Paid Media Pacing and Budget Reallocation
Compares spend to plan by channel each week and proposes budget moves with the numbers behind them.
Tools
Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, The Trade Desk, Dreamdata
Outcomes
Pacing gaps caught in days • Channels compared on one definition • Proposed moves arrive with the reasoning • Spend decisions recorded with the date
Documentation
Instruction-ready detail below
What breaks
Budget is set once and then adjusted by whoever argues hardest, usually in the last week of the month. By then a channel that stopped converting has already taken the spend, and a channel that started working never got the budget.
What the workflow does
- Compare spend against the plan by channel and campaign every week, and flag anything pacing ahead or behind.
- Put every channel on one definition of a lead before comparing cost, using the same window and the same exclusions.
- Rank channels by cost per qualified lead rather than by each platform's own conversion count.
- Draft the proposed shift as a written change with the numbers, the trade-offs, and what the move assumes.
- Record what was changed and what followed, so the same argument is not had twice.
What a human still approves
The person who owns the budget approves every move, including no move at all. The workflow prepares the comparison and the proposal; it does not change spend or pause a campaign.