--- title: "Pacing" canonical: "https://hub.freewheel.tv/space/BC/114131227/Pacing" format: markdown --- Overview Pacing is the algorithmic ability to smooth line item spend across the duration of the day, lifetime, or flight of a given line item. Pacing is able to be applied to Flat CPM, VCR Goal, and Optimized CPM strategies, as well as custom bidding strategies. See Bidding Strategies for more information. When pacing is in use, if a line item has matching targeting, budget, frequency caps, and creative, the pacing algorithm will decide whether or not to bid on a line item based on the line item’s progress towards its pacing target. For any line item using a custom bidding strategy, the pacing algorithm will pace the line item in the exact same way as for the Buyer Cloud standard strategies. For any line item where the algorithm recommends not bidding, the adcandidate (the combination of line item & creative) will be dropped before being sent to the custom bidding agent.   The pacing target rate will always be calculated against the total number of minutes in a day, unless dayparting is stated in the Targeting section of a line item. If so, the pacing rate will be recalculated against the number of minutes that are included in the dayparting. If a daypart is put in place relative to the user's location, pacing will pace to the time zones declared in the Time module of the targeting screen. How it Works On the line item level, pacing options will be displayed in  Essential Settings . The following pacing options appear below: No pacing : Buyer Cloud will not pace for this line item and deliver as fast as possible. Daily : Buyer Cloud will pace towards the daily budget. Buyer Cloud will enforce that the line item has a daily budget when Daily pacing is selected. Lifetime : Buyer Cloud will pace towards the lifetime budget. Buyer Cloud will enforce that the line item has an end date when Lifetime pacing is selected. Flight: Buyer Cloud will evenly pace across the duration of the active flight and pace towards the budget that was allocated to that flight. Buyer Cloud will enforce that all flights have have an associated budget value when flight pacing is selected. Pacing Types Pacing Behavior No Pacing Will spend as fast as matched inventory is available until daily or total budget is hit Lifetime Daily pace target is calculated by dividing the line item total budget by the line item's total duration       Will pace evenly throughout the day and lifetime of the line item If daily budget is higher than paced daily target, the line item will never reach the daily cap If daily cap is lower than paced daily target, the line item will pace until it reaches the daily cap but will likely not hit the total budget For example, a line item with a total budget of $1000 delivering for 10 days, with a daily budget of $200, will spend no more than $100/day Daily Daily pace target is equal to the daily budget Will pace evenly throughout the day to daily pace target Example 1.) A line item with a total budget of $1000 with a lifetime of 10 days with a daily budget of $200 will spend $200/day until it runs out of budget. The line item will accordingly stop spending on day 5. Example 2.) A line item with a total budget of $1000 with a lifetime of 10 days with a daily budget of $50 will spend $50/day. The line item will spend only $500 over the course of 10 days. Flight This option will require: That flights are enabled on the line item (toggled to ‘Yes’).  That all flights have an associated budget value. The aim of this pacing type is to pace evenly across the duration of the active flight and pace towards the budget that was allocated to that flight.  Validation exists in the UI to ensure that there is no overlap between flight dates in order to ensure smooth operation of the pacing behavior. Pacing Customization Options When a pacing option of Lifetime, Daily, or Flight is selected, additional pacing customizations will appear. Learn more about these options below: Pacing Behavior Pacing behavior determines the rate at which the budget is spent. Options include: Even Even pacing will evenly distribute the budget during the lifetime, day, or flight duration. This type is best for those who want to spend the same amount of money during the campaign duration and the inventory is consistent. Even is the default setting chosen. For example, a $100 budget distributed over 10 hours would try to spend about $10 per hour. Ahead Ahead pacing front-loads spend relative to Even pacing. It allows the line item to spend more aggressively earlier in the pacing window and then gradually reduce pace later. This option is best for those whose main goal is to avoid any risk of under-delivery. For example: With Even pacing, a $100 budget over 10 hours would target about $10 per hour. With Ahead pacing, delivery would is more front-loaded, so early hours may spend above the even rate, and later hours may spend below it so the budget still completes on schedule. Multiplier The multiplier is a setting that controls the speed of spending. The speed is represented by a decimal value between 1.0 and 3.0. For example, setting the multiplier to 1.05 will cause the budget to behave as if it is 5% larger, leading to quicker spend for a given line item. A numerical value should be entered in this field and is configured during the creation of a line item . Pacing Speed Increase Multiplier Value 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 3 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 110% 120% 130% 140% 150% 160% 170% 180% 190% 200% Catchup Behavior Catchup behavior determines how the pacemaker responds when the budget delivery falls behind and inventory becomes suddenly available at a certain point. Options include: Immediate  - When inventory becomes available, it will try to use all spend immediately to catchup. Even  - Will evenly catchup to the desired spend rate. Smooth - Will spend slightly more in the beginning when the inventory is available and gradually catchup with the target spend rate. To understand how to apply these customizations to a line item, please see Create a Line Item . Using Lifetime Pacing or Daily Pacing with Line Item Flights A line item may be divided into flights a user can choose not to assign each flight its own budget, but instead opt to pace towards the overall line item budget. In these circumstances, users may opt towards Lifetime Pacing or Daily Pacing as the Pacing type. Pacing Option Behavior Flight Pace evenly towards each Flight’s budget over the lifetime of the Flight.  Lifetime Pace evenly towards the Line Item’s lifetime budget. Take into account any excluded days/hours as specified by your Flight start and end date and times.  Daily Pace evenly towards the Line Item’s daily budget. Take into account any excluded hours in a given day as specified when setting your Flight start and end date and times. No Pacing Do not pace; will spend ASAP. If a line item has a flight end date hardcoded into its configuration, it is considered a "flighted" line item. In these cases, changing the pacing type from Flight to None ( Spend ASAP ) is not supported and will prevent the line item from bidding. To continue spending, the line item must retain a Flight pacing type. Please ensure flighted line items maintain their original pacing configuration to avoid interruptions in delivery. Pacing with Delivery Modifiers When delivery modifiers are in use, each modifier term is treated as its own pacing entity. When a delivery modifier is applied to a campaign or line item: The line item budget is allocated across modifier terms according to their configured weights. Then, each modifier term paces independently against its allocated share of the budget. This is important to keep in mind when using more advanced pacing setups, because pacing behavior may differ across modifier terms, based on inventory availability and budget allocation. Note that changing delivery modifiers can cause the pacing to recalculate. Training Resources