To run Google ads with a small budget

Many people think that Google Ads is only for big businesses with ample budgets, such as those multinational brands.

But this is not the case. Many small businesses, even very small businesses, have achieved good results through Google Ads.

However, if you have a limited budget, it becomes a challenge to make good use of these funds and get the most benefits.

What is a small budget?

“Small budget” is a relative concept, which depends on the industry you are in and the competitive environment. The same budget may mean very different things in different industries.

For example, an e-commerce company with a monthly advertising budget of $1,000, selling women’s clothing products, may be considered a small budget in this industry, because competitors may spend thousands of dollars every day.

But if a company with the same budget of $1,000 sells life insurance, then this budget will not even have a chance to get exposure to the ad because the budget is too small.

This is because the cost per click (CPC) of advertisements varies greatly from industry to industry. An e-commerce company may only need to pay between $0.5 and $1 to get a click, while a life insurance company may need to pay $10-50 to get a click, or even more.

If you only have a $1,000 monthly budget, this means that a life insurance company may only get 3 clicks a day, which is almost meaningless for advertising effectiveness.

If your ad can only generate a few clicks a day, such as 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or even 10 times, then Google Ads may not be suitable for you because there will definitely be almost no conversions.

In this case, you may need to consider other free or low-cost marketing methods, such as social media content creation, writing articles, short videos, etc., to build a business foundation first, and then gradually invest funds in Google Ads.

In summary: I think that a daily advertising budget of less than $20 and a monthly budget of less than $600 can be considered a small budget. Of course, a small budget can also be successful in ads delivery.

Small Budget Google Ads Strategy

If your budget is small but still able to support the operation of Google Ads, you need to adopt some specific strategies to maximize your return on investment. Here are some key strategies:

● Focus on the market segment

● Optimize the landing page

● Choose the right bidding strategy

● Use the display advertising network and Performance Max with caution

● Continue to optimize and budget expansion

Next, I will introduce each strategy in detail.

PART.1

Focus on the market segment: precise attack

When your budget is limited, don’t try to cover all products and services. Instead, you need to focus on a specific market segment and choose a single product or service as your target.

Because of the limited budget, you can’t get enough data to analyze the performance of all products and services. For example, an e-commerce company selling a variety of home appliances will have a hard time judging which products are winners and which products are losers if it only relies on 100 clicks per day.
Therefore, you need to choose a market segment, such as ovens or dishwashers, and focus on promotion, or select products more subdivided.

How to choose the right market segment?

You need to consider the following factors: competition and cost per click (CPC). Choose a market segment with low competition and low CPC so that your budget can reach more audiences and gain an advantage over the competition.

At the same time, use the Google Keyword Planner tool to analyze the competition and CPC of each market segment to make an informed decision. Remember, don’t try to do everything, focus on one market segment to get the best results.

Many people actually ignore the free keyword planner tool when running Google ads, but it is actually a very useful tool.

PART.2

Optimize landing pages: improve conversion rates

Many people run ads and then use a website that contains all products and services as the landing page for all ads. This may be acceptable if the budget is sufficient. But for ads with a small budget, optimizing landing pages is crucial.

You need to create landing pages specifically for each product or service, maximize the relevance between the ad and the landing page, and thus improve the conversion rate.

Because your budget is limited and you can’t participate in too many ad auctions, you need to convert limited clicks into sales as much as possible.

Creating a dedicated landing page is the key to improving conversion rates. For example, if you are promoting dishwashers, consider creating a landing page for a specific dishwasher brand, and align it with the target keywords as closely as possible. This will not only improve conversion rates, but also improve the relevance of your ads, thereby improving ad rankings.

PART.3

Bidding strategy: Manual CPC or Maximize Clicks

When you have a very small budget, your bidding strategy options are usually limited to two: Maximize Clicks or Manual CPC. Although I usually recommend using Smart Bidding, for ads with a small budget, Manual CPC allows you to better control costs and ensure that you get enough traffic to generate sales.

Of course, there are some low-traffic campaigns, such as 20 to 30 clicks per day, which are better with Smart Bidding. But as a starting point, Manual CPC allows you to better control costs and understand the quality of traffic during the learning stage. (For beginners + low budgets, I recommend manual CPC to place, so that you can better control your spending)

You can observe the quality of traffic, add negative keywords, try to get conversions, and then gradually transition to a smart bidding strategy based on actual conditions. The main reason to choose manual CPC or maximize clicks is that smart bidding strategies, such as target ROAS or maximize conversions, adjust the cost of clicks based on the likelihood of conversion, which means you will participate in more competitive ad auctions, resulting in a significant increase in CPC.

PART.4

Display Network and Performance Max: Are they suitable for small budgets?

If your advertising strategy is more focused on acquiring traffic rather than direct sales, are Display Network and Performance Max suitable for small budget ads?

Compared with shopping or search ads, Display Network and Performance Max can get more clicks and impressions at a lower cost.

This is because their target audience is not people who are looking for a specific product or service, and the competition is relatively low. However, for ads with limited budgets, it is more important to invest money in users who are more likely to convert.

Therefore, search or shopping ads are more suitable for small budget ads, even if you cannot get very good competition in these ads. Even if the budget is limited, you should invest money in the bottom of the funnel rather than the top of the funnel.

Wait until search ads have achieved some results, gained more customers, and increased search budgets before considering using the display ad network and Performance Max.

ps: Pay attention, low-budget + newbies should not run display ads and pmax right away. It is recommended to run search and shopping ads.

PART.5

Continuous optimization and budget expansion: Towards success

In fact, in general, if your ads are always in a low-budget state, it will be difficult to run a good profit. You need to get rid of this state as soon as possible. Don’t be satisfied with struggling in the low-budget competition. You need to develop a roadmap to gradually expand your budget and get more benefits.

Ideally, as long as the ads can bring conversions, the more you invest, the greater the benefits. You need to reinvest the benefits of small-budget ads and gradually increase the budget instead of being satisfied with the present.

Only by continuously optimizing advertising strategies and expanding budgets can long-term and stable growth be achieved.