One of the most reassuring features of the Google AdWords pay-per-click advertising program is the ability to set a daily budget for each of your campaigns. It's obviously an essential safety valve, but most new users are usually unaware that setting the budget too low can be the quickest way to doom a campaign to a slow agonizing death.
When you create a new AdWords campaign, Google will recommend a budget designed to maximise ad exposure, based on the current keyword bids. But regardless of this recommendation, new advertisers tend to set very conservative budget, because they're worried about running up a large bill.
Be aware however that if you set a budget that is less than the recommended amount, Google will restrict the number of times your ad is displayed. If you choose to make your daily budget $25 when Google recommends $50 for example, your ad will only be shown 50% of the time your ad is eligible for display.
They do this to spread your ad exposure throughout the day. Now, you might think "well, that's ok... I'm still only spending $25 per day and that suits me". However that may not be the smartest way to look at things.
To get a fix on the performance of a keyword, you need to assess it after your ad has been shown a statistically significant number of times, and the reality is that first time up to bat, the majority of your ads probably won't perform as well as they could... and many of them won't attract any clicks at all.
Remember, no click means no cost.
So if you restrict the number of times those ads are shown during the day, all that does is take twice as long to find out which ones are not working.
If your budget is tight and you think can't afford Google's recommendation, there's several things you can do.
First, deactivate distribution on network partner sites during the set-up phase. That way you can use your available budget on the core part of your campaign; Google search.
Secondly, think about using Google's accelerated delivery option. By default, your campaign is set to deliver ads evenly over time, subject to the budget ratio limitation I've just described. But if you choose the accelerated delivery option, Google will show your ads without any restriction until your daily budget limit is reached.
Now, that could work out great, but depending on your other campaign settings it could also mean that you use up all your daily budget between say 12 midnight and 10 o'clock in the morning. If that's the case, you might have to use accelerated delivery in tandem with ad scheduling.
Ad scheduling lets you control the time of day and which days your ad appears. You can have a campaign can run all day, every day or as little as 15 minutes per week.
You might, for example, set your ads to run only from 8:00 in the morning till 6:00 pm every day or perhaps only Monday to Friday. Google will then spread your budget over the scheduled run time according to the delivery option you've chosen; standard or accelerated.
To make sure your scheduling is aligned properly, be aware that you need to set your time zone in the account preferences area of your control panel.
As a final note, remember that daily budgets are set at the campaign level, not the account level, so your overall daily spend will be governed by the total of all your campaign budgets... not just the one you happen to be working on.
When you create a new AdWords campaign, Google will recommend a budget designed to maximise ad exposure, based on the current keyword bids. But regardless of this recommendation, new advertisers tend to set very conservative budget, because they're worried about running up a large bill.
Be aware however that if you set a budget that is less than the recommended amount, Google will restrict the number of times your ad is displayed. If you choose to make your daily budget $25 when Google recommends $50 for example, your ad will only be shown 50% of the time your ad is eligible for display.
They do this to spread your ad exposure throughout the day. Now, you might think "well, that's ok... I'm still only spending $25 per day and that suits me". However that may not be the smartest way to look at things.
To get a fix on the performance of a keyword, you need to assess it after your ad has been shown a statistically significant number of times, and the reality is that first time up to bat, the majority of your ads probably won't perform as well as they could... and many of them won't attract any clicks at all.
Remember, no click means no cost.
So if you restrict the number of times those ads are shown during the day, all that does is take twice as long to find out which ones are not working.
If your budget is tight and you think can't afford Google's recommendation, there's several things you can do.
First, deactivate distribution on network partner sites during the set-up phase. That way you can use your available budget on the core part of your campaign; Google search.
Secondly, think about using Google's accelerated delivery option. By default, your campaign is set to deliver ads evenly over time, subject to the budget ratio limitation I've just described. But if you choose the accelerated delivery option, Google will show your ads without any restriction until your daily budget limit is reached.
Now, that could work out great, but depending on your other campaign settings it could also mean that you use up all your daily budget between say 12 midnight and 10 o'clock in the morning. If that's the case, you might have to use accelerated delivery in tandem with ad scheduling.
Ad scheduling lets you control the time of day and which days your ad appears. You can have a campaign can run all day, every day or as little as 15 minutes per week.
You might, for example, set your ads to run only from 8:00 in the morning till 6:00 pm every day or perhaps only Monday to Friday. Google will then spread your budget over the scheduled run time according to the delivery option you've chosen; standard or accelerated.
To make sure your scheduling is aligned properly, be aware that you need to set your time zone in the account preferences area of your control panel.
As a final note, remember that daily budgets are set at the campaign level, not the account level, so your overall daily spend will be governed by the total of all your campaign budgets... not just the one you happen to be working on.
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