Seller Centre

Seller Announcement

Introducing monthly budget pacing for Promoted Stores

At eBay, we're committed to empowering sellers with tools that enhance their marketing strategies. As part of this commitment, we're excited to announce an update to our budget management approach for Promoted Stores campaigns. Starting October 28th, 2025, we'll introduce budget pacing for Promoted Stores campaigns and transition from daily to monthly budget averaging, offering greater flexibility and optimisation opportunities.

 

What's changing

  • Currently, Promoted Stores campaigns optimise daily budgets and your spend never exceeds the amount you set for that day. This approach has facilitated effective budget management, but we're evolving to provide even more strategic advantages.
  • Beginning October 28th, 2025, we'll enhance our Promoted Stores campaigns by implementing budget pacing and optimisation, and transitioning from daily to monthly budget averaging.
  • This means your campaigns will optimise spending over a calendar month, without exceeding 30.4 times your target daily budget. On any given day, you could spend less than your target daily budget, or up to double the highest target daily budget in effect on that day.
  • If your campaign hits its daily spend limit, which can be up to double the target daily budget, it will pause showing ads until the budget window resets the next day. Spending won't always reach double the daily budget, as it varies based on factors like traffic and competition. However, if you increase the target daily budget for a campaign marked as
    "Limited by budget," your ads will be eligible to appear again.
    This change allows us to allocate your budget more efficiently, capitalising on peak traffic days with the potential for more sales opportunities, while ensuring opportunities are consistently captured each day.

 

How it works

Your target daily budget will serve as a guideline for calculating your potential monthly spend. We will optimise spending across a given calendar month, helping you spend more of your advertising budget on high-opportunity days and less on others. This approach aims to make your campaigns more effective, leveraging busy periods for better results. 

 

Understanding changes made during the month

With the shift to monthly budget pacing, consider these important scenarios:

 

Mid-month campaign start:

  • Your total monthly spend will not exceed your target daily budget multiplied by the remaining days in the calendar month, including the start day.

For Example: If you start a new campaign with a $10 target daily budget on January 15th, there are 17 days left in the month (including the 15th & 31st). Therefore, the maximum spend for the remainder of the month would be $170 ($10x17 remaining days).

 

Mid-month budget adjustment:

  • Your total monthly spend will not exceed the amount already spent plus your new target daily budget multiplied by the remaining days in the calendar month.

For Example: If you raise your campaign's target daily budget from $10 to $15 on January 15th, assuming you've spent $150 by then, your total monthly budget will increase from $304 to $405 [i.e. $150 + (17*$15)]. Therefore you will have $255 left to spend for the rest of the month.

 

Mid-month campaign end:

  • Your total monthly spend will not exceed your target daily budget multiplied by the number of days from the start of the calendar month up to and including the campaign's end date.

For Example: If your campaign starts on the 1st with a $10 daily budget and is set to end on the 15th of the month, the maximum spend for the month would be $150 ($10x15 days, including the 15th).

 

No action is needed on your part. On October 28th, 2025, your Promoted Stores campaigns will automatically begin using a monthly budget pacing window, utilising your current daily budget as a target daily budget.

Seller FAQ’s

  • Why is eBay Advertising moving to monthly pacing of target daily budget for Promoted Stores campaigns?

    Aligned with industry standards, eBay Advertising is transitioning to monthly pacing for Promoted Stores campaigns to provide advertisers with greater spend efficiency, flexibility and optimisation opportunities. Monthly budget pacing leverages machine learning and traffic signals to optimise your budget, aiming to help deliver higher return on ad spend.

  • How does eBay's monthly pacing model take into account using my target daily budget?

    eBay's pacing model is designed to optimise your spend by using your target daily budget as a signal toward the average daily amount you expect to spend over the course of a calendar month (or partial month, if you set a campaign end date during the month). The model opportunistically allocates spending during certain days in the month, with safeguards designed to help avoid premature spend exhaustion before month end. It's important to note that mid-month changes to a lower target daily budget may affect this distribution, so adjustments should be made thoughtfully to maintain optimal pacing.

