As an agency, we encounter this challenge very often. Being asked to setup and manage a Google AdWords campaign in an extremely competitive and expensive industry to advertise in, yet having a very modest budget to work with.
We had plans, big “wow” plans to dominate the space, shoot the stars out with expected performance. That’s all out the window though as reality sets in, and we get to grips with the budget we have available to work with.
So, now it’s time to get creative. To show off our skills, and to prove that the little guys can also succeed in a crowded, hyper budget charged space.
Unlimited AdWords budgets are the twinkle in the eyes of our paid search team, however, they love the challenge of a smaller, more focused campaign with modest funds at their disposal.
And today I am going to share eight tips with you from my team on how they go about delivering success in times when they have those smaller campaign budgets to work with, and still produce excellent results.
- The beauty of shared budgets
Shared AdWords budgets allow you to share your entire budget over multiple campaigns to help give them all a chance – this isn’t a widely used option however, it is a solid tactic when you need to make a budget stretch.
Example: Say you’ve allocated $20 per day as your total budget, split evenly across two campaigns. On a given day, one campaign may receive fewer impressions and clicks than usual, resulting in only $7 spent. With a shared budget, AdWords could take that leftover $3 and reallocate it to the second campaign to maximise your campaign results overall.
- Check out the Google Display Network
The Google Display Network is a great way to target your audience as they browse the web. Only target the cities you are able to serve, running traditional as text ads, or stepping it up a bit to running video, rich media or image-based ads. We find that it is much less competitive on the Google Display Network and with all the options for placements and targeting combined with a watchful eye on excluding sites that aren’t good for the account, you can expect to see some solid results here.
- Remarketing
Remarketing is a targeted way to reach people who have already expressed interest in your business by visiting your website. Remarketing allows you to follow these prospects around the web once they leave your site, showing ads to them enticing them back to your website. There are cheap clicks to be had here, and excellent results.
- Be smart with ad scheduling
If you have a small budget, then you don’t have the luxury of running ads 24/7, instead you need to get smart about when your ads will show. If you’re in a business where most of your leads come in between 8:30am and 5:30pm, then turn off your ads outside of these hours, or lower your bids by 50 per cent during a certain time period.
- Bid on brand
We almost always recommend you bid on brand, especially if the business doesn’t have an organic presence, when their non-brand clicks are high, or when you’re working with a smaller budget. Why? Because almost always, branded clicks cost less, and you can bet some of your competitors are bidding on your brand name, and getting that traffic instead of you if your aren’t.
- Keep it local
Location targeting is crucial for campaigns on small budgets. Target states or cities you operate in or produce service to, and don’t show your ad to those you can’t service.
- Try call-only campaigns
Call-only campaigns show up in the mobile search results for mobile devices that can make calls, and they’ve especially been an important strategy for those in service-based business. When you’re trying to save on budget, don’t worry about bidding to be #1 in the results. Now that Google is showing more ads at the top of the mobile results pages you can effectively target #2, #3, or even #4 and still see good conversions.
- Negative Keywords
It’s common to use negative keywords as a way to control budget and wasted clicks. Launch with a strong negative keyword list, then be pedantic with your review of search terms and add to that list often.
As you see from the above tips, with a little creativity you can succeed with Google AdWords even when on a reduced budget.
Nathan Sinnott, Chief Executive Officer, Newpath WEB
