Field notes
Reading pacing gaps before Monday trading
Most buying desks in Bangkok and the Eastern Seaboard still open the week with a scramble: three channel UIs, one finance sheet, and a verbal guess at whether search is under-paced. A calmer habit is to lock a visual pacing strip on Friday from the same export cutoff every week.
Pull spend to date against the monthly budget line your finance team recognizes—not the temporary campaign goal inside an ad account. Plot the expected straight-line pace beside actual cumulative spend. Gaps larger than your agreed tolerance (many pods use 10–15% by mid-month) get a one-line note, not a full essay.
Under-pacing early is often inventory or creative approval, not “the team forgot to buy.” Over-pacing late often hides weekend flights that never made the Monday board. The visual does not replace judgment; it gives the standup a shared object to argue about.
If your exports arrive late on Friday, move the cutoff to Thursday and accept a slightly stale Monday pack. Consistency beats perfection when traders only have twelve minutes before calls begin.