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Set your monthly budget

You set the monthly budget of the campaign in the Monthly budget bar at the top of the second step. That step is Choose keywords and budget on Search and Search retargeting, Choose themes and budget on Performance Max, and Choose your audience and budget on Demand Gen. Demand Gen retargeting has its budget bar at the top of the Check your ad step.

On Search, the budget starts at the recommended budget of the keyword cluster that you pick. Performance Max and Demand Gen start at a recommendation that does not come from the keywords. You can keep it or change it. The two retargeting types have no recommended budget, so you type the budget. On a Search campaign below the recommended budget, the keywords follow the budget: only the keywords that the budget covers run. A Performance Max campaign keeps all of its keywords at any budget. The Launch button on the Check your ad step shows the budget, for example Launch at $500 a month.

Why Google Ads shows a daily budget​

Google Ads uses a daily budget, not a monthly budget. When you publish, Hero Marketer divides your monthly budget by 30.4 and rounds the result down to the cent. That amount is the daily budget of the campaign in Google Ads. For example, a monthly budget of $500 becomes a daily budget of $16.44.

In one month, Google does not charge more than 30.4 times the daily budget. So Google does not charge more than your monthly budget in one month.

Change the monthly budget​

Use one of these methods:

  • Click the minus or the plus button. Each click changes the budget by 50 in the currency of your Google Ads account.
  • Type an amount. Click the amount and type the monthly budget. You can type any amount, with cents, for example 750.50. A comma before three digits groups them, so 1,500 is fifteen hundred. The minimum is 31. If you type less than 31, the budget changes to 31 when you leave the field.

To go back to the recommended budget after a change, click the Recommended button next to the amount, for example Recommended: $500. This button shows only when the campaign has a recommended budget.

On the Check your ad step, the campaign card next to the ad shows the monthly budget again. To change it there, click the Monthly budget row of the card. The wizard opens the second step. On Demand Gen retargeting, the card has no Monthly budget row, because the budget bar is at the top of the Check your ad step.

What the budget bar shows​

  • Monthly budget. The amount that the campaign can spend in one month, for example $500 a month.
  • Recommended budget. This tag shows while the monthly budget is the same as the recommended budget. It does not show on the two retargeting types.
  • Expected clicks. The clicks that Hero Marketer expects each month from the keywords that run, for example About 93 a month. This is Hero Marketer's estimate, not a Google forecast. Only a Search campaign shows expected clicks.

The other types show one line in place of the expected clicks:

  • Performance Max. Google spreads it across Search, YouTube, Gmail, Display, Discover and Maps.
  • Demand Gen. Shows on YouTube, Gmail, Discover and Display.
  • Search retargeting. Only people on your lists see this ad, so there's no click estimate.
  • Demand Gen retargeting. Only people on your lists see this ad.

To see the daily budget that Google Ads gets, click or tap the information icon next to Monthly budget. It does not open when you point to it. It shows a sentence such as Google Ads gets $16.44 a day and never spends more than $500 in a month. On a Search campaign, it also shows the assumptions of the click estimate. On Performance Max and Demand Gen, it also says where the recommendation comes from. Until you set a budget, it shows Set what the campaign can spend in a month. Google Ads gets the month over 30.4 each day.

All amounts in the wizard are in the currency of your Google Ads account. If Hero Marketer cannot read that currency, the wizard shows the amounts with the general currency sign ¤, never with $. The budget bar then also shows Amounts are in your Google Ads account's currency.

Hero Marketer calculates the recommended budget of a Search campaign from the keywords in the selected cluster. For each keyword:

  1. Estimated clicks per month = monthly searches × 80% × 5%. The estimate assumes that your ad shows for 80% of the searches, and that 5% of those people click.
  2. Cost per click = the middle of Google's low and high top of page bids. If Google has no bid data for the keyword, Hero Marketer uses the middle price of the keywords in the list that have bid data, in your account currency. The middle price is the price that has half of the priced keywords at or below it. One expensive keyword, for example a competitor brand, cannot pull it up. If no keyword in the list has bid data, the keyword adds no clicks and no cost, and the cluster gets no recommended budget.
  3. Cost per month = estimated clicks × cost per click.

Some keywords are the same search, for example seo software for agencies and software for seo agency. Google Keyword Planner gives them the same numbers: monthly searches, 12-month trend, top of page bids, and competition. Google counts them as one search. So Hero Marketer counts the search one time: the first keyword has the clicks and the cost, and the other keywords add nothing. See How the recommended budget is calculated.

