only the future budget needed to return to the approved ceiling.
How much budget should I reserve for a sale?
There is no universal percentage. Hold enough to manage uncertainty without starving the known plan. Five percent is this tool’s editable starting point, not a benchmark or platform recommendation.
Should every promotion day have the same ad budget?
Not necessarily. Launch, payday, peak weekend and final-day demand can differ. This first version uses one transparent promotion weight; build a more detailed day-by-day plan when the event economics justify it.
Why did Meta spend more than my daily budget?
Meta describes the daily amount as an average and can spend above it on a given day while limiting total spend across the week. Check the current official rule and your billed spend before treating one day as an error.
Why did Google Ads spend twice my average daily budget?
For most campaigns Google can spend up to twice the average daily budget on an individual day, with a monthly charging limit commonly based on 30.4 times that average. Exceptions and budget changes can alter the details.
Should I cut budget as soon as ROAS falls?
Not from same-day data alone. Allow for conversion lag, check whether spend is incremental and compare marginal CPA or contribution against the agreed ceiling. Pacing and performance are separate decisions.
Does this planner forecast revenue?
No. It allocates and reconciles media spend. Promotion response, auction pressure, conversion rate, stock and creative quality all sit outside the calendar formula.
Want the sale plan pressure-tested?
Hey Sage can map the budget, account structure, creative releases and commercial guardrails before the promotion starts.
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