A Free Google Ads Budget Pacing Spreadsheet
This free Sheet flags every account in your book that is heading Over or Under its monthly budget. In the illustrative book it ships with, three days in, it flags Calloway HVAC on course for $5,790 against $5,000.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Account | Monthly budget | Days in month | Days so far | Spent | Expected | Pace | Projected | Flag | Daily to land | |
| Ferncliff Auto | $9,000 | 30 | 3 | $812 | $900 | 90% | $8,120 | On pace | $303 | |
| Calloway HVAC | $5,000 | 30 | 3 | $579 | $500 | 116% | $5,790 | Over | $163 | |
| Whitcombe Law | $7,500 | 21 | 2 | $690 | $714 | 97% | $7,245 | On pace | $358 | |
| Hazelwood Decor | $20,000 | 30 | 3 | $1,866 | $2,000 | 93% | $18,660 | On pace | $671 | |
| Stonegate Roofing | $6,000 | 30 | 3 | $534 | $600 | 89% | $5,340 | On pace | $202 | |
| Sandhill Plumbing | $24,000 | 30 | 3 | $2,262 | $2,400 | 94% | $22,620 | On pace | $805 | |
| Ravenhill Dental | $3,500 | 30 | 3 | $318 | $350 | 91% | $3,180 | On pace | $117 | |
| Seabright Pools | $3,000 | 30 | 3 | $183 | $300 | 61% | $1,830 | Under | $104 | |
| Fairmead Vets | $1,600 | 30 | 3 | $142 | $160 | 89% | $1,420 | On pace | $54 | |
| Keystone Electric | $6,200 | 30 | 3 | $571 | $620 | 92% | $5,710 | On pace | $208 | |
| Total | $85,800 | $7,957 | $8,544 | 93% | $79,915 | |||||
| Spend that follows demand can run ahead early in the month without being a problem. Check what changed before you cut a budget. | ||||||||||
| The accounts are illustrative, with spend through Tuesday, November 3. Replace them with your own. | ||||||||||
| A | B | C | D | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campaign | Daily budget | Monthly charging limit | Daily budget to land | ||
| Search | Heating | $120 | $3,648 | $120 | ||
| Search | Cooling | $35 | $1,064 | $20 | ||
| PMax | Service | $45 | $1,368 | $23 | ||
| Total | $200 | $6,080 | $163 | ||
| For most campaigns, Google Ads charges at most 30.4 times the average daily budget a month. | |||||
| support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6385083 | |||||
| The $5,000 plan is $167 a day. These daily budgets add up to $200. | |||||
| Search | Heating is in season, so it stays whole. Search | Cooling, out of season, takes the cut first, down to $20, and PMax | Service takes the rest. | |||||
| The budgets to land add up to $163, the account’s Daily to land from November 4. After a change mid-month, Google Ads keeps the rest of the month within the new daily budgets times the days left, for most campaigns. | |||||
| support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10487143 | |||||
| Calloway HVAC is an illustrative account. Its campaigns run every day. | |||||
- 1
Enter each monthly budget and its days
Put each account’s budget in Monthly budget and the days its campaigns run this month in Days in month, as the 2026 pacing update explains.
Whitcombe Law runs Monday to Friday. November has 21 weekdays, so 21 goes here, and 2 have run, the 2nd and the 3rd, so 2 goes in Days so far.
21 days, not 30. Whitcombe Law, an illustrative account, paces only on the days its ads run.
- 2
Copy the spend to date from your manager account
Open Accounts in your manager account for the 1st of the month to yesterday, and copy each account’s Cost into Spent. Days so far is the days its campaigns ran in that range.
AccountsCustomNov 1 to 3, 2026The manager account’s Accounts report for Nov 1 to 3, 2026, 3 of its 10 illustrative accounts Account Clicks Avg. CPC Cost Calloway HVAC482-913-6620 52 $11.13 $579 Whitcombe Law517-204-8831 24 $28.75 $690 Seabright Pools639-402-1175 41 $4.46 $183 3 of 10 accounts
$579 in Spent. Calloway HVAC, an illustrative account, is at a 116% pace three days in.
- 3
Read the pace and the projection
Pace divides Spent by Expected, the even share to date, so G3 is E3 ÷ F3, a 116% pace for Calloway HVAC. Projected carries that pace to the month’s end, spent ÷ days so far × days in month, rounded down.
