How much should I budget for Google Ads campaigns?
Work backwards from what a customer is worth, not forwards from what you can spare. The budget needs to be big enough to get enough conversions for bidding to learn, and small enough that you can afford to find out it isn't working. Want to work that out from revenue and a growth goal? Try the budget planner .
How to set one
- Work out what a customer is worth to you, after costs.
- Check what a click costs in your market, using Google's Keyword Planner.
- Divide: at your likely conversion rate, how many clicks does a customer take, and what does that cost?
- Set a daily budget that gives bidding enough conversions to learn from.
Click costs vary a lot between markets, so we don't quote a typical figure here.
What to watch
- Cost per lead, checked against the CRM.
- Budget limits that hold back campaigns that are working.
- Waste: search terms that spend and never convert.
Pacing Numbers has free calculators for budget, spend check, break-even return and cost per customer. They run in your browser and don't ask for an email. Budget advice is part of our paid marketing service.
Also worth asking
Other answers about the same tools.
What is paid marketing and how does it work?
Paid marketing means paying to put your business in front of people, usually through ads on Google, Meta or LinkedIn. You set a budget and an audience, and you pay per click or per thousand views. The hard part is knowing which ads bring customers.
What platforms do you use for paid marketing campaigns?
Google Ads and Meta (Facebook and Instagram), plus LinkedIn for B2B work. We use Microsoft Ads where a campaign needs it. Which ones we use depends on whether people search for what you sell.
How much should I budget for paid marketing?
Start from what a customer is worth to you and what a lead costs in your market. The budget then needs to be big enough to get meaningful conversions in a month, and small enough that you can afford to find out it isn't working.
Want a quick starting figure from your revenue and a growth goal? Try the budget planner.
What is ad platform integration and why does it matter?
Ad platform integration means joining your website, tracking and CRM to the ad platforms, so they receive the leads and sales that came from their ads. Without it, bidding learns from clicks and form fills instead of customers.
What’s the difference between paid search and paid social campaigns?
Paid search (Google Ads) shows your ad to people typing a query. Paid social (Meta, LinkedIn) shows it to people browsing. Search catches demand that's already there, and social creates interest in something new.
Still have questions?Talk to us
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