Inside Google Ads podcast: Episode 57 - Too Small To Advertise?
Is Google Ads even worth it when you have a small budget?
It can be, but it can also be a huge money pit.
You've asked me a few questions recently about whether or not your clients' businesses are simply too small to advertise. And I thought, well, we know some industries are apparently too big to fail. Are some businesses too small to advertise?
I'm your host, Jyll Saskin Gales. I spent six years working for big brands at Google, and now I work for you.
This is Inside Google Ads, Episode 57: Too Small to Advertise.
Our first question comes from VijayKumar on YouTube, and they say, one of my clients has a very low budget for a dental clinic in Dubai, and the target radius is only four kilometers. Currently, we are only getting two to four clicks max per day, which is not enough to gather any data. Can I just recommend they stop running ads with that low of a budget and plan ads only when they have at least 250 AED per day? Currently, the CPC is around 20 to 25 AED.
My answer depends on why you're only getting two to four clicks per day.
Is it because your budget is too low, your click through rate is too low or your CPCs are really high? Or is it just because there isn't enough demand for your keywords in that four kilometer radius?
Basically, is there a market issue or a campaign issue?
The way we're going to figure that out is our Search Impression Share. If you're only getting like 10 to 20 impressions per day and that's 50% Impression Share, it's just a tiny market, so work with what you got. Consider expanding your location targeting or keyword targeting, but if that's all you want to target, so be it. Get those two to four clicks a day.
If your Impression Share is less than 10%, then your 2 to 4 clicks per day tell a different story. You lose out on impressions due to rank or due to budget. So if it's due to budget, which seems likely here, then yeah, it's probably not worth advertising unless you can afford to get at least 10 clicks per day. And as you mentioned, Vijay, that would be about 250 AED per day.
If it's due to rank, that means bid or quality score. With such low data, I wouldn't over-focus on quality score here. I would look at your bid strategy. You didn't mention which bid strategy you're using, but if it's manual CPC or an automated strategy with bid caps, that could be hindering your performance. If it's Target CPA or Target ROAS, your target may be too tight, which is restricting your bids. And if it's a Maximize strategy, like Maximize Conversions, well, it's going to have trouble doing its job when it can only afford two to four clicks per day.
All in all, if you determine that the market size is just that small, I recommend Maximize Clicks or even Target Impression Share just to ensure you're getting the visibility you need on that tiny market size. If you determine that it's a campaign issue, I recommend revisiting your bid strategy or simply pausing the campaign until you have sufficient budget. Because if you can't afford to advertise, it's better to not advertise than to light what little money you have on fire.
If you're thinking, “That sounds like a good plan. Now how the heck do I do that?” Then you should book a Google Ads coaching call with me. I know the word “coach” can get a bad rap. So if you prefer, think of it as a consultation, a strategy session, a power hour, whatever floats your boat.
The important thing is we'll dive into your Google Ads account together and you'll leave with an action plan for getting the results you need. Even if that action plan is to turn off your ads. You can learn more and book a call with me at jyll.ca. That's J-Y-L-L dot C-A or follow the link in the episode description.
Our second question comes from Romal Bhulani on LinkedIn, and they ask, can you put a number on limited search volume?
Sometimes your Google Ads campaign will give you a status that says “limited by search volume.” This usually happens if you only have Exact Match keywords, for example, or it's a Brand campaign for a relatively unknown brand, so there's only so many searches you can advertise on. This is likely by design if you've set up your campaign that way.
Now, if you can't consistently get at least 10 relevant clicks per day, that's “super limited search volume.” That’s Jyll language, by the way, not Google language. And as I discussed in the previous question, you may want to revisit your strategy.
But if you can consistently get 20 to 50 relevant clicks per day, that may be limited by search volume, but more power to you. Assuming the limitation is in fact search volume and not your bids, budget or other factors.
So if you see this status for a campaign, don't worry, don't freak out. Of course, Google wants you to add more keywords or change to Broad Match, but you don't need to unless you think it's the right move for your business.
And if you don't see this status, but you're just concerned by a low volume campaign, as long as you're getting at least 10 clicks a day, I'd say it's worth advertising, or at least worth testing advertising.
And as long as you're getting at least 50 clicks a day, you should be able to drive consistent results for your business from Google Ads.
Our final question today comes from Lou K on LinkedIn. And they say, I have clients who want to run Google ads in small towns with populations less than 50,000. And I'm like… probably not going to be great for the algorithm. What's your approach to minimum population or geographic sizes?
It depends how niche the business is. If we're a local business that only does business in this town and search volume is tiny to non-existent, then - controversial opinion here - we may be better off just running a Demand Gen campaign.
Think about it. All of our potential customers exist in this town. It's a really small town. Screw keywords! Screw audiences! Let's just make sure everyone in this dang town keeps us top of mind when they need roofing or secondhand clothes or a new car or whatever it is we're selling.
Are there situations where an industry or location or budget is too small to justify advertising?
Absolutely.
Episode 46 from December 12th, 2024 and Episode 23 from July 4th, 2024 both go deep on my recommended strategies for small budget accounts.
The purpose of this episode is to add the nuance that, at the fringes, at really small budgets or really niche industries, the general rules and best practices of Google Ads can break down. And that's okay.
Today, as I'm recording this episode, I've had two coaching calls where I recommended stuff I do not normally recommend because of the nuances of my clients’ accounts.
For example, one business owner asked if it made sense for him to run a Desktop-only Search campaign. I immediately thought of that Robin Williams meme. What year is it?! Normally my answer would be no, but there's a lot of nuance and interesting dynamics going on with his business and his website and his industry. So you know what? I said, yeah, test out that Desktop-only Search campaign. It may just be the missing puzzle piece you need in this strategy.
And then on another client call, this is a new client who runs the paid search team at an agency, and works with a client in a very esoteric niche with low search volume and sky-high CPCs. Like, CPCs in the hundreds. So heck no, we are not using Maximize Conversions there, even though I say time and time again that most new campaigns should start on Maximize Conversions.
There are exceptions to every rule. At the end of the day, you've got to do what works best for your account and your business.
Except for Display Network in Search campaigns. Never check the box for Display Network in Search campaigns!
Alright, today's Insider Challenge is this. Let's say you have Lou's client. They operate in a tiny town. It doesn't even show up on your planning tools, it's so small. Let's say they don't agree to my recommendation to just target everyone in the town with a Demand Gen campaign. What do you suggest next? What's your Google Ads strategy for the small town business?
The beauty of the Insider Challenge is there's no right or wrong answer, just an opportunity to stretch your brain on real life Google Ads problem solving.
Last Episode's Challenge was this. I asked you three questions based on the materials in the Google search ads certification. So I'm going to repeat each question now and then pause before giving you the answer according to Google.
One, how many searches are there every day on Google?
The answer? There are 5.6 billion searches a day! I know.
Two, what three things do you need in a Search campaign to leverage the full power of Google AI, according to Google?
Those three things are Broad Match, Smart bidding, and Responsive Search Ads.
And question three, what are the two ways you can run keywordless Search ads?
The answer is Dynamic Search Ads and Performance Max.
I'm Jyll Saskin Gales and I'll see you next time Inside Google Ads.