Real-time ad spend tracking involves monitoring advertising budgets and campaign performance data on an ongoing and instantaneous basis. This allows marketers to maintain an accurate overview of the most recent allocation of ad investments on different platforms and how campaigns are performing, and subsequently take immediate actions to optimize spend or re-allocate budgets to avoid waste while maximizing ROI. It has increasingly become more important because the industry tradition of delayed reporting can result in high-stakes risks and lost opportunities in digital advertising.