Ad Campaigns and Burn Rate: Dashboard Template for Marketers and CFOs

Stop the budget arguments: a single dashboard that links Google total campaign budgets to burn rate

Marketers want campaigns to hit growth goals. CFOs need predictable cash, accurate burn-rate forecasts, and a single truth for commitments. When campaign spend is planned in Google as a total campaign budget but treasury tracks only actual cash outflows, teams argue—and decisions slow. This cross-functional dashboard template ends that split by linking Google total campaign budgets to burn-rate metrics in real time, so Marketing and Finance share one source of truth.

Why this matters in 2026

Two trends that shaped budgets in late 2025 and early 2026 make this dashboard essential:

• Google’s total campaign budgets (rolled out widely in January 2026 for Search and Shopping after earlier expansion to Performance Max) let marketers set multi-day or multi-week campaign budgets that Google will pace automatically. That reduces daily manual budget work—but it creates a new commitment line that Finance must anticipate.
• Real-time cash and treasury integrations (open banking and improved accounting APIs) mean CFOs can get near-instant bank balance visibility. The missing piece is linking those cash feeds to campaign commitments so burn-rate calculations reflect both committed and spent amounts.

"The update lets campaigns run confidently without overspending, whether it's a 72-hour test or a month-long push" — Search Engine Land, Jan 15, 2026.

What this dashboard does (the single-truth promise)

The dashboard consolidates four data lanes into one view and converts them into actionable metrics:

1. Planned commitments: Google total campaign budgets and start/end dates.
2. Actual spend: Real-time Google Ads spend and pacing data via the Google Ads API.
3. Cash positions: Bank balances and cash flow ledgers from your accounting system (QuickBooks, Xero) or payment rails.
4. Attribution & revenue: Conversions and revenue recognized (optional) to evaluate net cash impact.

When combined, the dashboard shows: committed vs spent, pacing vs plan, and how campaign commitments change burn rate and runway.

Core metrics and formulas (actionable)

Every CFO/CMO team needs repeatable definitions. Use these exact formulas in your dashboard data model.

1. Daily burn rate (cash basis)

Daily burn = sum of cash outflows (marketing spend + operating expenses) / number of days in period.

Example (30-day): Daily Burn = (Marketing Spend + Opex) / 30

2. Campaign committed burn (when total campaign budget is active)

Committed Daily Spend for a campaign = Remaining Total Campaign Budget / Remaining Days until campaign end (use business days if you prefer).

3. Adjusted burn rate (cash + commitments)

Adjusted Daily Burn = Current Daily Burn + sum(Committed Daily Spend for active campaigns)

4. Runway

Runway (days) = Available Cash / Adjusted Daily Burn

5. Spend pacing

Spend Pacing (%) = Actual Accumulated Spend / Accumulated Planned Spend for period

6. Variance & trigger rules

Variance = (Actual Spend - Planned Spend) / Planned Spend. Use triggers like:

• Alert if Variance > 10% for high-priority campaigns.
• Alert if Runway < 30 days after including committed spend.

Dashboard layout: Template sections and widgets

Design the dashboard with the needs of both the CMO and CFO in mind. Below is a pragmatic layout you can implement in Google Data Studio, Looker Studio, Power BI, or a modern analytics tool that supports live connectors.

Top row: Executive summary (single line of truth)

• Available cash (real-time bank feed)
• Adjusted runway (days)
• Total committed campaign budgets active
• 30-day burn rate — cash basis

Middle row: Campaign and budget mechanics

• List of active campaigns with columns: Campaign name, Google Total Campaign Budget, Start/End, Remaining Budget, Committed Daily Spend, Actual Spend to date, Pacing %
• Time-series chart: cumulative planned spend vs cumulative actual spend (campaign-level filter)

Bottom row: Treasury & scenarios

• Runway scenarios: current runway, runway if all commitments execute fully, runway with 10% overspend
• Alerts and approvals: items requiring CFO sign-off (new campaign commitments over X% of daily burn)

Data sources and integration blueprint (technical but practical)

For a real-time single truth you need these connectors:

• Google Ads API / Google Ads Reporting — extract campaign-level spend and daily pacing. Use the Total Budget field and campaign start/end dates introduced in the Jan 2026 update.
• Bank feeds — real-time balances and cash transactions from your bank or via Open Banking providers.
• Accounting system (QuickBooks, Xero) — map accruals, refunds, and other non-cash items.
• Attribution data — conversion windows and revenue recognition to calculate net cash ROI (optional for CFOs who need cash-backed ROI).

Refresh cadence recommendations:

• Google Ads: every 15–60 minutes for high-spend SMBs; hourly for most SMBs.
• Bank balances: near-real-time (poll every 5–15 minutes if supported) or every hour otherwise.
• Accounting: nightly for ledgers; reconcile daily for cash management teams.

Implementation plan: 6-week rollout

A staged approach reduces disruption. Here’s a practical six-week plan for SMBs and mid-market teams.

