Flighting and pacing solve two different problems. Flighting decides when you are in-market. Pacing controls how fast you spend while you are in-market.

• Flighting: Run ads in defined on/off windows called flights, separated by hiatus periods. It is useful when demand is seasonal, budgets are constrained, or when past exposure creates carryover effects. Off periods help conserve spend without losing all momentum.
• Pacing: Manage the spend rate within a flight so you hit goals and finish with the right delivery. Pacing prevents early overspend and protects against end-of-flight underspend or missed impression/lead targets.
• Related patterns:
  • Continuous: Always on. Use when demand is steady and budgets support it.
  • Pulsing: A continuous baseline with periodic spikes. Use when you need constant presence but want to press harder in key windows.

Well-structured plans blend flighting and pacing with supporting controls:

• Dayparting to align delivery with hours that convert or when your audience is most active.
• Daily and lifetime caps to prevent blowouts and ensure coverage across the full flight.
• Delivery methods (even vs accelerated vs algorithmic goal-based) to match the objective and inventory realities.
• Frequency and reach controls to balance incremental reach against fatigue.

Choose the scheduling model first, then set the pacing mechanics.

• Use flighting when demand is clustered in seasons or events, your budget cannot support continuous presence, or your KPI benefits from concentrated bursts of reach.
• Use pulsing when you need continuity for search and social proof, but still want to lean in around launches, promotions, or peak periods.
• Use continuous when demand is steady and brand recall and lower-funnel capture rely on constant visibility.

Then design pacing to protect delivery against real-world variability:

• Even pacing: Good default for awareness and upper funnel. Distributes spend smoothly across the flight.
• Front‑weighted pacing: For fast learning and rapid signal collection. Useful when algorithms need data early or when you must build early reach before a key date.
• Back‑weighted pacing: When inventory tightens later, or you plan to align heavier delivery with late-cycle demand.
• Goal‑based pacing: Let the platform pace to a target CPA, ROAS, or CPM while you enforce guardrails with caps and frequency limits.

Controls that matter:

• Flight length: Long enough to accumulate learning and reach, short enough to avoid fatigue. Many teams plan 2–6 week flights with clear evaluation gates.
• Hiatus duration: Sufficient to reset frequency and let carryover effects work. The steeper the seasonality, the longer the hiatus can be.
• Budget allocation: Allocate by flight based on expected demand index, margin, or inventory availability.
• Channel mix: Align always-on channels (search, retargeting) with pulsed channels (video, display, high-impact) so you never go dark in core capture while you rotate bursts in reach media.