Cordt Digital
There is no magic number for a Google Ads budget. The right figure depends on what a customer is worth to you, how competitive your market is, and how quickly you need results. What we can do is give you a sensible way to work it out.
Start with what a customer is worth
Work out your average order value or lead value, then your profit margin. If a new customer is worth £200 in profit, you can afford to pay up to that amount to win them. If you only keep £20, your budget needs to be far tighter. Everything else follows from this number.
Estimate the cost of a click
Costs per click vary hugely between industries and even between towns. Google’s Keyword Planner gives a rough range for the terms you want to target. Multiply that by the number of clicks you need to win one customer (your conversion rate) and you have a rough cost per customer.
Give the campaign enough room to learn
Automated bidding works best when it receives a steady stream of conversions. If the budget is so small that you only see a handful of clicks a day, the system has little to learn from and results stay patchy. As a rough guide, aim for a budget that can deliver at least a few dozen conversions a month once the campaign is settled.
Start focused, then scale what works
- Begin with your best-selling product or service and your most valuable locations.
- Pause anything that spends without a sensible return after a fair test period.
- Move budget towards the campaigns that are profitable, rather than spreading it evenly.
Do not forget the cost of getting it wrong
A small budget run badly is more expensive than a larger budget run well. Poor tracking, broad keywords and weak landing pages can waste money at any spend level. It is worth fixing the foundations before you increase the budget.
Where to go from here
If you would like a realistic budget for your business, a free audit call is the quickest way to get one. We look at your market and your numbers, and give you an honest view of what to spend and what to expect.
PPC freelancer based in Norwich, running Cordt Digital. Jay helps businesses get better results from Google Ads, Meta Ads and Shopping campaigns.
