Campaigns and budgets

The Ads plan

The Ads plan card sits on the right of the Ads page. It shows your monthly budget, what you've spent this week against the week's share, where the month is on pace to land, your goal, and what your running campaigns' daily budgets add up to.

To change it:

1. On the Ads page, select Edit on the Ads plan card.

2. Set any of the three fields:

   • Goal: what your ads are judged on: Leads, Revenue or Awareness.
   • Budget: the amount, set as A month or A day. A daily figure is turned into a monthly one using the days in the current month.
   • Target: an optional cost per conversion, for example $120 or less a signup. Leave it empty for no target.
3. Select Save.

Changes apply from tomorrow, in your ad account's time zone. Until then, the card says what's coming. If you change the monthly budget by more than 20%, Bidhelm asks you to confirm the new figure before it saves.

How Bidhelm moves budget

The monthly total is the limit. Inside it, Bidhelm shifts money toward campaigns that bring results and away from ones that don't. It raises the daily budget of a proven winner and trims a campaign that keeps spending without converting.

Bidhelm never raises the monthly plan itself. When it thinks the account should spend more, it asks you, and the plan only changes if you say yes.

Whether budget changes happen on their own or wait for you is set by Change budgets under Settings › Permissions. See Permissions.

New campaigns

Bidhelm can start new campaigns, for example one around a search theme your current campaigns miss. A new campaign is created paused until it's ready.

Start new campaigns under Settings › Permissions decides whether Bidhelm starts one on its own or asks first. Set to Asks first, Bidhelm builds nothing and asks you for a yes instead. A campaign you start yourself, from a plan in chat or by asking for one, never waits.

Change campaigns yourself

On the Ads page, select one or more campaigns with the checkbox at the start of each row. A bar appears with these actions:

• Pause: stops the selected campaigns. Bidhelm asks you to confirm first. They stop showing ads until you resume them.
• Resume: turns paused campaigns back on.
• Change budget: sets each daily budget to an amount, or moves each by a percent. The dialog shows every campaign's budget now and after. The new budget applies in Google Ads right away.
• Ask Bidhelm: opens a chat about the campaigns you picked.

Bidhelm checks a budget change before it sends it. It refuses a daily budget more than five times what it is now. It also stops a change that would carry the month more than 10% past your monthly plan, and offers a way into the plan instead. If a budget is shared with other campaigns, it names them and only sends the change when you press again. If there's no monthly plan to check a raise against, it says so and only sends the change when you press again.

A campaign you pause yourself stays paused. Bidhelm doesn't turn it back on unless you do, or you say yes when it asks to restart it.

The campaign page

Select a campaign to open its page. The tabs are Overview, Keywords, Ads, Search terms, Changes and Recommendations.

• Keywords: pause, resume or remove keywords, and change bids.
• Search terms: what people actually searched. Block a search that wastes money, or add one that converts as a keyword. See Blocked searches.
• Changes: every change on this campaign. Turn on In Google Ads to see only the changes made directly in Google Ads.
• Recommendations: Google's own suggestions that hold up. See Google Ads Recommendations.

The Budget card on the right shows the daily budget and, when it happens often, the time of day it usually runs out.

Common questions