At the end of each month, Pace holds or pauses any account that has used its monthly budget. On the 1st it resumes what it paused, starts spend from zero and paces to the new month's target. This article walks through that sequence in order and links to the article that covers each step in full.
It applies to accounts paced to a monthly budget, on every platform Pace supports. Accounts on a custom flight or a daily floor work to their own periods, covered at the end.
The last few days of the month
Pace eases an account down as it gets close to its monthly budget, so most accounts finish the month on target rather than reaching the ceiling early.
On Google Ads, Pace also allows bigger budget moves at the edges of the month. Most days, Pace keeps each campaign's daily budget within 20% of the day before. In the last couple of days of a month, and in the first two days of the next, that limit rises to 40%. That room lets Pace land the closing month on target and get the new one moving. The usual safety caps still apply, so no single day can take a large share of the month's budget.
If the budget runs out early
Your monthly budget is a hard ceiling. When month-to-date spend reaches it, Pace follows your choice under When the monthly budget is reached, in the At month end part of Budget and pacing in Account Settings:
- Keep running is the default. Pace holds every included campaign at a small daily amount, $1 per campaign per day unless you set your own, until the 1st.
- Pause stops the included campaigns until the 1st and leaves their budgets as they were.
An account on Protect only always pauses, and an account set to Off isn't stopped at its budget. Raise the budget and a pause lifts early, usually within five minutes. Stop your ad accounts from overspending covers both options, campaign groups and the alerts you can get. For the three modes, see choose what Pace does on an account or group.
On the 1st
The new month starts in your workspace's timezone. Three things happen:
- Month-to-date spend starts again from zero.
- Pace resumes every campaign it paused at the budget. Campaigns you paused yourself stay paused.
- The new month's target takes over. That's a figure you scheduled under Month overrides, or your Default monthly budget if you didn't schedule one.
Campaigns held at the small daily amount go back to normal pacing on the next pacing run, because the new month's budget hasn't been spent.
Last month goes into your history
On the 1st, in the account's own timezone, Pace records the budget the month just ended was set to. If you'd already given that month its own figure, Pace keeps it. To see the history, open Account Settings, click Budget and pacing, and switch Month overrides to Previous. Each past month shows its figure, labelled recorded.
Changing your default later doesn't touch these figures. They show the base budget you set for each month, before any rollover adjustment. Set your monthly budget explains the planner and scheduling months ahead.
Rollover carries the gap forward
With Budget rollover switched on (Pro plan and above, off by default), Pace compares what the account spent last month with that month's target on the 1st. It then adds the difference to the new month. An underspend raises this month's target and an overspend lowers it. If an overspend is bigger than the whole new target, the target lands at $0 and the included campaigns stay paused until it's positive again. Budget rollover has the full rules.
An example
An account has a $9,000 monthly budget, 10 included campaigns, the default Keep running setting and rollover switched on.
- 28 September: spend reaches $9,000. Pace holds all 10 campaigns at $1 a day.
- 29 and 30 September: the campaigns spend $20 between them.
- 1 October: spend resets to zero and pacing resumes as normal. September is recorded at $9,000. Rollover carries the $20 overspend, so October's target is $8,980.
With rollover off, October would start on $9,000.
Common misconceptions
- "The 1st switches everything back on." Only campaigns Pace paused come back. Your own pauses stay as you left them.
- "Rollover changes my bill." It doesn't. Your plan's managed-spend limit counts the base budget, never the carry.
Accounts that don't follow the calendar month
- Custom flights follow the flight's own dates. When a flighted account uses its budget, Pace holds its campaigns at the platform's lowest daily budget rather than pausing them. See pace a budget to a flight, not a month.
- Daily floor accounts have no monthly budget to reach. They have a hard daily cap instead. See guarantee a daily minimum ad spend.
For quick answers on the 1st and other pacing questions, read common questions about pacing.