H3=IF(OR(B3="",D3=0),"",INT(E3/D3*C3))
$5,790 by the 30th. At a 116% pace, Calloway HVAC, an illustrative account, is flagged Over its $5,000.
- 4
Check the flag, then act
Flag reads Over when Projected passes the monthly budget and Under when it falls below 80% of it. Daily to land is (budget − spent) ÷ days left, rounded down.
If $5,000 is still the plan, run the overspend guide’s three checks, then set the budgets in Google Ads. For Calloway HVAC, Search | Heating stays at $120. Search | Cooling goes from $35 to $20, and PMax | Service from $45 to $23. That makes $163 a day, its Daily to land.
No more than $4,980 in November. For most campaigns, that is Google’s limit once Calloway HVAC, an illustrative account, has Search | Cooling at $20 and PMax | Service at $23.
Why a pacing spreadsheet goes stale
Day counts move every morning. Budgets change mid-month, campaigns pause and new ones start, and new clients arrive with their own budgets. The formula is easy. Doing the check every week, for every account, is the real work. When the month ends, the client report template carries the same figures to the client.
Budget pacingIllustrative accounts
Parallel AI finds the campaign putting Hazelwood Decor on course for $22,386 on $20,000
Pacing Sheet update
Ask Parallel AI and it runs this check across every account you connect. See Parallel AI’s budget pacing software
Questions and answers
Does the spreadsheet work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Open the .xlsx in Google Sheets, Excel or Numbers. The formulas are standard, so every figure recalculates when you change a budget, a day count or the spend. In Excel the Pace column also draws a bar in each cell. Google Sheets and Numbers show the percentage alone.
How are active days counted for a campaign on an ad schedule?
Count only the days the schedule turns the campaign on, in both day columns. A Monday to Friday schedule runs on 21 days in November 2026 and on 2 of them through Tuesday the 3rd, so Whitcombe Law, an illustrative account, takes 21 and 2 in its row. If an account’s campaigns run on different schedules, give each schedule its own row.
Can one spreadsheet handle Google Ads budget tracking across a manager account?
Yes. For MCC budget pacing, give each client account its own row and copy its Cost from the manager account’s Accounts page. Rows 2 to 31 take 30 accounts, the 10 examples and 20 blank rows that fill in as you type, and the total row sums all of them. For more accounts, insert rows above row 31 and copy row 31 into them.
What if a budget changes mid-month?
Enter the month’s new total in Monthly budget and leave the spend as it is. Pace, the flag and Daily to land recalculate, and Projected stays the same, because it comes from spend alone. If Fairmead Vets, an illustrative account in the Sheet, went from $1,600 to $2,000 on the 4th, its $142 so far would leave $1,858 for the 27 days left, $68 a day, and its $1,420 projection, 71% of the new budget, would be flagged Under.
Do other tools pace budgets?
Yes. Optmyzr offers budget pacing and spend projection, TrueClicks offers budget pacing free up to $50K monthly spend, and Adspirer offers a pacing check, each checked November 3, 2026. This Sheet is for anyone who wants the arithmetic in plain view.
Is there a free trial?
Eligible new individual, Team and Agency customers can start a five-day free trial. Select your plan, connect Google Ads and complete checkout with a payment card. The trial includes 25% of that plan’s monthly usage and the same model, Google Ads account and workspace limits. Team and Agency trials share 25% of the selected two-seat plan’s monthly allowance across two people. Unless you cancel in Settings → Billing before the trial ends, your selected subscription starts automatically at the monthly, quarterly or annual price shown at checkout.
Catch the accounts on course to miss their budgets while most of the month is left
In the illustrative book, the straight line flags Calloway HVAC at $5,790 on $5,000. Change history finds Hazelwood Decor heading for $22,386 on $20,000, while the line still says On pace.
When you ask, Parallel AI updates a Sheet like this one in the Office Suite from each connected account’s spend and change history, so it finds what a straight line can’t see.
For a bigger book, Max, Team and Agency connect unlimited Google Ads accounts.Compare Max, Team and Agency on the pricing page
Pro $60 a month connects 10 Google Ads accounts
You connect Google Ads first, then add a card to start the trial.