You are given a string to make and starting with the empty string, make it using appending and cloning cost
Husk, 25 bytes

φ?ö▼z+:⁴∞²m⁰§:h§δf`€otṫḣ0


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Inputs are in the order append cost, clone cost, target.

Explanation

φ?ö▼z+:⁴∞²m⁰§:h§δf`€otṫḣ0  Two explicit inputs and one implicit.
                           Example: 2, 3, s="abab"
φ                          Make a recursive function and call it on s:
 ?                      0   If s is empty, return 0.
  ö▼z+:⁴∞²m⁰§:h§δf`€otṫḣ    Otherwise do this.
                       ḣ    Prefixes: ["a","ab","aba","abab"]
                    otṫ     Suffixes except the first one: ["bab","ab","b"]
               §δf`€        Keep those prefixes that have the corresponding suffix as substring: ["ab","aba"]
            §:h             Prepend s minus last character: ["aba","ab","aba"]
          m⁰                Recurse on each: x=[6,4,6]
        ∞²                  Repeat the clone cost: [3,3,3,..
      :⁴                    Prepend append cost: [2,3,3,3,..
    z+                      Add component-wise to x: [8,7,9]
   ▼                        Minimum: 7