At a glance
Pacing check on TTD budgets vs period elapsed. Koa’s auto-bid is well-calibrated (less prone to runaway ramps than peer DSP bidders), but CTV peak hours and DOOH inventory deals can still drive concentrated overpacing. TTD also offers Predictive Pacing (auto-throttle when forecast end-of-period spend exceeds budget), which reduces but doesn’t eliminate pacing alerts.
| What it counts | spent_to_date ÷ budget_for_period percentage. Budget from TTD campaign-level monthly caps; spend from real-time TTD reporting. |
| Cost basis | Mostly CPM (display, video, CTV, audio, DOOH); CPC for some display. |
| Currency | Account currency. |
| Conversion attribution | Not applicable. |
| Attribution window | Not applicable. |
| Bot / invalid traffic | IVT-credits reduce spent figure on 7, 14 day cadence (smaller than peers because TTD’s pre-bid IVT is stricter). |
| Time window | T/30D. |
| Alert trigger | >90% used before 80% of period. On TTD, alerts most often signal (a) CTV peak hours pressure (sports, awards, holidays), (b) PMP deal kicking in, (c) DOOH campaign launch (DOOH spend tends to be lumpy), (d) Koa graduation. Predictive Pacing should auto-throttle most over-paces; if it didn’t, check whether it’s enabled on the campaign. |
| Roles | owner, marketing, finance |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your The Trade Desk 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 | Predictive Pacing | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display Prospecting (Koa) | Display | 40,000 | 28,200 | 71% | enabled | On pace |
| CTV Premium PMP, Disney+/Hulu | CTV | 60,000 | 42,800 | 71% | enabled | On pace (NBA managed) |
| CTV Open Exchange | CTV | 26,000 | 18,400 | 71% | enabled | On pace |
| Video Pre-roll (YouTube) | Video | 24,000 | 16,200 | 68% | enabled | On pace |
| DOOH | DOOH | 12,000 | 8,400 | 70% | disabled (lumpy delivery) | Mild over |
| Audio | Audio | 6,000 | 4,200 | 70% | enabled | On pace |
| Retargeting (UID 2.0) | Display + Video | 14,000 | 9,800 | 70% | enabled | On pace |
| Account total (this card) | $182,000 | $128,000 | 70% | On pace (10pp over) |
- Account at 70% pacing vs 60% elapsed = 10pp over, healthy band. Predictive Pacing is doing its job; without it, the NBA playoffs CTV CPM rise would have driven 80, 85% pacing without any human intervention.
- CTV Premium PMP at 71% with NBA playoffs running is a quiet success: Predictive Pacing detected the seasonal CPM spike and throttled delivery to maintain monthly cap discipline. Compare to MediaMath worked example (no auto-throttle), where the same NBA event would have driven 83% pacing.
- DOOH at 70% has Predictive Pacing disabled by design; DOOH inventory delivery is lumpy (book a billboard for a week, deliver in concentrated bursts) so auto-throttle would create campaign-level disruption. Manual budget management is correct for DOOH.
- No campaigns in alert band, the account is well-managed. This is the typical TTD shape; Predictive Pacing prevents most pacing alerts before they escalate.
- Compared to peer DSPs: TTD’s Predictive Pacing reduces pacing alert frequency by 60, 80% vs StackAdapt or MediaMath running similar campaigns. The operational quality-of-life difference is meaningful for enterprise teams.
- Pacing ≈ time-elapsed ± 5pp = healthy.
- Pacing > time-elapsed by 10, 15pp = mild over; Predictive Pacing handling.
- Pacing > time-elapsed by 20+pp = Predictive Pacing isn’t enabled on the campaign (check) OR something happened that overrode it.
- DOOH overpacing is normal (lumpy delivery); judge across the full month, not intra-week.
- Pacing < time-elapsed by 15+pp = inventory shortage or bid below floor; raise CPM.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Spend vs Budget |
|---|---|
| TTD Total Spend | Numerator. |
| TTD Spend by Campaign | Channel-level pacing breakdown. |
| TTD Overspending Campaigns | Per-campaign pacing list. |
| TTD Underspending Campaigns | Reallocation candidates. |
| TTD ROAS | Pacing alert with high ROAS = raise cap; with low ROAS = throttle. |
| StackAdapt Spend vs Budget | Mid-market peer; benchmark only. |
| MediaMath Spend vs Budget | Migration peer; pacing reliability comparison. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in TTD: TTD Platform → Campaigns and check the per-campaign budget, pacing indicator, and Predictive Pacing status. TTD’s pacing UI is more polished than peer DSPs, includes forecast end-of-period spend natively. Why our number may legitimately differ from TTD:| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Time zone | Pacing % off ±3pp on day-1/day-30 | Advertiser TZ vs UTC. Tighter than peers because TTD’s intra-day sync is more frequent. |
| Real-time spent lag | Card pacing slightly low for “today” | 15, 30 minute ingest. |
| Predictive Pacing intervention | None | Both this card and TTD UI reflect the throttled spend. |
| Budget hierarchy | Card uses configured budgets only | Some accounts set seat-level or campaign-group budgets above campaign budgets; this card aggregates campaign-level. |
| Mid-period budget changes | Direction depends | Card uses current budget; pacing reflows. |
| Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence |
|---|---|---|
stackadapt.sta_spend_vs_budget | Independent. | Different segment focus. |
mediamath.med_spend_vs_budget | Independent. TTD has Predictive Pacing; MediaMath does not. | TTD pacing alerts fire less frequently. |
google_ads.gads_spend_vs_budget | Independent; benchmark only. | Different pacing patterns. |