Your monthly budget covers the whole ad account, so Pace measures it against everything the account has spent this month. That includes campaigns you've left out of automation, campaigns you run by hand, and campaigns that were removed or archived after spending earlier in the month. It's how Pace keeps the account as a whole on budget.
The quick fix
If those campaigns should be paced too, include them:
- Open Account Settings for the account.
- Click Campaigns in the left menu.
- Under Campaigns Pace manages, tick them in the Included campaigns list.
From the next pacing run, Pace manages those campaigns too.
Why Pace works this way
- The ad platform bills the whole account. Money spent by a campaign Pace doesn't manage still comes out of the same month.
- Ignoring it would mean overspending. If Pace counted only its own campaigns, it would think there was more left than there really is, and push its campaigns too hard.
- Pace still only changes what you included. It counts every campaign's spend, but only adjusts budgets on the campaigns you've ticked.
This applies on Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads and Microsoft Ads whenever the account paces as a whole rather than in campaign groups. The figure is the ad platform's own total for the account.
What you'll see
When campaigns outside Pace spend more than 1% of the monthly budget, the run's row in the Changes tab carries a badge such as ⓘ $250.00 spent outside Pace. Hover it to see the account's total spend this month, how much came from the campaigns Pace manages, and the share of your monthly budget the rest used.
You may also notice Pace giving your included campaigns less than you expected. That's the other campaigns' spend coming off what's left of the month.
Other ways to fix it
- Raise the monthly budget. If those campaigns should keep running on their own, set a monthly budget that covers them as well. Pace then paces its campaigns against what's really left.
- Use campaign groups. Put the campaigns you want paced into a campaign group with its own budget. A group paces against its own campaigns' spend, so spend elsewhere in the account doesn't come out of its budget. Campaign groups are on the Pro plan and above.
- On Meta Ads, switch on ad set budgets. Campaigns that set budgets on each ad set (ABO) aren't paced until you turn on Manage ad set budgets (ABO campaigns), under Automation in the same Campaigns section. It's on the Pro plan and above. See how to pace Meta ad sets.
To change how much Pace does on an account overall, see choose what Pace does.
Still looks wrong?
Email [email protected] with the account name, the date of the run from the Changes tab, and a screenshot of the badge's tooltip. That's enough for support to trace where the spend came from.