Hero Marketer adds up the cost per month of all of the keywords in the cluster. Then it rounds the total to a whole amount. The minimum is 31 in your account currency, which gives a daily budget of about 1. That number is the recommended monthly budget. The recommendation does not use your CPA target, your conversion rate, or your conversion value. For the full breakdown, see How the recommended budget is calculated.

Performance Max starts at Google's own budget recommendation for a new Performance Max campaign, from your landing page, country, and bidding. If Google gives none, it starts at the cost of 50 conversions at your account's cost per conversion over the last 30 days, when the account had at least 15 conversions. Otherwise, type the budget.

Demand Gen starts at a test budget of about 100 US dollars a day in the currency of your account, for example $3,040 a month in USD or 4,560 a month in AUD. Google suggests about 100 a day for one Demand Gen ad group. Run the test for 6 to 8 weeks. In a currency other than USD, AUD, CAD, NZD, GBP, or EUR, Demand Gen has no recommended budget.

These recommendations do not come from the keywords. They do not change when you pick a different cluster or archive keywords. See How the recommended budget is calculated.

How expected clicks change with your budget​

Expected clicks shows on a Search campaign only. At the recommended budget, Expected clicks is the estimated clicks of all of the keywords of the cluster in one month. If the cluster costs less than 31 a month, the recommended budget is the 31 minimum. That budget buys more than 80% of the searches, so Expected clicks at the recommendation can be up to 1.25 times the estimated clicks of the cluster. A higher budget then adds no more clicks.

Above the recommended budget, all of the keywords run. The expected clicks go up by the same ratio as the budget. For example, when the recommendation is above the 31 minimum, 1.2 times the recommended budget gives 1.2 times the clicks. The expected clicks stop at 1.25 times the estimated clicks of the cluster. The recommendation already assumes that your ad shows for 80% of the searches. So more budget can only buy the clicks of the other 20% of the searches.

On a Search campaign below the recommended budget, Expected clicks counts only the keywords that run. The rest of the budget, after the cost of these keywords, buys more clicks on the same keywords. These clicks also stop at 1.25 times the clicks of the keywords at 80% of their searches.

Performance Max, Demand Gen, and the two retargeting types show no expected clicks. The click estimate is for Google Search. Performance Max also spends outside Google Search, Demand Gen does not show on Search, and a retargeting campaign reaches only the people on your lists.

The budget of retargeting campaigns​

Search retargeting and Demand Gen retargeting have no recommended budget, because search volume cannot size a list. The budget bar starts empty, with no Recommended budget tag and no expected clicks. Type the monthly budget, or use the plus button. Until you set it, the wizard shows Set a monthly budget. When you pick a different cluster, the budget that you typed stays.

When you change the campaign type​

A change of campaign type resets the monthly budget, also when you typed a budget. Search starts again from the recommended budget of the selected cluster. Performance Max and Demand Gen start again from their recommendation. Search retargeting and Demand Gen retargeting start with an empty budget bar, so you type the budget again. A switch between Everyone who searches and Only people on my lists also changes the campaign type. A custom campaign name stays.

Demand Gen retargeting has no second step, so its budget bar is at the top of the Check your ad step. See Create a Demand Gen campaign and Create a retargeting campaign.

This section is about Search campaigns. Performance Max, Demand Gen, and Search retargeting campaigns keep all of their keywords at any budget. See Create a Performance Max campaign.

On a Search campaign below the recommended budget, your keywords follow the budget. The wizard keeps only the keywords that the budget can show your ad for on 80% of their searches. The other keywords move to the Over budget list. They come back when you raise the budget.

The wizard uses these rules to keep keywords:

  • To show your ad on 80% of its searches, a keyword needs its Cost per month at the recommended budget.
  • The biggest keywords get the budget first. The wizard starts with the keyword that has the most searches, then the next one. If two keywords have the same searches, the one higher in the table goes first.
  • A keyword stays when its cost per month fits in the budget that is left. If it does not fit, the wizard skips it and tries the smaller keywords.
  • A keyword with no Google bid data uses the middle price, and it follows the same rules as the other keywords.
  • A keyword that is the same search as another keyword stays only when that keyword stays.
  • A keyword with no searches costs nothing, so it always stays.

The wizard applies these rules again each time that you change the budget or the keywords. When you lower the budget, more keywords move to Over budget. When you raise the budget, they come back. At the recommended budget or above it, all of the keywords run.

