> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Spend vs Budget, MediaMath > Spend vs Budget for MediaMath stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Key Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ad Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > Pacing check on MediaMath budgets. **Important MediaMath caveat (May 26)**: post-restructure platform billing has occasionally produced delayed-batch artefacts that distort intra-period pacing. **If pacing reads materially different from what T1 UI shows**, suspect a billing-batch event before assuming campaign-level overspend. | | | | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **What it counts** | `spent_to_date ÷ budget_for_period`, expressed as percentage. Budget from campaign-level monthly caps in T1; spend from real-time T1 reporting. | | **Cost basis** | Mostly CPM (display, video, CTV, audio); CPC for some display. | | **Currency** | Account currency. | | **Conversion attribution** | Not applicable. | | **Attribution window** | Not applicable. | | **Bot / invalid traffic** | IVT-credited spend reduces spent figure on 7, 14 day correction cadence. | | **Time window** | `T/30D`. | | **Alert trigger** | `>90% used before 80% of period`. On MediaMath, alerts most often signal (a) Brain exiting learning, (b) PMP deal kicking in, (c) seasonal CPM rise, **(d) post-restructure billing batch**, watch for jumps that don't reconcile to T1 spent figures. | | **Roles** | owner, marketing, finance | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your MediaMath data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example The same enterprise homeware brand. Period 01 Apr 26 to 30 Apr 26. Today 18 Apr 26 (60% elapsed). | Campaign | Channel | Monthly budget (\$) | Spent (\$) | % budget | Pacing status | | ----------------------------- | ------- | ------------------- | ------------ | -------- | ---------------------------- | | Display Prospecting (Brain) | Display | 36,000 | 24,800 | 69% | On pace | | **CTV Premium PMP, NBC** | CTV | 40,000 | **28,400** | **71%** | **Mild over (NBA playoffs)** | | Video Pre-roll | Video | 18,000 | 12,200 | 68% | On pace | | Retargeting | Display | 10,000 | 6,800 | 68% | On pace | | **Account total (this card)** | | **\$104,000** | **\$72,200** | **69%** | **On pace (mild over 9pp)** | What's interesting: 1. **Account at 69% pacing vs 60% elapsed = mild overpacing (9pp ahead).** Within healthy band. The CTV NBA playoffs effect is the main driver. 2. **CTV at 71% pacing** is the campaign-level alert. Same NBA-driven CPM rise we'd expect on TTD or DV360; not MediaMath-specific. **Action**: monitor through end of playoffs (\~21 Apr 26) and either accept the seasonal premium or cap the daily spend if budget needs to last. 3. **Reconciliation check**: the \$72,200 here should match T1 UI's spend figure. **If it does not**, do not assume the card is wrong; on MediaMath specifically, billing-batch artefacts can cause the T1 UI itself to misreport intermittently. Reconcile both against your own monthly invoice for the canonical figure. 4. **The 30D prior had pacing 64% at 60% elapsed**, slightly tighter. This window's 69% pacing is the alert but at the low end of "investigate"; not the kind of alert that demands immediate action. 5. **If you're running TTD in parallel during migration evaluation**, compare cross-DSP pacing. If TTD is well-paced and MediaMath is overpaced on similar inventory, the MediaMath Brain bidding may be ramping more aggressively than Koa; a campaign-config issue rather than a market issue. Quick sanity tests: * Pacing ≈ time-elapsed ± 5pp = healthy. * Pacing > time-elapsed by 10, 20pp = mild overpacing; usually Brain ramping or seasonal CPM. * Pacing > time-elapsed by 30+pp = something accelerated sharply OR a billing-batch artefact; reconcile to T1 UI before throttling. * Pacing \< time-elapsed by 15+pp = underspending; Brain failing to find inventory at your bid; raise CPM or expand audience. * Account-level pacing reads different from sum of T1 campaign pacing = post-restructure batch issue; investigate before acting. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Spend vs Budget | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [MediaMath Total Spend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/mediamath/total-spend) | Numerator. | | [MediaMath Spend by Campaign](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/mediamath/spend-by-campaign) | Where the overpacing originated. | | [MediaMath Overspending Campaigns](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/mediamath/overspending-campaigns) | Campaign-level pacing list. | | [MediaMath Underspending Campaigns](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/mediamath/underspending-campaigns) | Reallocation candidates. | | [MediaMath ROAS](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/mediamath/roas) | Pacing alert with high ROAS = raise cap; with low ROAS = throttle. | | [The Trade Desk Spend vs Budget](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/the-trade-desk/spend-vs-budget) | Peer pacing comparison during migration evaluation. If both DSPs simultaneously