Set your budget
Once you've picked a cluster, Hero Marketer shows a suggested monthly budget. You can accept it or change it. Budget feeds directly into Google Ads as the daily spend cap, so the number you pick here matters.
How the suggestion is calculated
Hero Marketer multiplies expected click volume by the average cost per click for the keywords in your cluster, then scales for typical conversion patterns in B2B SaaS. The output is a monthly budget that should produce enough click volume for Google's algorithm to learn within two to four weeks.
The suggestion lands in a sensible default range, not a recommendation customized to your goals. Override it if you have a specific target in mind.
When to take the suggestion
The suggested budget is a reasonable starting point if:
- This is a test campaign, not a scale campaign.
- You have no specific CPA or CAC target in mind yet.
- You want to see what kind of volume the cluster can produce.
For a first campaign, taking the suggestion and learning from the data is usually fine.
When to override it
Set your own budget when you have a goal that the suggestion doesn't reflect:
- You have a target CPA. If your max acceptable CPA is $200 and the cluster's average CPC is $5, you need at least 40 clicks to expect one conversion (assuming 2.5% conversion rate). Multiply that by however many conversions you want per month.
- You're capacity constrained. If sales can only handle ten new leads a week, a budget that's likely to deliver thirty isn't useful.
- You're in a learning phase. Run a smaller budget for two weeks, then scale once you see what's converting.
- You're scaling a winner. Existing data tells you the campaign is profitable. Increase budget gradually, not all at once. Google's algorithm needs a few days to recalibrate when you change spend significantly.
What the budget actually controls
The number you set is the monthly budget. Google enforces this as a daily spend cap (monthly budget divided by the average days in a month, with some flex). On any given day Google may spend up to twice the daily cap if the auction is favorable, but won't go over the monthly figure.
Spend is for clicks only. Impressions, the times your ad shows on a results page, are free. You're charged when someone clicks.
Budget changes after launch
You can edit the budget on a live campaign. A few notes:
- Small changes (under 20 percent) take effect within a day. Google adjusts pacing without restarting learning.
- Large changes (over 20 percent up or down) reset the learning phase. Performance often drops temporarily for a few days while the algorithm recalibrates. Avoid this in the first month.
- The dashboard reflects the new budget immediately, but Google's reporting can lag by a few hours.