Pipeline planPacing Console vs a pacing spreadsheet: when the free template stops being free
By Hojabr Sattari. Updated .
A pacing spreadsheet is free, fully flexible and fine for one person pacing a few Google Ads campaigns, but someone has to refresh the data, keep the formulas right and add Microsoft Ads and LinkedIn Ads by hand. Pacing Console does the same job without the upkeep: hourly cut-to-date pace for Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and LinkedIn Ads, month-end forecasts and a daily email, free for up to 3 users, with Pro at $49 per workspace a month for one-click budget changes and CRM pipeline by campaign. Pick the sheet if you want total control of the math; pick Pacing Console when more than one person or platform depends on it.
Pacing Console at a glance
- What it is
- A budget pacing tool from PlanConversion: hourly pace for every campaign, month-end forecasts and the daily budget that lands the month
- Platforms
- Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and LinkedIn Ads
- CRM
- HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, or any CRM by CSV or API, for pipeline by campaign (Pro)
- Free plan
- Pacing free forever at any spend, for up to 3 users
- Pro
- $49 USD per workspace a month, or $490 a year (2 months free); 10 users included, then $5 per extra user
- Enterprise
- $20 USD per user a month, billed annually, from 25 users
- With Link Console
- Pro $79 per workspace a month; Enterprise $28 per user a month
- Trial and sign-in
- 30-day Pro trial, no credit card; Google or Microsoft sign-in
At a glance
| Criterion | Pacing Console | Google Sheets |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A budget pacing tool for Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and LinkedIn Ads, set up in about 15 minutes | A Google Sheets file with your budgets, spend and pacing formulas, built and maintained by your team |
| Price | Free for up to 3 users at any spend; Pro $49 per workspace a month or $490 a year, 10 users included, then $5 per extra user; Enterprise $20 per user a month, billed annually, from 25 users | Sheets is part of Google Workspace business plans, listed from $7 per user a month; the template costs the time to build and maintain it |
| Getting spend in | Hourly, from a pre-filled script in Google Ads and Microsoft Ads and a LinkedIn connection | Copy and paste, or a connector: Google’s Google Ads add-on imports Google Ads data and can refresh on a schedule; other platforms need another connector or manual entry |
| Pace calculation | Cut to the hour the data was pulled, in your time zone, with weekday schedules and a pace tolerance | Whatever your formulas do |
| Platform budget rules | Shows the daily budget to hit and the most Google Ads may spend in a day at that setting | Yours to model; Google documents a daily limit of 2 times the average daily budget and a monthly limit of 30.4 times |
| Forecast | Month-end spend, conversions and cost per conversion; seven-day range on Pro | Any forecast you build |
| Alerts | Daily email with only the off-pace campaigns and the budget to set, plus stale-data warnings | The add-on emails you when a scheduled report refreshes; pacing alerts are yours to build |
| Budget changes | Recommendations applied in one click by your own script (Pro), with a change log | Made by hand in each platform |
| CRM pipeline by campaign | HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, or any CRM by CSV or API (Pro) | Possible with exports and lookups you maintain |
| Sharing with finance or clients | Read-only live report link, free | Google Sheets sharing settings |
Where Pacing Console wins
- No upkeep: spend arrives every hour from Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and LinkedIn Ads, with no refresh to run and no formula to repair
- Pace judged at the exact hour of the pull, so a campaign is not flagged as behind at 9 am
- Stale-data warnings when a platform stops sending spend, which a sheet cannot tell you
- Flight dates, month-by-month plans and weekday schedules built in, free
- One morning email with only the campaigns that need a change
- CRM lifecycle stages and cost per stage by campaign on Pro, without building lookups
Where Google Sheets wins
- Total flexibility: any column, any formula, any custom forecast or allocation logic
- Any channel you can paste, including Meta, programmatic or offline spend; Pacing Console paces Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and LinkedIn Ads
- Finance teams already know spreadsheets and can audit every cell
- Google’s Google Ads add-on for Sheets imports Google Ads data and can refresh it on a schedule
- For one person pacing a handful of Google Ads campaigns, a sheet is genuinely enough
What a pacing spreadsheet really costs
The sheet itself is close to free: Sheets comes with Google Workspace business plans, listed from $7 per user a month, and Google’s Google Ads add-on imports Google Ads data into it. The cost is the upkeep. Someone pastes Microsoft Ads and LinkedIn Ads data, fixes formulas when a campaign is renamed, and remembers that Google may spend up to twice the average daily budget in a day and up to 30.4 times it in a month. Connectors that pull several platforms into Sheets are paid: Supermetrics, for example, publishes a free budget pacing template that you fill through its sidebar, after a 14-day trial. Pacing Console is free for up to 3 users and does this work every hour.