overpace, suspect cross-DSP CPM pressure (not platform-specific). | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in MediaMath T1:** [T1 → Campaigns → per-campaign budget and pacing column](https://t1.mediamath.com/). T1 also surfaces a campaign-level pacing indicator. The account-level total in this card sums per-campaign budgets and per-campaign spend. **Why our number may legitimately differ from T1:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Time zone** | Pacing % off ±5pp on day-1/day-30 | Org TZ vs UTC. | | **Real-time spent lag** | Card pacing slightly low for "today" | Up to 4-hour ingest lag (longer than peer DSPs). | | **Post-restructure billing artefact** | Direction varies | Occasional batch-processing delays on the post-restructure platform; reconcile to T1 UI plus monthly invoice for the canonical figure. | | **Budget hierarchy** | Card uses configured budgets only | Some accounts set portfolio-level budgets; this card aggregates campaign-level only. | | **Mid-period budget changes** | Direction depends | Card uses current budget; pacing reflows. | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | [`the_trade_desk.the_spend_vs_budget`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/the-trade-desk/spend-vs-budget) | Independent. Compare during migration evaluation. | Different inventory pools, different bidder ramp profiles. | | [`stackadapt.sta_spend_vs_budget`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/stackadapt/spend-vs-budget) | Independent; different segment. | Mid-market vs enterprise. | | [`google_ads.gads_spend_vs_budget`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-ads/spend-vs-budget) | Independent; benchmark only. | Search vs programmatic pacing patterns. | ## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Why is my MediaMath pacing different from what T1 UI shows?** On MediaMath specifically, post-restructure billing-batch artefacts can create transient pacing differences between the API-fed view (this card) and the T1 UI display. **The canonical figure is the monthly invoice**, not either real-time view. For intra-month decisions, reconcile both views and pick whichever appears more current; for monthly close, defer to invoice. **My account is overpaced by 25pp, should I throttle immediately?** On MediaMath, **reconcile to T1 UI first**. If T1 UI shows similar overpacing, treat as real and throttle. If T1 UI shows on-pace and this card shows over-pace, suspect a billing-batch artefact and wait 24, 48 hours for reconciliation. This is the connector where "trust the alert" needs an extra step. **Should I rely on T1's per-campaign daily caps?** Yes, set both daily and monthly caps. Daily caps prevent Brain from front-loading the month. Standard formula: daily cap = monthly cap ÷ days remaining × 1.3. **My MediaMath pacing dropped sharply, what happened?** Common causes: (1) Brain auto-paused a campaign hitting bid floors; (2) inventory partner reduced supply post-restructure; (3) creative was disapproved; (4) seasonal CPM shift below your bid. **Less common but specific to this connector**: occasional T1 reporting lags that delay the spent figure update; check the actual delivery via campaign-level impression counts before assuming a real spend drop. **Why does my MediaMath pacing look more volatile than my TTD pacing?** Reporting lag is longer (1, 4 hours vs 30, 60 minutes on TTD). The same volume of intra-day spend appears more bursty on MediaMath because catchup batches are larger when they post. Real campaign delivery is no more volatile; it's a reporting infrastructure difference. **Can I rely on this card for end-of-month spend prediction?** Yes for the trajectory, with a wider confidence band than peer DSPs. Predicted end-of-month spend on MediaMath should be treated as ±10% accurate (vs ±5% on TTD/DV360). Build that into your forecasting. **Should I migrate budget away from MediaMath if pacing is unreliable?** Pacing reliability alone isn't a migration trigger; ROAS reliability is more important. If your MediaMath ROAS reads consistently within range and the deal is good, accept the pacing-reporting wobble as a known platform quirk. If ROAS is also degrading or unreliable, that's the migration signal. **What's the post-restructure billing artefact pattern I should watch for?** The most common: a batch of impressions delivered earlier in the month posts to the spend ledger 3, 5 days late, creating an apparent "spend spike" on a day when no campaigns ramped. The pacing card alerts; reconciliation to T1 UI shows the spend was already there but invisible. **Pattern**: spike on a single day with no corresponding impression increase = batch artefact, not real spend. **How does this card handle Q4 / Black Friday peak?** Same as peer DSPs: it doesn't auto-adjust. Q4 CPM rises 30, 80%; if budgets are flat, pacing will look catastrophic in late November. Increase budgets seasonally or interpret the alert in seasonal context. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Spend vs Budget* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across MediaMath and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.