  • What factors influence how eBay paces my spend?

    eBay takes into account several variables to help pace your spend throughout the month. We use real-time platform data and forecasted traffic to anticipate periods of high engagement and consider historical data and seasonal trends to optimise budget allocation. Our systems also account for factors like current market trends and category-specific traffic to shift your advertising budget to times with better sales potential.

  • What are best practices if I'd like to maintain more control of my target daily budget?

    You can leverage campaign end dates to maintain more control over your target daily budget.

  • How do I reactivate an out-of-budget campaign?

    To reactivate, you'll need to increase your budget to more than the amount set at the start of the day. If your adjusted budget is less than or equal to the budget at which the campaign went out of budget, the campaign will remain inactive.

  • How am I charged for clicks on my ads?

    Promoted Stores campaigns use a cost-per-click model. You only pay for clicks on your ads.

  • How is my monthly spend determined if my campaign starts during the month?

    If your campaign launches mid-month, your total monthly spend (for the partial month) will not exceed your target daily budget multiplied by the remaining days in the calendar month, including the start day.

    • For example: If you start a new campaign with a $10 target daily budget on January 15th, there are 17 days left in the month (including the 15th & 31st). Therefore, the maximum spend for the remainder of the month would be $170 ($10 x 17 remaining days).

  • How is my monthly spend determined if my campaign ends during the month?

    If your campaign has an end date scheduled in the middle of the month, your total monthly spend won't exceed your target daily budget multiplied by the number of days from the start date to the end date, unless you end the campaign prior to the originally scheduled date.

    • For example: If your campaign starts on the 1st with a $100 daily budget and is set to end on the 15th of the month, the maximum spend for the month would be $1,500 ($100 x 15 days, including the 15th).

  • What happens to my campaign's spend if I manually end my campaign during the month or before its scheduled end-date?

    If you manually end your campaign during the month or before its scheduled end date, it may have spent more than the average of your target daily budget for the elapsed days, as the system optimises for the full calendar month (or full campaign duration, if scheduled with an end date).

    • For example: If you launched a campaign on the 1st with a $100 target daily budget and ended it on the 6th, it might have spent more than $100/day or $600 because eBay aims to optimise your budget across 30.4 days, not just the first 6 days.

  • How can I change my target daily budget, and what should I expect?

    You can change your target daily budget at any time. If the campaign's spend for the day already exceeds the new budget, the change will take effect the following day. Adjusting the budget impacts the month's spending limit, recalculating based on the new budget and days left in the calendar month.

  • How does eBay define a month for campaign budgeting purposes?

    We define a month as a calendar month, meaning it begins on the first day and ends on the last day of the month, regardless of the number of days in that month. For budgeting calculations, we use an average of 30.4 days to account for varying month lengths.

  • What happens to my campaign's spend if my campaign ends based on a pre-set date, and I restart it during the same month?

    If your campaign ends with a pre-set end date and you later restart the campaign during the same month, we'll consider what you've spent so far, your target daily budget and the remaining days left in the month to calculate your monthly spend limit.

    For example: Your campaign ends April 14, having spent $100. You restart the campaign on April 27 with a Daily Spend Limit of $10. Your monthly spend limit is $140 ($100 + 4 days x $10 = $140). You have $40 left.

  • Why is my campaign "Limited by budget"?

    A campaign can be limited by budget for two reasons:

    • Daily budget reached: Your campaign has spent all of its target daily budget. If this is the case, for the remainder of the day, your campaign will stop showing ads to buyers unless you increase your budget. If you don't increase your budget, your campaign will resume automatically the following day, with your target daily budget applying to a new 24 hour period. Over a month, you won't be charged more than 30.4 times your set daily budget, unless you set or change it mid-month.
    • Frequently out of budget: Your campaign went out of budget 10% or more of the time during the last 7 calendar days. In this case, we consider it "frequently out of budget" and provide a suggested budget, which can help increase your store traffic by maximising the amount of time that your ads show to buyers.