Pacing
Pacing is the algorithmic ability to smooth line item spend across the duration of the day or lifetime of a line item. Pacing is able to be applied to Flat CPM with Pacing, Video Completion Rate with Pacing, and Optimized CPM with Pacing strategies as well as to custom bidding strategies.
On the line item level, pacing options will be displayed for the customer to choose from. You can choose between “No pacing”, “Daily”, “Lifetime” and "Flight" pacing.
No pacing: AIDEM DSP will not pace for this line item and deliver as fast as possible.
Daily: AIDEM DSP will pace towards the daily budget. Buzz will enforce that the line item has a daily budget when Daily pacing is selected
Lifetime: AIDEM DSP will pace towards the lifetime budget. Buzz will enforce that the line item has an end date when Lifetime pacing is selected
Flight: AIDEM DSP will evenly pace across the duration of the active flight and pace towards the budget that was allocated to that flight The system will enforce that all flights have have an associated budget value when flight pacing is selected.
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 AIDEM DSP standard strategies.
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. 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 timezones declared in the Time module of the targeting screen.
The below table summarizes the pacing behavior for paced Line Items.
| Pacing | Behavior |
|---|---|
| No Pacing | Will spend as fast as matched inventory is available until daily or total budget is hit |
| Lifetime |
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 |
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:
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 behaviour. |
Using Lifetime Pacing or Daily Pacing with Line Item Flights
Your line item may be divided into Flights and you choose not to assign each Flight its own budget, but instead opt to pace towards the overall Line Item budget. In these circumstances, you can 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 |
FAQ
What happens if I set a flight budget that my line item is unable to achieve? Will any unspent budget roll over to future flights?
No, there is no roll over budget to future flights. We also do not support an option to fallback to Lifetime budget for the Line Item after the final flight.
Can I set different daily budgets for different flights and pace towards those daily budgets?
No, we do not currently have an option to set a daily budget within a flight. This is true with or without pacing. Customers can however use Daily pacing on a Line Item with Flights.