All guides, by feature
Plan a campaign’s budget across months
On the Budgets tab, press Months on a campaign, or tick several and press Plan months, then pick a shape and save.
Before you start
- Who can do this
- Anyone at your agency
- Where in Orbit
- Sidebar › Workspace › Pacing
Steps
Tick a step’s number when it’s done. We’ll remember where you were.
Open Pacing and choose the Budgets tab.
Press Months on a campaign. For several at once, tick them and press Plan months.
Pick a : Even, Front-loaded, Back-loaded, Ramp to event, Seasonal or Custom.
Fill in Note to say why.
Press Save plan, or Apply to with your number of campaigns.
When it worked
Orbit confirms “Monthly budget plan saved”, or for several, “Shape applied to” with how many campaigns it reached. Shaped months show [[Shaped]] under [[Source]].
If something goes wrong
Orbit showsA note is required
Fill in Note and save again.
One month didn’t change.
Months with a plan or typed budget keep it. A shape fills only months with neither.
A month that’s started won’t change.
Months that have started are locked. Tick Replan past months too (normally locked once a month has started) to include them.
Orbit showscampaign lines have different flight dates — align them via flight overrides first
Give the lines the same flight dates first, then plan them together.
How it works
Explainer: Where pacing budgets come from
Each month of a line has one budget. It comes from the line’s media plan, from an amount you type, from a monthly shape plan or, if none of those exist, an even split of the flight total.
| Source | What it means |
|---|---|
| From plan | Taken from the line’s media plan. Changing it in Pacing doesn’t change the plan. |
| Set by hand | Typed in Pacing. |
| Shape plan (Shaped on Budgets) | From a monthly shape plan you saved. Used only for months with no plan or typed budget. |
| Even split | No monthly budget, so Orbit divides the flight total by days. Confirm or change it. |
- A plan or typed budget beats a shape plan, which beats an even split.
- Even split for a month = flight total × the flight’s days in that month ÷ the flight’s total days.
- When any line uses an even split, a banner says how many campaigns have no monthly budget in their media plan. Confirm or change those before trusting the numbers.
- Every change is saved as a new entry, so earlier amounts stay in Budget history. Budgets can’t be deleted; enter a new amount instead.
- In Pacing, the only way to add a line is to give a budget to a campaign that’s spending without one.
Limits: Pacing limits
Pacing covers 12 months back to 6 months ahead, counts spend through yesterday in your agency’s timezone, and has no way to delete budgets or lines.
- The month picker goes 12 months back and 6 months ahead. The Budgets grid shows last month through 6 months ahead.
- Spend runs through yesterday. “Today” follows your agency’s timezone, America/New_York by default, and there’s no setting for it in Orbit.
- Budgets can’t be deleted, only replaced with a new amount.
- There’s no way to remove a line, hide an unmatched campaign, or match a campaign to an existing line.
- The trend chart covers 5 months back to 2 months ahead and counts only plan or typed budgets. Months on an even split or shape plan count as $0 there.
- Months and days that have started are locked from replanning unless you tick the option to replan them.
- The Excel export has no margin, profit or impression columns.