{"id":1936,"date":"2016-06-14T12:29:19","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T12:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/2016\/06\/14\/eight-tips-for-getting-the-most-from-a-modest-ppc-budget\/"},"modified":"2019-10-23T08:57:48","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T08:57:48","slug":"eight-tips-for-getting-the-most-from-a-modest-ppc-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2016\/06\/14\/eight-tips-for-getting-the-most-from-a-modest-ppc-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight tips for getting the most from a modest PPC budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Has this ever happened to you? You acquire a new PPC account that\u2019s in a notoriously expensive sector to advertise in. You have plans. Big plans and you\u2019re going to \u201cwow\u201d the new team with grand ideas while visions of industry domination dance in your head. <\/strong><\/p>\n

And then comes the reality check: They don\u2019t have the budget. For a moment, your team feels deflated. But then you realize: “Now is the time to show them how truly badass we are by getting creative with that budget<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

This is not an uncommon scenario. In fact, we just recently took on a lawyer client who has a $166 budget per day, which sounds okay until you realize clicks in their area of expertise cost up to $125.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s every PPC<\/a> manager\u2019s dream to have an open budget to play with, this takes time to work up to while you gain trust and show them you can drive conversions.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, there are always ways to help make the most of the modest budget you\u2019re working with, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to share with you today: What to do when an account has a budget that may only support one or two clicks per day, like the example I shared above.<\/p>\n

1) Bid on brand terms<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You always want to bid on brand<\/a>, and this is especially true when businesses don\u2019t have an organic presence, when their non-brand clicks are high, and when you\u2019re working with a smaller budget.<\/p>\n

The reality is that branded clicks are almost always less expensive, and you certainly don’t want your competitors beating you here as they sometimes bid on your brand name.<\/p>\n

2) Explore the Google Display Network
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When done well, the GDN is a great way to target folks as they browse the web. For service-based businesses on a shoestring budget, consider putting a small portion towards the GDN by only targeting the cities you serve. Your display ads\u00a0can be as traditional as\u00a0text ads<\/a>, or as engaging as video, rich media or images.<\/p>\n

And sometimes it\u2019s way less competitive on the GDN; one of our clients in the legal sector spends between $80 and $100 per click on the Google Search Network versus $2 to $12 on the GDN.<\/p>\n

With all the options<\/a> for placements and targeting\u00a0on the GDN combined with a watchful eye on excluding sites that aren\u2019t good for the account, you can see some nice results here.<\/p>\n

3) Definitely remarket<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Remarketing<\/a> is a targeted way to reach people who have already expressed interest in your business by visiting your website. So don’t let these warmer leads forget about you once they leave your site. Remarketing on the GDN can produce great results with cheap clicks.<\/p>\n

4) Get crafty with ad scheduling<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When you\u2019re on a modest budget, you have to make calls about when your ads will show. If you\u2019re in a sector where most of your leads come in between 8am. and 6 pm, you probably want to turn off your ads after that, or consider lowering your bids by 50% during a certain time period.<\/p>\n

5) Consider shared budgets<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Shared budgets allow you to share your entire budget over multiple campaigns to help given them all a chance. We rarely use this strategy at my agency, but when you want to make your budget stretch, it can be an interesting option.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how Google explains<\/a> it:<\/p>\n

“Say you’ve set aside $100 per day, split evenly between two campaigns. On a given day, one campaign could get less impressions and clicks than usual, resulting in only $40 spent. With a shared budget, AdWords could take that leftover $10 and reallocate it to the second campaign to maximize your campaign results overall.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can find this option in the AdWords shared library > budgets.<\/p>\n

\"adwords<\/p>\n

6) Negate, negate, negate<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s common to use negative keywords<\/a> as a way to control budget after a campaign has launched<\/a>.\u00a0But if you\u2019re already familiar with the sector you\u2019re advertising in, why wait?<\/p>\n

Try launching with a robust negative keyword<\/a> list, then be psychotic with your review of search terms and negate swiftly.<\/p>\n

7) Keep it local<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For those in the legal industry<\/a> similar to the example I started out with, they only really need to target the states they operate in. Better yet, limit it to the counties they operate in to save some cash. Learn more about location targeting here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

8) Try call-only campaigns<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Call-only ads<\/a>\u00a0show up in the mobile search results for mobile devices that can make calls, and they\u2019ve been an important strategy for those in a service-based business.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re trying to save on budget, don\u2019t worry about bidding to be No. 1 in the results. Now that Google is showing more ads at the top of the mobile SERPs, you can effectively target No. 2 or 3 and still see conversions.<\/p>\n

With all the features offered in AdWords and a little creativity, you can help businesses succeed with PPC<\/a>, even if they have a more modest budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What to do when an account has a budget that may only support one or two clicks per day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":1937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1504,585,129,467],"content_type":[27095],"class_list":["post-1936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ppc","tag-budgets","tag-google-display-network","tag-paid-search","tag-remarketing","content_type-news"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/dimes-120x90.png","category":"PPC","timeago":"10y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1936"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=1936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}