When speaking to our clients or potential clients, it’s one of the first questions that comes up. Often early on. Sometimes within minutes.
“How much should we be spending on Google Ads?”
It’s a good question. As with anything in business, your marketing spend matters. You want to know what you’re putting in, and what you’re likely to get back out of it. But the honest answer is, it depends.
In my experience, I’ve seen businesses spend a few hundred pounds a month on PPC and make it work. I’ve also seen others spend thousands and struggle to get a return. The difference isn’t always the budget itself. It’s how that budget lines up with what they’re trying to achieve.
First things first.
Before you get into numbers, you need to be clear on why you’re running Google Ads in the first place.
Is it leads? Online sales? More brand awareness?
Some businesses just want a flow of enquiries to keep things ticking over, whilst others want to grow quickly and compete at the top of the page. Both are completely valid, but they simply can’t sit at the same level when it comes to marketing spend.
Where things tend to go wrong is when expectations are high, but the budget doesn’t quite match. That’s usually when people turn their backs on PPC, but it often just hasn’t been given a chance to perform.
Time to get competitive.
Google Ads is an auction. You’re bidding against other businesses who want to show up for the same searches. Imagine Homes Under The Hammer… but digital.
In some industries, that’s manageable. In others, it’s intense. You might see clicks at £2 or £3 in one sector, and £20 or more in another. Legal, finance and insurance are good examples of where costs can climb quickly and suddenly, the results you’re looking for become unachievable.
That doesn’t mean you avoid those industries. It just means you need to go in with realistic expectations. If your budget is too tight in a competitive space, you’ll struggle to get enough data to make proper decisions. And without that data, it becomes guesswork.
What do businesses usually spend?.
There’s no fixed number, but there are patterns.
Smaller businesses often start somewhere between £300 and £1,000 a month on Google Ads. It gives you enough to test the waters, see what the results are and start building an understanding of what works. As things develop, it’s common to see that increase. Somewhere between £1,000 and £5,000 tends to be where businesses start taking PPC more seriously and looking to grow.
Then you’ve got businesses operating at a much higher level, particularly in competitive industries, where spend can go well beyond that each month. However spend on its own doesn’t mean much, and a well-managed account with a smaller budget can outperform a larger one if the thinking behind it is right.
It’s not just about what you spend.
One of the biggest mistakes is focusing purely on cost. What matters more is what your Google Ads are actually producing.
If your PPC activity is bringing in consistent leads or sales, and the numbers make sense for your business, then your marketing spend is doing its job. At that point, you can look at scaling it.
If it’s not producing anything meaningful, increasing the budget usually isn’t the fix.
That’s where other factors come in. Targeting, ad quality, landing pages, and whether you’re tracking things properly in the first place. You need to be targeting the right audience to yield the results you want, and without tracking, you don’t really know what’s working and what isn’t.
It takes time to get right.
There’s also an expectation that you can switch Google Ads on and see instant results straight away. It doesn’t always work like that, and a degree of patience is required.
The early stages are usually about testing and learning. Trying different keywords, adjusting ads, refining the way campaigns are set up.
Some things will work straight away. Others won’t.
Over time, it starts to become clearer. You get a better feel for what your PPC activity is doing, where your budget is best placed, and what needs to change. Your PPC activity should grow and evolve over time, and you should actively monitor and revise what it is doing on a regular basis.
When to get a second opinion.
A lot of businesses try running Google Ads themselves, and that’s fine.
But if you’re not sure what you’re looking at, or you’ve tried it before and it didn’t really go anywhere, it’s worth speaking to someone who deals with PPC day in, day out.
A decent conversation early on can save a lot of wasted marketing spend further down the line. And sometimes it’s not about increasing the budget. It’s about using it better.
PPC is a constantly changing beast, so keeping up to date with best practice can be tricky if you don’t know what you’re doing!
Know your level.
Most businesses end up finding a level that works for them over time. They start somewhere, see what comes back, adjust things, and build from there. Some stay steady with a smaller budget. Others scale up once they know it’s working.
There isn’t a neat number that fits everyone.
It’s more a case of understanding your space, being realistic about what it takes to compete, and making sure your Google Ads are actually doing what you need them to do.
