I am out of credits
When your credit balance cannot cover an AI action, Hero Marketer asks you to add credits before the action starts. Nothing is lost: you stay on the page you were on, and your dashboard, reports, and campaigns keep working.
Add credits and keep going
When an action needs more credits than you have, Hero Marketer opens a dialog titled Add credits to run this or Not enough credits for this. It shows what $20 buys and what common actions cost. Click Buy 20 credits:
- Paddle's checkout opens over the page you are on.
- After the payment goes through, checkout closes and you stay on the same page.
- A confirmation shows the credits that were added, usually within a few seconds.
- Run the action again.
Hero Marketer is pay as you go. There are no plans and no monthly fee. You buy credits in packs of 20 for $20. Credits do not expire. You can also buy credits from the credit balance at the bottom of the sidebar, or from Settings > Billing. See Buy credits.
Auto top up is optional. It is a yearly credit subscription. It buys 20 credits for $20 when your balance goes below 5 credits. Auto top up checks your balance every 15 minutes, and only while your alerts or automations are on. It does not add credits at the moment when an AI action needs them. See Set up auto top up.
I still have credits but the action is refused
Each AI action needs a minimum balance before it starts. The minimum is not the charge, and most actions cost less. For example, you need 1 credit to send a Hero AI message or to run keyword research. You need 0.5 credits for ad copy or to read your website. You need 0.3 credits for AI sitelinks, and 0.1 credits for a paid AI summary or a report brief. A batch of ad images needs 0.55 credits, plus 0.05 credits for each idea, plus 0.2 credits for each image. Below the minimum, the dialog says Not enough credits for this. This needs about X. You have Y.
If an earlier action cost more than your balance, you see You have unpaid AI usage from a previous session. Add credits to continue. Buy a pack to clear it. See An action is blocked for each message and what to do.
A page is blurred with an offer to buy credits
At a balance of 0, these pages show a blurred preview with an offer: what the feature does, what it costs, and a Buy 20 credits for $20 button.
- Hero AI
- Create campaign
- Create images. The All images tab stays open, so you can view, tag, and download your images.
- Connect another Google Ads account
- Add a product
After you buy, the page unlocks on its own. You do not need to reload. A campaign draft that you started with credits stays open, and you can publish it, also after you reload the page.
While Hero Marketer loads your balance, or when it cannot read your balance, these pages do not show the offer. The offer shows only when the balance is 0. On Hero AI, the page shows the preview without the offer until the balance loads, and it does not send a question from the dashboard or an alert before then.
At a balance of 0, your saved Hero AI chats are hidden behind the offer. Hero Marketer does not delete them. They show again as soon as your credits arrive.
Alert settings, automation settings, and automation history lock whenever daily checks are not running. That is before your balance first reaches 0.25 credits, and after the 3-day grace period ends. During the grace period, these pages stay open, even at 0 credits.
If you came to Hero AI from a next step on the dashboard or from an alert, the offer shows your question. Hero AI asks it for you as soon as the credits arrive.
Alerts say nothing is watching my account
The alerts from your free scan stay visible with no credits, but the free scan ran once and nothing has checked your account since. While daily checks are not running, the alerts page says Nothing is watching your Google Ads account. Daily checks start when you buy credits for the first time. They cost 0.25 credits a day for each connected account. See Monitoring and the daily rate.
What needs credits
Anything where the AI does work, plus the daily rate for watching your account:
- Hero AI questions. A typical question uses about 0.2 to 1.5 credits.
- AI steps in campaign creation. Reading your website for product context, keyword research, ad copy, and sitelinks. Each step checks your balance before it starts, so none of them stops partway.
- AI summaries on the dashboard, after your first free summary for each Google Ads account. About 0.01 credits each.
- Report briefs. A report's AI brief always uses credits.
- Create images. The ad styles and looks use about 0.8 credits, one time for each product. Three images use about 0.6 credits. See Create ad images.
- Daily checks for alerts and automations: 0.25 credits a day for each connected account. See Monitoring and the daily rate for what happens when credits run out.
PDF export does not use credits. But you must have a balance above 0 to export a PDF.
What stays free with no credits
Hero Marketer never locks you out of your own data or your own work:
- The dashboard and reports, with live numbers
- Campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords, and search terms
- The Alerts inbox, where you read and resolve alerts
- CSV export from saved KPI summary, Performance over time, and Campaign breakdown reports
- Switching between your Google Ads accounts and products
- The free scan and your first dashboard AI summary for each Google Ads account
Why you ran out
Every charge is itemized in credit activity, with a description of what used it. Common causes:
- Heavy Hero AI use. A deep investigation across several campaigns and weeks of data costs more than a simple lookup, so long sessions are the usual cause.
- Many runs in the campaign wizard. Each new run of keyword research or ad copy is charged for what it generated.
- Daily checks on several accounts. Daily checks cost 0.25 credits a day for each connected account. To stop the charge, turn off all 17 alert types and all automations. Or disconnect the account.
I bought credits but my balance did not change
Credits usually arrive within a few seconds of payment, and the page confirms it. If the confirmation says your credits will show up in a moment, refresh the page after a minute. If the balance still has not changed after a few minutes, email support@heromarketer.io with the email address on your receipt.
Can I get a refund for credits?
Unused credits are refundable within 90 days of the purchase that bought them. Credits you have already spent are not refundable. See Refund policy.