April 2026 - Campaigns Overpacing

🔍 What This Validation Monitor Does

This month's Validation Monitor of the Month helps you catch campaigns that are burning through budget too fast before they overspend.

While under delivery is a problem, over delivery can be just as costly. A campaign that's pacing at 150% might sound like a win until you realise it's going to blow through its monthly budget in two weeks. This monitor flags campaigns that are tracking ahead of their delivery goals, giving you time to adjust pacing before the budget runs out.

This is the flip side of November's "Pacing Below Delivery Target" monitor—catching campaigns that are moving too fast instead of too slow.

• Using Freewheel? Jump to the Freewheel setup ↓

• Using Google Ad Manager (GAM)? Jump to the GAM setup ↓

💡 Why It Matters

Budget overruns create awkward conversations. When a campaign burns through its budget early, you're either delivering uncompensated impressions or explaining to the client why their campaign stopped mid-flight. Neither option is great.

The tricky part is that over pacing often looks like success at first glance—high delivery numbers, strong performance. But if a campaign scheduled to run for 30 days hits its goal in 15, you've got a problem. Catching these situations early gives you options: adjust pacing, coordinate with the client, or plan for what happens when the budget runs out.

This monitor does that watching for you, automatically flagging campaigns that are ahead of schedule so you can make informed decisions before the budget disappears.

🧩 Deployment by Ad Server

Freewheel

Example Use Case: Flag any active campaigns pacing above their delivery target.

1. Go to the Monitoring Module in the top hand rail of the Watching That interface

2. Select the 'Validation' tab within the Monitoring Module

3. Click the pink + Add Validation Monitor button at the top right

Open

Open

4. In the 'From DataSource' dropdown, select your Freewheel source

5. In 'Dimension', select 'Placement' or 'Campaign' depending on which level you want to monitor

6. In the first filter select 'Status' from the Field name dropdown. When you select 'Status' the filters change and the next field shows 'exists'. Change 'exists' to 'one of' This adds a third filter option, from this drop down select 'Active'

7. After setting the first filter row, click the blue 'Add Filter' button with the funnel icon at the bottom left. This adds another filter row

8. In the new filter row, search for 'on_schedule_indicator' and select it from the Field name dropdown. (Tip: This field shows the pacing percentage.) Change the middle filter from 'exists' to '>' (greater than). In the third filter field, enter your threshold—for example, '110' to flag anything pacing 10% or more above target, or '120' for a 20% threshold. Tip: Start with a higher threshold like 120% and adjust down based on what feels manageable for your team

9. From here we do recommend adding more filters to make the monitor more actionable. (Tip: There's no limit to the amount of filters you can add to a Validation Monitor.) For example, filtering by specific Advertiser or Campaign types helps you focus on priority accounts where budget control is critical

10. You might also want to add a filter for campaigns that still have time remaining (e.g., end date is after today) so you're not flagging campaigns that are naturally finishing up

11. Name your Monitor on the right-hand side (something like "Campaigns Over pacing - 120%" works well)

12. Optionally, add a description for your Monitor

13. There is a notification channel option, but instant alerts are not currently available for Validation Monitors (VMs), so leave this blank for now

14. Click Save to finish

Your monitor should look like the below:

Open

Google Ad Manager (GAM)

Example Use Case: Flag any active line items pacing above their delivery target.

1. Go to the Monitoring Module in the top hand rail of the Watching That interface

2. Select the 'Validation' tab within the Monitoring Module

3. Click the pink + Add Validation Monitor button at the top right

Open

Open

4. In the 'From DataSource' dropdown, select your GAM source

5. In 'Dimension', select 'GAM: Line Item'

6. In the first filter select 'Status' from the Field name dropdown. When you select 'Status' the filters change and the next field shows 'exists'. Change 'exists' to 'one of' This adds a third filter option, from this drop down select 'Delivering'

7. After setting the first filter row, click the blue 'Add Filter' button with the funnel icon at the bottom left. This adds another filter row

8. In the second filter row, you'll need to use delivery and goal metrics to calculate pacing. Look for fields like 'deliveryIndicator.actualDeliveryPercentage' or similar pacing metrics from GAM. (Tip: The exact field name may vary based on your GAM setup—search for 'delivery' or 'pacing' to find available metrics.) Set it to flag when delivery percentage is above your threshold (e.g., > 120)

9. From here we do recommend adding more filters (Tip: There's no limit to the amount of filters you can add to a Validation Monitor.) Adding filters like 'advertiser.name' or 'order.name' helps you focus on accounts where budget control matters most

10. Consider adding a filter for line items that still have time remaining in their flight, so you're catching truly problematic pacing rather than campaigns naturally finishing up

11. Name your Monitor on the right-hand side (e.g., "Line Items Overpacing - 120%")

12. Optionally, add a description for your Monitor

13. There is a notification channel option, but instant alerts are not currently available for Validation Monitors (VMs), so leave this blank

14. Click Save to finish

Your monitor should look like the below:

Open

🚀 Best Practice Tips

• Start conservative: Begin with a higher threshold (like 120% or 130%) and adjust down based on what feels manageable for your team

• Pair with time checks: Combine pacing filters with flight date filters to focus on campaigns that still have significant time remaining

• Create tiers: Set up multiple monitors with different thresholds (e.g., "Moderate Overpacing - 115%" and "Critical Overpacing - 130%") to prioritize your attention

• Focus on high-value accounts: Use advertiser or order filters to watch your most important clients more closely

• Check regularly: Review this monitor daily during the first week of new campaigns when pacing issues are most likely to appear

• Coordinate early: When a campaign shows up here, reach out to stakeholders quickly—you have more options the earlier you catch it

• Validation Monitor email digest - After creating your monitor, contact support@watchingthat.com to set up a daily digest that delivers monitor status updates to your inbox