Google Ads budget pacing scripts: a practical guide

What is budget pacing?

Pacing compares how fast an account is spending against where it should be for the month. If you have a $35,000 monthly target and you are 14 days in having spent $18,240, a simple run-rate projection puts you around $39,000 by month end, roughly 12% over. Pacing scripts calculate that projection automatically and alert you the moment an account drifts off target.

A working pacing script

Paste this into Tools & Settings, Bulk actions, Scripts in Google Ads, then authorize and schedule it to run daily. It sums month-to-date cost, projects a month-end total, and emails you when the account is pacing over threshold.

function main() {
  const TARGET = 35000;        // monthly budget target
  const ALERT_THRESHOLD = 0.1; // alert at 10% over pace

  const now = new Date();
  const dayOfMonth = now.getDate();
  const daysInMonth = new Date(now.getFullYear(), now.getMonth() + 1, 0).getDate();

  // Month-to-date cost across the account
  const report = AdsApp.report(
    "SELECT metrics.cost_micros " +
    "FROM customer " +
    "WHERE segments.date DURING THIS_MONTH"
  );
  let costMicros = 0;
  const rows = report.rows();
  while (rows.hasNext()) {
    costMicros += Number(rows.next()["metrics.cost_micros"]);
  }
  const mtdSpend = costMicros / 1e6;

  // Simple run-rate projection
  const projected = (mtdSpend / dayOfMonth) * daysInMonth;
  const pace = projected / TARGET - 1;

  Logger.log("MTD: $" + mtdSpend.toFixed(0));
  Logger.log("Projected: $" + projected.toFixed(0));

  if (pace > ALERT_THRESHOLD) {
    MailApp.sendEmail(
      "you@example.com",
      "Budget pacing alert",
      "Projected $" + projected.toFixed(0) +
      " vs target $" + TARGET +
      " (" + (pace * 100).toFixed(0) + "% over pace)."
    );
  }
}

Customizing the script

• Change the target. Set TARGET to each account's monthly budget, or read it from a Google Sheet so non-technical teammates can update it.
• Tune the alert threshold. Lower ALERT_THRESHOLD to catch drift earlier, or raise it to cut noise on volatile accounts.
• Smarter projections. Weight recent days more heavily, or exclude weekends, if your spend curve is not linear across the month.
• Multiple recipients. Swap MailApp.sendEmail for a comma separated list, or post to Slack via a webhook.

Where scripts fall short

Scripts are powerful but they live inside a single Google Ads account, run on Google's schedule, and break quietly when the API changes. They also do not cover Meta Ads, so cross-channel budgets still need stitching together by hand. If you manage many accounts or want one view across Google and Meta, a dedicated tool saves the maintenance overhead.