Week 0: Alignment

• Stakeholders: CMO, CFO, head of analytics, treasury lead.
• Define thresholds and approval rules: e.g., campaigns > 5% of cash balance need CFO sign-off.

Week 1–2: Data pipeline

• Connect Google Ads API and bank feeds.
• Build a transformation layer to compute committed daily spend and adjusted burn.

Week 3–4: Dashboard build

• Create executive summary, campaign table, and runway scenarios.
• Implement alerting and approval requests via Slack/Teams/email integration.

Week 5: Pilot & user testing

• Run a 2-week pilot with one marketing channel or geography. Validate pacing and runway accuracy. Consider running focused micro-meetings with stakeholders to speed feedback.

Week 6: Rollout & governance

• Document processes: how to add a campaign, how to resolve pacing alerts, monthly reconciliation steps.
• Set weekly Marketing-Finance syncs for the first quarter.

Sample SQL/Sheets formulas (copy-paste friendly)

Use these as starting points in your ETL or spreadsheet model.

Committed Daily Spend (SQL pseudocode)

SELECT
  campaign_id,
  total_campaign_budget,
  GREATEST(0, total_campaign_budget - spend_to_date) AS remaining_budget,
  GREATEST(1, DATE_DIFF(end_date, CURRENT_DATE(), DAY)) AS remaining_days,
  (GREATEST(0, total_campaign_budget - spend_to_date) / GREATEST(1, DATE_DIFF(end_date, CURRENT_DATE(), DAY))) AS committed_daily_spend
FROM campaigns
WHERE CURRENT_DATE() BETWEEN start_date AND end_date;

Runway (Sheets)

Assume A1 = available_cash, A2 = current_daily_burn, A3 = sum(committed_daily_spend)

=A1 / (A2 + A3)

Governance and approval workflows

Governance prevents surprises. Recommended rules for SMBs:

• Auto-approve campaigns below a fixed % of monthly cash burn (e.g., < 2%).
• CFO approval required for total campaign budgets that increase adjusted burn by > 10% or reduce runway below defined thresholds (e.g., 30 days).
• Marketing must include expected contribution margin and conversion estimates with any new commitment request.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

• Counting commitments twice: If a campaign is funded from a pre-paid wallet and from the bank, ensure your ETL marks the liability correctly to avoid double-counting commitments.
• Ignoring refunds and adjustments: Build a refund/chargeback feed into your accounting integration to adjust runway.
• Attributing future revenue as cash: Use two views—one for cash-runway (strict) and one for projected ROI (for growth discussions).

Advanced strategies for 2026 and beyond

As autonomous systems proliferate, treat this dashboard as the control plane for automated budget decisions.

• Scenario automation: Programmatically pause or throttle campaigns if runway thresholds are breached. Use approval hooks to notify the CMO.
• AI-driven pacing: Leverage Google’s automated pacing for total campaign budgets but use the dashboard to override or cap spending based on cash constraints.
• Cross-channel harmonization: Expand the template to include Meta, TikTok, and programmatic channels—show cumulative committed spend across all platforms. Consider implications for new social platforms and discoverability such as Bluesky and similar feeds.
• Cash-backed attribution: Tie marketing spend to cash collections (shorter attribution windows for SMBs) to evaluate campaigns on cash ROI rather than just leads.

Short case study: quick wins

UK retailer Escentual used Google’s total campaign budgets during promotions in early 2026 and reported a 16% traffic increase without exceeding budgets. For SMBs, the main benefit is operational time savings: fewer manual budget tweaks and predictable cash commitments. When that same retailer linked their total campaign budgets to treasury, they avoided a near-term cash mismatch during a flash sale and gained the confidence to scale promotional spend.

Checklist: what to ship first

1. Connect Google Ads and bank feeds.
2. Compute committed daily spend and adjusted runway.
3. Create executive summary with clear runway and top 5 campaigns by committed spend.
4. Set automatic alerts: runway < 30 days, variance > 10%.
5. Run a 2-week pilot and refine thresholds.

Metrics to report in the weekly finance-marketing sync

• Available cash and adjusted runway
• Total active commitments and change vs prior week
• Top 5 campaigns by committed daily spend and pacing %
• Pending approvals and projected cash impact

Final recommendations

Start simple. Put committed campaign budgets on the same dashboard as cash balances and you reduce surprises and speed decisions. Use the template above for governance, alerts, and runway calculation. In 2026, as Google and other platforms automate pacing and budgets, the human role becomes stewardship: setting constraints and approving risk. This dashboard is your stewardship console.

Call to action

If you manage marketing spend or cash for an SMB, adopt this template this quarter. Begin by connecting your Google Ads account and a bank feed, calculate committed daily spend, and publish a one-page executive summary for your next CMO-CFO meeting. Need a starter dashboard? Contact our team for a downloadable Looker Studio template and step-by-step implementation guide tailored to SMBs.

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