How to: Create Budget Groups

Create and Manage Budget Groups

Create and Manage Budget Groups

Budget groups organize your campaigns, assign and pace their budget, and — when Budget Optimization is on — automatically shift spend toward the experiments that perform best. This article covers creating a group, every option on the form, managing groups from the Groups page, and best practices.

Where to find it

From the left navigation, select Advertise > Campaigns, then open the Groups tab at the top of the page.

Choose an objective

Every budget group has one objective, which you pick when you create it. The objective can't be changed later, and it determines the metrics you can optimize and benchmark against.

Objective	Use for	Optimize For options	Target Metric options
Lead Generation	Lead-gen campaigns	Lead, MQL, Influenced Opportunity, Triggered Opportunity, plus any account Custom KPI	CPL, cpMQL
Brand Awareness	Awareness campaigns	CPC, CTR	CPC, CTR

Create a budget group

Select New Group (top right of the Groups tab) and choose Lead Generation or Brand Awareness. A full-screen form opens — fill it top to bottom, then Save.

General info

1. Group Name (required, up to 255 characters). See Best practices for a naming template.
2. Funnel (optional) — assign one or more funnels so this group's performance can be viewed by funnel stage. Funnels are defined under Spotlight settings; you can also filter the Groups page by funnel.
3. Budget type — choose how the budget behaves:

   Type	Behavior	Fields
   Monthly Reset	A recurring monthly budget that resets at the start of each month. No fixed end date.	Monthly Cap
   Fixed Budget	A set budget spent over a specific window. Does not roll over; campaigns pause when the group ends.	Date Range (shortcuts: Current Month, Next 3 Months) and Group Budget

4. Auto-pause checkbox — for Monthly Reset, this reads "Auto-pause experiments when Monthly Cap met and auto-restart when new month starts." For Fixed Budget it reads "Auto-pause experiments when Group Budget is met." It's on by default.
5. Enable Booster (optional) — automatically puts unused budget to work when the group is underspending.

Budget Optimization

When this switch is on (the default), Metadata redistributes budget across the group's experiments toward your chosen metric:

• Optimize For — the metric to optimize toward, from the objective's option list above (each option describes what it does).
• Redistribution strategy — Performance & Pacing (recommended) balances results and even spend, or Pacing Only spreads budget evenly without chasing performance.

Auto pause rules

Every group uses an auto-pause rule set — rules that pause experiments that perform poorly so budget isn't wasted. Pick the Default set, choose an existing set, or create a new one. Editing a shared or default set affects every group linked to it; use Apply to this group only if you want a change scoped to just this group.

Add campaigns

In the Campaigns section, start typing a campaign name and select it to add it. Only campaigns matching the group's objective appear. Campaigns already in the group are listed below the picker.

Set the group goal

In Group Goal, set a Target Metric and Goal Value. These are a benchmark for rating the group — they populate the Target, Benchmark, and Target Progress columns on the Groups page. They do not change how Budget Optimization distributes spend; that is driven only by the Optimize For setting above.

Save

Select Save. If the group has active experiments, Metadata may show a budget-distribution preview to confirm before applying the change.

The Groups page

The Groups tab lists every group with a summary row across the top and per-group rows below.

• Filters — search by name; a date-range menu (defaults to This month); and a Filters drawer for Group Goal, Visibility (Visible / Archived), and Funnel.
• Columns — Monthly Cap, Active Experiments, Spend, the Optimizer toggle, Optimized for, and more. Use the column control to show pacing, remaining budget, per-channel metrics (CTR, CPC, Leads, CPL, MQL, opportunities), Target / Benchmark / Target Progress, and others.
• Health signals — the pacing cell is color-coded (on track, slightly off, or behind), and a warning icon flags groups whose average budget per experiment is below the recommended level.
• Optimizer toggle — turn Budget Optimization on or off for a group directly from its row.
• Export — export the current view to CSV.

Manage a group

Select a group's name to reopen the form and edit it. Nearly every field is editable, with a few limits:

• An inactive (archived) group can't be saved until it's active again.
• A Fixed Budget group that has ended won't accept new campaigns — extend the date range or switch to Monthly Reset to keep spending.
• You can't lower a budget below what's already been spent this period.

Use the … (ellipsis) menu on a row for: Show Experiments, Show Campaigns, Rename, and Archive / Unarchive. Archiving hides a group from the default (Visible) list without deleting it.

Best practices

• Name groups consistently. A Country_Objective template keeps the list scannable — for example NA_BookDemo, EMEA_eBookDownload, ANZ_WebinarRegistration.
• Pick the budget type to match your commitment. Use Monthly Reset for ongoing monthly budgets, and Fixed Budget when the spend has a hard start and end date.
• Leave the auto-pause checkbox on to prevent overspend, and let auto-restart bring campaigns back at the start of each month.
• Keep Budget Optimization on with Performance & Pacing unless you have a specific reason to spread budget evenly.
• Fund each experiment adequately. If the average budget per experiment falls below the recommended level, either raise the cap or reduce the number of experiments in the group.
• Assign a funnel so you can filter and read group performance by funnel stage.

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Frequently asked questions

The metric I optimize toward isn't in the Optimize For list. What can I do?

Lead Generation groups can also optimize toward account Custom KPIs. Create the custom field in Metadata and map it in your Marketing Automation or CRM tool, and it becomes available as an Optimize For option.

How do I delete a budget group?

Groups aren't deleted — use Archive from the row's ellipsis menu to remove a group from the active list. You can Unarchive it later from the Archived view.

My Fixed Budget group ended and campaigns paused. How do I restart them?

Reopen the group and extend the Date Range, or switch it to Monthly Reset. A group whose end date has passed won't accept new campaigns until you do.

What's the difference between Target Metric and Optimize For?

Optimize For (under Budget Optimization) controls how budget is redistributed. Target Metric and Goal Value (under Group Goal) are only a benchmark for rating the group on the Groups page — they don't change how budget is distributed.