PPC Budget Template
Budget overspend is almost never a decision. It is a month that got away from somebody, noticed on the last Friday, corrected by pausing the campaigns that were working. This sheet makes the landing point visible from about day five, which is early enough to change something cheaply.
FORMAT
XLSX
CONTAINS
4 tabs
LAST UPDATED
September 2026
LICENCE
Free, unrestricted
Variance to date is history. Projected variance is the number worth a meeting.
- Why this one
Nobody decides to overspend
They discover it on the twenty-eighth, and the correction costs more than the overspend did.
Pacing is a budget control. It says nothing about whether the money was well spent, which is why break-even sits on the same row.
The usual sequence: spend looks fine at the mid-month check, nobody looks again, and on the last Friday somebody notices the month will land twenty per cent over. The fix is to pause campaigns, and the ones paused are whichever are easiest to pause rather than whichever are least productive. The month ends on budget and worse off.
A projection from day five is not accurate, but it is directionally right, and being directionally right early beats being exactly right too late. Two inputs produce it: the day of the month, and spend to date.
- Expected spend to date, against the day of the month
- Pacing with a tolerance band rather than a raw number
- Projected month-end spend and projected variance per campaign
- Target ROAS beside break-even ROAS on the same row
- A twelve-month plan each campaign is working to
One recurring input. Once a week you paste in spend to date; everything else recalculates from the two cells at the top of the sheet.
- Where this sits
Four paid media resources, four jobs
This one is the narrowest and the most frequently used.
01
EVERY WEEK
Campaign-level pacing inside a single month. One input a week, and a projected landing point you can act on.
02
ONCE A YEAR
Channel-level annual budgeting across media, production, platforms and people, with implied revenue from your own targets.
03
WHEN REBUILDING
Six structures with the trade-off stated, a build sheet, a naming convention and the negative lists to create first.
04
TWICE A YEAR
Forty-two checks starting with whether the conversion numbers are true, because every judgement after that inherits the answer.
- What is inside
Four tabs
Two inputs a week, and the rest calculates.
Read me
Nine counters that summarise the month in one screen, including the two you take into the weekly meeting.
- Total budget, spend to date, expected to date, overall pacing
- How many campaigns are over and how many are under
- Projected month-end spend and projected variance
Pacing
Twenty campaign rows and thirteen columns, six of which calculate. Set days in month and day of month once at the top.
- Expected to date, variance, pacing and status
- Projected month end and projected variance, per campaign
- Target ROAS beside break-even ROAS on the same row
- A status that reads Over, Under or On track rather than a bare number
Annual
The twelve-month plan each campaign is pacing against, with year totals and share of budget per campaign.
- Twenty campaigns across twelve months
- Year total and share of total, calculated
- Monthly totals, so seasonality is visible on one row
Definitions
What each calculated column is, how to read it, and three cautions about when it will mislead you.
- Why underspending is not automatically good news
- Why flat pacing suits a flat month and November is not one
- Why the projection is noise before day five
Nothing is locked or protected. If your tolerance band should be tighter than 10 per cent, change the status formula.
- The calculated columns
Six columns, and what each can tell you
The distinction that matters most is between the two variance columns.
Column
How it is worked out
What it can and cannot tell you
Expected to date
Monthly budget ÷ days in month × day of month
Flat pacing. If your category has a weekly or seasonal shape, adjust the expectation rather than the budget.
Variance
Spend to date − expected to date
History. Money already spent or not spent, and not recoverable later in the month without changing something.
Pacing
Spend to date ÷ expected to date
Above 1.0 is ahead. A ratio is easier to compare across campaigns of different sizes than a currency figure.
Status
Over above 1.1, Under below 0.9, On track between
Whether it needs attention this week. It says nothing about whether the spend was worthwhile.
Projected month end
Spend to date ÷ day of month × days in month
Where it lands if nothing changes. Noisy before day five; directionally reliable after it.
Projected variance
Projected month end − monthly budget
The number to act on, and the one to take into the weekly meeting.
Target ROAS and break-even ROAS sit beside these deliberately. A campaign can pace perfectly and lose money on every order.
- How to use it
Ten minutes a week
Set it up once, then one paste and one read.
01
Set the two cells at the top of the Pacing tab
Days in month and day of month. Every calculated column in the sheet runs off those two cells, so changing the day is how you refresh the whole thing.
02
Enter one row per campaign, with its monthly budget
Delete the three example rows first. Use the same campaign names as the account, so pasting spend in is a copy rather than a matching exercise.
