Running Google Ad campaigns has been a proven way to drive traffic to a website and gain more conversions. With Google being the best search engine globally, you can use its audience pool to find yours and target them anytime.
With Google ads, marketers can generate two dollars for every dollar spent, which is like doubling their money. As compelling as it sounds, people often end up blowing thousands and millions in the process.
The good news is, there’s no minimum budget for Google ad campaigns. You don’t need to risk a lot to drive sales using Google ads. You can stay ahead of your competitors by using Google ads on a low budget.
As the best digital marketing agency in Melbourne, DigiWhiz has helped hundreds of businesses leverage the power of Google Ads without spending much. We know the tips and tricks to use Google ad services in a way that doesn’t cost thousands of dollars to our clients, yet they reap the benefits they desire.
Here’s how to run Google Ads on a low budget successfully.
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Identify the Right Keywords To Target
When running low-budget ads, you cannot target all keywords, pay for them and get results. If you have fixed a $5 budget a day, bidding on ten keywords for the amount of a single click doesn’t seem profitable.
Creating too many ad groups and bidding on too many keywords are the biggest mistakes in PPC campaigns. Plus, it demands longer setup times and extra unique landing pages, which increase costs, time, and effort.
So, to successfully run PPC ads on a low budget, targeting one good keyword is the key. Choose a keyword as specific as possible. Do not target head terms like ‘marketing’ or ‘SEO’. This is because somebody searching for ‘marketing’ or ‘SEO’ won’t be clear on what they are looking for. They will click and browse through your ad and leave.
When you practise specificity, you tend to produce more from less, that too, at cheaper costs.
So, how do you choose the right keyword for your low-budget Google ads?
Search for a medium-volume keyword with low competition. Also, scout the Google search results to match the intent. You can use Google Ads Keyword Planner Tool to scout keywords.
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Identify Your Business Goals
Once you know how much you can willingly spend, the next is determining how to make the most of it. And that comes down to focus.
Ever wondered why advertisers spend big budgets on Google ad campaigns? It allows them to try different campaigns and compare them, target broader geographic areas, bid on more competitive keywords, and more.
But this isn’t possible to achieve with a low budget. So, what can you do to accomplish this?
To get your low budget to reap good results, narrow down your business goals. You can probably start with a single objective. While this would limit your scope to get found for everything at once, you won’t run out of your budget without gathering critical data.
Say you own a financial consultancy business. With Google ad on a low budget, you may not be able to run campaigns on:
- Mutual fund
- Life insurance
- Retirement
- Income tax planning
- Wealth creation
But you can choose one objective and focus your money, time and energy towards it. A great idea here is to choose a low-performing product or service with the highest conversion value ( that brings in the most money) or the one with the lowest competition on Google.
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Create A Single Keyword Ad Group
One of the most effective google ads tips is to create a single keyword Ad group or SKAG. These are ad groups on your google campaign that use only one keyword.
Bidding on keywords with the same meaning of which you are not sure to get clicks is not a good idea when you are aiming for google ads on a low budget.
SKAGs modify your single keyword with three specific match types:
- Broad match modifier: +keyword
- Phrase match: “keyword”
- Exact match: [keyword]
For example: if you have the keyword ‘air conditioner repair’, your SKAG will look like:
Ad group name: 24 Hour Air Conditioner Repair Group
+24 + Hour + Air + Conditioner + Repair
“24 Hour Air Conditioner Repair”
[24 Hour Air Conditioner Repair]
This way, your ad campaign is able to cater to specific searches improving your relevance score. This, in turn, improves your ad’s quality score, which decreases costs and gives your ads a higher chance of appearing in search results.
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Target a Smaller Geographic Area
Instead of targeting globally, run your ads in a particular geographic area. While this can benefit significantly if you only serve your local area, it can even be advantageous if your service (or product) can be delivered anywhere. For example, services like online coaching or e-commerce.
Let’s say your target customers are spread across the US and beyond. If you try to aim for this geographic expanse, it will spread your budget too thin. It will make your ad campaign less effective than targeting a specific state, region, or metro area.
Aren’t sure where to target your ads if you don’t have a limited service area?
Explore your Google Analytics and check the source of your visitors. Analyse your sales to determine where your buyers live. Pick some areas with higher-than-normal activity and target them for running your ads.
And if you have some budget left at the month's end, consider using it to target other areas of activity.
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Develop an Exact Message Match
Getting clicks on your google ads is relatively easy as people on a search check various options. The difficult part is, converting your visitors to customers when they visit your landing page.
It’s possible only when they find something that strongly matches their search. Developing an exact match between your ads and the landing page can encourage them to make a decision.
For instance, your target keyword and ad say exactly ‘24 hour air conditioner repair’. But if your landing page speaks of secondhand air conditioning units for sale, it will create a huge disconnect. Plus, your visitors will likely leave your page.
Hence, to improve your high-quality score to reduce costs, create landing pages with content matching your keywords and your ads' content.
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Fix Your Overall And A Daily Budget
Once you’ve set up your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign, set the maximum amount you can comfortably spend. Plus, to ensure you run Google ads on a low budget, set your per-day budget as well.
Google allows you to divide your monthly budget into a daily budget. This makes it convenient for you to spread your ad spend across the entire month. Thus, instead of burning through your total budget in a few days, you can be assured that your daily budget refreshes every morning. This will also ensure that your account doesn’t remain inactive rest of the month.
Suppose your pocket allows you to spend $120 per month on ads. Dividing this amount by 30 (total days in a month) to determine per-day spend gives $4. Isn’t it actually a low-budget?
Use these google ads tips to further decide on the monthly budget.
- Determine CPC (cost-per-click) across different industries or what your competitors are spending. The graphics below show the CPC across various industries.
Source: Wordstream
- Determine what ‘conversion’ mean for you. This means what action you want your viewers to perform when they click your ads. Does it mean filling out a contact form, signing up for a newsletter, or clicking the ‘buy now’ button?
If even one conversion could pay for your monthly ads, you won’t mind spending a few hundred dollars a month on ads.
The TakeAway
Even if you invest minimally in Google Ads, you can produce a good return on investment. You can achieve this through:
- Determining one good keyword to stay focussed.
- Identifying your advertising goals to determine the duration of your ad campaigns,
- Targeting a specific region or location instead of a larger area
- Staying relevant and keeping a solid match between ads and landing pages.
- Setting a monthly budget and dividing it for each day.
If you are still afraid to take the initiative, get in touch with marketing experts at Digiwhiz. Our marketers have years of experience running Google ads on a low budget. By understanding your business goals, we will create a well-thought-of google ad campaign strategy keeping your budget in mind. And using the above google ad tips and a few more, depending on your specific requirements, will help you achieve your desired results.
For more details or to discuss your project, contact us today!