How to switch from Google Sheets
- Create a free Pacing Console workspace; it starts with a 30-day Pro trial, no credit card.
- Paste the pre-filled scripts into Google Ads and Microsoft Ads (one per manager account), schedule them hourly and connect LinkedIn Ads.
- Copy each campaign’s monthly budget from the sheet, or a month-by-month plan, and add flight dates and weekday schedules where they apply.
- Run the sheet and Pacing Console side by side for a month and compare pace and month-end forecasts.
- Keep the sheet for channels Pacing Console does not cover, and send finance the read-only report link for the rest.
How we checked
Every fact about Google Sheets on this page comes from Google Sheets’s own public pricing, product and help pages, checked on November 3, 2026, and listed under Sources. Prices are in USD as published that day and change over time, so confirm them with Google Sheets before you buy. Where a feature is described as not listed, we did not find it on those pages; it may exist elsewhere.
Which one fits your team
Choose Pacing Console when
- More than one person or an agency relies on the pacing numbers
- You run Microsoft Ads or LinkedIn Ads alongside Google Ads
- Nobody has time to refresh and repair a sheet every week
- Leadership wants spend next to pipeline by campaign
Choose Google Sheets when
- You are one person pacing a few Google Ads campaigns
- You need channels Pacing Console does not cover, such as Meta or offline media, in the same view
- Your finance team needs custom allocation logic in a file it controls
Frequently asked questions
Is a Google Sheets pacing template good enough?
For one person pacing a few Google Ads campaigns, yes. It starts to break when several people edit it, when Microsoft Ads and LinkedIn Ads data has to be pasted in, or when nobody notices that the data stopped refreshing.
How do I get Google Ads spend into Google Sheets?
Google offers a Google Ads add-on for Sheets that imports report data and can refresh it on a schedule, and Google Ads scripts can write to Sheets. Other platforms need a paid connector or a manual export. Pacing Console pulls Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and LinkedIn Ads every hour without a sheet.
Why does my spreadsheet pacing disagree with Google Ads?
Common causes are data pulled at a different hour than the formula assumes, weekday-only campaigns paced on calendar days, and Google’s rule that a campaign can spend up to twice its average daily budget in one day. Pacing Console calculates expected spend to the hour of the pull and handles weekday schedules.
Is Pacing Console free?
Pacing is free forever at any spend for up to 3 users. Pro, at $49 per workspace a month with 10 users, adds every recommendation with its dollar impact, one-click budget changes, Insights charts and CRM pipeline by campaign.
Sources
Competitor pages checked on .
- Google Workspace pricing (workspace.google.com/pricing)
- Google Ads Help: about the add-on for Google Sheets (support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9000139?hl=en)
- Google Workspace Marketplace: Google Ads add-on (workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/google_ads/288999541255)
- Google Ads scripts: product overview (Sheets service) (developers.google.com/google-ads/scripts/docs/start?hl=en)
- Google Ads Help: budgets overview (support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10486536?hl=en)
- Supermetrics: campaign-level budget pacing template for Google Sheets (supermetrics.com/template-gallery/google-sheets-budget-pacing-campaign-level)