To run all of the keywords again, click the button of the Over budget list, for example Cover all 10 for $500. When the list has one keyword, the button says Cover it for $500. The monthly budget changes back to the recommended budget. The Recommended: $500 button in the budget bar does the same. See Choose keywords and budget.

Only the keywords that run go to Google Ads when you launch. The campaign card on the Check your ad step counts them, for example 8 from Product analytics software. The keywords in Over budget can be your most relevant keywords. Look at the Over budget list before you launch.

When the budget covers no keyword​

On a Search campaign, if the budget covers no keyword, Write ad copy shows this message: This budget covers no keyword at 80% of its searches. Raise it to continue. Raise the monthly budget in the budget bar. Then click Write ad copy again.

The Set a monthly budget. message and the This budget covers no keyword at 80% of its searches. Raise it to continue. message go away when their cause goes away. This occurs when you edit the budget, pick a different cluster, archive a keyword, or add a keyword back.

The recommended budget of a Search campaign changes when the keywords change:

  • You pick a different cluster. The monthly budget changes to the recommended budget of the new cluster. This occurs also if you typed a budget before.
  • You archive keywords, or add keywords from the Archive. The recommended budget of the cluster changes. If you did not change the monthly budget, it follows the new recommendation. If you changed the monthly budget, the wizard keeps your amount. On a Search campaign, the wizard then checks again which keywords your amount covers.

The recommended budget of Performance Max and Demand Gen does not change with the cluster or the keywords. When you pick a different cluster, a budget that you typed stays.

When you go back to the Choose what to target step and return, the budget stays. When you click Find keywords again with the same product, country, search type, and search term, a budget that you typed for the selected cluster also stays.

If Hero Marketer has no search data for the keywords of the cluster, the bar has no recommendation and no expected clicks. Type a monthly budget to continue.

The recommended budget estimates the cost to get most of the clicks for the keywords in the cluster. It does not know your goal. It can be wrong for your goal in these cases:

  • You have a CPA target. Your conversion rate sets how many clicks each conversion needs. At a 2% conversion rate, one conversion needs about 50 clicks. At a $5 CPC, that is $250 for each conversion. If that is more than your CPA target, the cluster cannot reach the target at this CPC.
  • Your sales team has a capacity limit. If sales can handle only ten new leads a week, a budget that can deliver thirty is not useful.
  • You want a small test first. Start with a lower budget. After two weeks, increase it when you see what converts. Below the recommended budget, a Search campaign launches with only the keywords that the budget covers.

In these cases, type the monthly budget that fits your goal before you publish. To size a monthly budget, multiply the conversions that you want each month by the CPC. Then divide the result by your conversion rate.

When Google needs a bigger budget​

Google has a minimum daily budget for some campaign types, for example Demand Gen. The minimum depends on the currency. If your budget is below it, the launch stops with Google needs a bigger budget for this campaign type. Raise the monthly budget, then launch again. Raise the monthly budget, then click Launch again.

What the budget controls​

The monthly budget is the most that Google charges for the campaign in one month. In Google Ads, the campaign has the daily budget: the monthly budget divided by 30.4, rounded down to the cent (or to a whole unit in currencies that Google Ads takes without cents, such as yen and won). Google spends the daily budget on an average day. On some days, Google can spend up to two times the daily budget.

You pay for clicks only. Impressions, the times your ad shows on a results page, are free. You pay Google directly through your Google Ads payment method. Hero Marketer never bills your ad spend.

Change the budget after launch​

The live campaign in Google Ads has a daily budget. To change it, ask Hero AI. For example: "Set the daily budget on Brand Search to $40." Hero AI shows the new daily budget on a Needs your approval card. Click Approve and apply to apply the change. An Undo button then shows in the chat. To get a daily budget from a monthly amount, divide the monthly amount by 30.4.

To find out if a campaign needs more budget, ask Hero AI. For example: "Is Brand Search losing impression share to budget?" If the answer is yes, ask Hero AI to raise the daily budget. Then approve the card.

Know these limits:

  • Shared budgets. Hero AI does not change a budget that more than one campaign uses. Give the campaign its own budget in Google Ads first. Or change the shared budget in Google Ads.
  • No budget control in the app pages. The All campaigns page and the dashboard do not have a budget field. Use Hero AI or Google Ads.
  • Time to see the effect. Wait 14 to 21 days before you judge the effect of a budget change.

You can also change the budget in Google Ads. If you turn on the Lift the budget on profitable campaigns being capped automation, it can raise budgets for you. See Recommended automations. For more about changes through Hero AI, see Pause or edit a live campaign.

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