Maximizing Results with a Tight PPC Budget
Many advertisers face the challenge of working with a limited budget for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. This constraint often leads to the question, “How much should we spend?” Determining the right budget is crucial as it sets the foundation for your entire PPC strategy.
Setting Expectations For The Account
When operating with a smaller budget, it’s essential to manage expectations regarding the size and scope of your PPC account. Balancing your budget with the cost, volume, and competition of keyword searches in your industry is key.
Implementing a well-balanced PPC strategy that includes display and video formats can help engage consumers effectively. Start by determining your daily budget. For instance, if your monthly budget is $2,000, your daily budget would be $66 for the entire account.
Keep in mind that platforms like Google Ads and Microsoft Ads may occasionally exceed the daily budget to optimize results. However, the monthly budget should not surpass the daily budget multiplied by the number of days in the month.
Prioritize Goals
Advertisers often have multiple goals for their accounts, such as brand awareness, leads, sales, and repeat sales. With a limited budget, it’s crucial to focus on a specific number of campaigns to achieve these goals effectively.
For example, an advertiser utilizing a small budget to promote a scholarship program may allocate funds to both lead generation (search campaign) and awareness (display campaign) with a daily budget of $82.
Location Targeting
Efficient location targeting is vital for reaching the right audience and managing a small ad budget. Focus on essential target locations where your customers are located to maximize your budget’s impact.
Refine your location targeting by states, cities, ZIP codes, or a radius around your business. Additionally, consider adding negative locations where you do not conduct business to avoid irrelevant clicks.
Ad Scheduling
Ad scheduling allows you to control your budget by running ads only on specific days and during certain hours. Limiting ads to hours of business operation can be beneficial for smaller budgets.
Review hourly results over time to identify periods with a negative return on investment. If certain hours are ineffective, consider pausing ads during those times.
Set Negative Keywords
Creating a well-planned negative keyword list is essential for budget control. Prevent your ads from showing on irrelevant searches by proactively generating negative keywords and reviewing query reports.
Regularly update your negative keyword lists to adapt to evolving search trends and ensure your budget is allocated efficiently.
Smart Bidding
Smart Bidding, powered by Google AI, optimizes bids to reach the right audience within your budget constraints. Strategies like Maximize Conversions, Target ROAS, and Target CPA can help you achieve your advertising goals effectively.
Display Only Campaigns
For branding and awareness purposes, consider running display campaigns to reach a wider audience affordably. Audience targeting, including topics, placements, and demographics, can help you optimize your display campaigns.
Utilize remarketing to re-engage website visitors and let performance reporting guide your optimizations for the best results.
Performance Max Campaigns
Performance Max (PMax) campaigns leverage automation to maximize conversion results across channels. These campaigns use AI to create assets, select channels, and target audiences, making them ideal for limited budgets.
Target Less Competitive Keywords
Researching and targeting less competitive keywords can help you compete effectively on a smaller budget. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to discover relevant keywords with lower competition and potentially lower costs.
Manage Costly Keywords
High-volume and competitive keywords can quickly deplete your budget. Consider restructuring these keywords into their own campaign with more restrictive targeting and budget settings. Experiment with match types and ad copy to improve quality and reduce costs.
Managing a PPC account with a limited budget requires strategic planning, data-driven decisions, and continuous optimizations. By implementing these strategies, you can make every click count and drive meaningful results in your PPC campaigns.
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