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Pacing & Dayparts

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  1. Home
  2. Bidder Documentation
  3. Pacing & Dayparts

Pacing & Dayparts

Pacing & Dayparts control how budget is distributed throughout each day and when impressions are eligible to serve.

These settings can be configured at either the Campaign or Line level:

  • When Manage Dayparts is enabled on the Campaign, the Campaign’s Pacing & Dayparts settings apply across its Lines.
  • When Manage Dayparts is not enabled, Pacing & Dayparts can be configured independently at the Line level.

Use Campaign-level settings when the same pacing strategy and schedule should apply across all Lines. Use Line-level settings when individual Lines require different pacing behavior or delivery windows.

Configure Pacing & Dayparts

  1. Open the applicable Campaign or Line in Edit mode.
  2. Navigate to the Pacing & Dayparts section.
  3. Select the applicable Daily Pacing Type.
  4. Configure the pacing curve settings, when applicable.
  5. Enable or disable Catch-up ASAP as needed.
  6. Configure the applicable Dayparts.
  7. Choose whether Dayparts should be evaluated in the User Time Zone.
  8. Review the configuration and select Submit to save.

Pacing Time Zone

The Campaign Pacing Time Zone, configured in Campaign Setup, determines the time zone used to define daily pacing boundaries and evaluate Daily Pacing weights.

Primetime and Custom pacing weighted curves are evaluated according to this time zone.

Dayparts also use the Campaign Pacing Time Zone unless Daypart in User Time Zone is enabled.

Daily Pacing Type

Daily Pacing Type controls how the available daily budget is distributed throughout each pacing day.

Available pacing types include:

  • Even: Spends the daily and lifetime budgets as evenly as possible.
  • ASAP: Spends the daily budget as quickly as possible while pacing the lifetime budget evenly.
  • Primetime: Uses a predefined hourly weighting curve to favor higher-weighted hours in the selected Pacing Time Zone.
  • Custom: Uses a user-configured hourly weighting curve in the selected Pacing Time Zone. Apply the custom curve to all days or configure individual curves by day.

Apply Curve to All Days

Apply Curve to All Days is available when Custom Daily Pacing is selected and is selected by default for Primetime.

When enabled, the same hourly pacing weights are applied across all selected days. When disabled, pacing weights can be configured independently for each selected day and hour.

Custom Daily Curve Applied to All Days Example
Individual Custom Daily Curves Example

Catch-up ASAP

Catch-up ASAP allows underspent budget to spend more aggressively when delivery falls behind pace.

While Catch-up ASAP is active, it overrides the configured Daily Budget and Daily Pacing Type so delivery can increase until pacing returns to 100%.

Once pacing catches up, delivery returns to the selected Daily Pacing configuration.

Catch-up ASAP is different from selecting ASAP as the Daily Pacing Type:

  • ASAP Daily Pacing: Controls how the current day’s available budget is spent. The daily budget is spent as quickly as possible while the overall lifetime budget continues pacing toward the Campaign or Line goal.
  • Catch-up ASAP: Activates only when delivery is behind pace. It temporarily overrides the configured Daily Budget and Daily Pacing Type to help recover underspent budget, then returns to the configured pacing settings once pacing reaches 100%.

Catch-up ASAP should be used carefully when a restrictive Daily Budget Cap is configured, because the cap may limit the additional delivery needed to catch up.

Daypart in User Time Zone

Daypart in User Time Zone determines which time zone is used to evaluate Daypart eligibility.

  • When enabled, Dayparts are evaluated using each user’s local day and hour.
  • When disabled, Dayparts are evaluated using the Campaign’s selected Pacing Time Zone.

This setting affects Daypart eligibility only. It does not shift Daily Pacing or its hourly weighting curve into the user’s local time zone.

Dayparts

Dayparts determine the days and hours when impressions are eligible to serve.

Use Dayparts to restrict delivery to selected periods, such as:

  • Specific days of the week
  • Business hours
  • Evening or Primetime periods
  • Other scheduled delivery windows

An impression is eligible only when it falls within an enabled Daypart period.

US National Best Practices

For national US Campaigns using a single Pacing Time Zone, Central Time is recommended as a practical default because it provides a more balanced alignment across Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific audiences.

For national campaigns using Primetime pacing, consider using a Custom pacing curve that combines the Primetime periods of the targeted US time zones.

If Central Time is used as the Pacing Time Zone, an 8 PM local Primetime peak corresponds approximately to:

  • Eastern Time: 7 PM CT
  • Central Time: 8 PM CT
  • Mountain Time: 9 PM CT
  • Pacific Time: 10 PM CT

If targeting the broader US, Alaska Time and Hawaii-Aleutian Time can also be incorporated into the Custom curve.

Rather than producing a single sharp Primetime peak, a combined curve creates a broader evening delivery window as Primetime moves across the country.

Choosing Campaign-Level vs Line-Level Pacing

Use Campaign-level Pacing & Dayparts when:

  • The same Daily Pacing Type should apply across all Lines.
  • All Lines should follow the same Daypart schedule.
  • Centralized pacing management is preferred.

Use Line-level Pacing & Dayparts when:

  • Different Lines require different Daily Pacing Types.
  • Different Lines need different Daypart schedules.
  • Individual Line strategies should be managed independently.

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