03
Add target ROAS and break-even ROAS while you are there
Break-even is one divided by gross margin after returns. The calculator does it in seconds, and having it on the row stops pacing being read as performance.
04
Once a week, paste spend to date
The only recurring input. A Monday morning habit works better than a mid-month review, because the whole point is catching the trajectory early.
05
Read projected variance, not variance
One is history and one is a decision. If projected variance is large in either direction, act on it this week rather than on the twenty-eighth.
06
Check why, before you change the budget
An under-pacing campaign limited by target is bidding itself out of the auction, and raising its budget will change nothing. Limited by budget is a different problem with a different fix.
At month end, copy the actuals into the Annual tab so next year is planned against what happened rather than what was budgeted.
- Getting it wrong
Six ways budget control goes wrong
Five of them are reading the wrong number. The sixth is reading the right one too late.
Checking once, mid-month
By the twenty-eighth the only lever left is pausing campaigns, and the ones paused are the easiest rather than the least productive.
Acting on variance instead of projected variance
Variance is money already spent. The projection is the only column that describes something you can still change.
Treating underspend as good news
It is demand you did not buy. A campaign limited by target rather than budget is bidding itself out of the auction, and more budget will not fix it.
Reading pacing as performance
A campaign can pace perfectly to the penny and lose money on every order. That is why break-even ROAS sits on the same row.
Flat pacing in a peak month
In November a campaign that paces evenly to day twenty has underspent the week that mattered. Shape the expectation, not just the budget.
Judging the projection on day three
Early-month noise makes it swing wildly. Acting on it is how a budget gets changed twice in a week and the bidding never settles.
The Definitions tab in the file states the three cautions in full, so whoever inherits the sheet inherits them too.
DOWNLOAD
PPC Budget and Pacing — XLSX
Twenty campaign rows with expected spend, variance, pacing, status, projected month end and projected variance all calculating from two cells at the top. A twelve-month plan tab, and a definitions tab that says what each column can and cannot tell you.
FORMAT
XLSX spreadsheet
TABS
Read me, Pacing, Annual, Definitions
FORMULAS
188, all working
LICENCE
Free, commercial use
No email address, no sign-up and no watermark. Three worked example rows sit at the top of the Pacing tab, each labelled, and should be deleted before you start.
- Questions
PPC budget FAQs
What people ask before downloading it.
How is this different from your marketing budget workbook?
Scope. The marketing plan and budget plans a whole year across channels, including production, platforms and people. This one lives inside a single month and inside the ad account, at campaign level. Most teams use both. Neither of them sizes the budget in the first place — that is the PPC budget calculator, which works back from a revenue target to the spend it requires.
What is budget pacing?
Comparing what has been spent so far against what should have been spent by this point in the month. Above 1.0 is ahead of plan, below is behind. It is a budget control rather than a performance measure.
When can I trust the projection?
From about day five. Before that, a single heavy day distorts it badly, and acting on it is how budgets get changed twice in a week and the bidding never settles.
Is under-pacing a problem?
Usually yes. It is demand you did not buy. The important question is whether the campaign is limited by budget or by target: limited by target means it is bidding itself out of the auction, and adding budget changes nothing.
Should I change budgets mid-month?
If projected variance is large, yes, and earlier is cheaper. Changing a target ROAS mid-month is different, because it restarts the learning period. Prefer the budget lever when you can.
Does flat pacing work in November?
No, and the Definitions tab says so. In a peak month a campaign that paces evenly to day twenty has underspent the only week that mattered. Shape the expectation rather than trusting the straight line.
Does it work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Upload the XLSX to Drive and open it with Sheets. The formulas are IF, OR, SUM, COUNTA and COUNTIF, which behave identically in both.
Can I use it for Meta or Amazon as well?
Yes. The Channel column exists for that, and pacing arithmetic is the same on any platform. The break-even column is where the platforms differ — on Amazon use break-even ACoS instead.
- Keep going
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TEMPLATE
Six structures with the trade-off stated, and the build sheet that decides what the campaign rows here are.
CHECKLIST
Forty-two account checks, starting with whether the conversion numbers can be trusted at all.
TEMPLATE
The annual, channel-level version, with implied revenue calculated from your own ROAS targets.
Pacing fine and still not profitable?
The free audit covers the account and the feed alongside five other disciplines, and reports on contribution rather than on whether the budget landed where it was supposed to.