How to Create a Winning Google Ads Budget Strategy for B2B SaaS
Thinking about investing in Google Ads for your SaaS but not sure how much it will cost?Â
In this article Iâll break down how to create a winning budget strategy step by step.Â
Youâll walk away knowing how much youâll need to invest on a daily, monthly, and quarterly basis.Â
And most importantly if Google Ads makes sense for your business.Â
Letâs dive into it đ
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- How much budget is required for a starting Google Ads budget?
- How to forecast a daily, monthly, and quarterly Google Ads budget
- How to allocate Google Ads budget by campaign strategy
- Frequently asked Google Ads budget questions
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How much is required for a starting Google Ads budget?
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This is the first question that usually comes to mind when considering Google Ads.Â
Which will then be met with a variation of questions such as:Â
- Is $10/day enough for Google Ads?
- Is $100/day enough for Google Ads?
- Is $1,000/day enough for Google Ads?
And so on, and so onâŚÂ
When the reality is itâs all circumstantial based on the keywords youâre looking to target.Â
Equally important to how much is required is how many people are searching?Â
You could have a keyword that costs $0.01 per click but if only 5 people search is it really worth it?Â
So in order to answer this question you have to perform keyword research with the Keyword Planner.
Navigate to Tools > Planning > Keyword Planner within your Google Ads account to access it.Â
It doesnât cost anything to open a free Google Ads account so anyone can access this tool.Â
Within the Google Ads Keyword Planner enter your dream keyword you want to research.Â
For example, Iâll use âgoogle ads coursesâ as an example:Â
After researching I can see the following keyword costs and monthly volume estimates:
I recommend always using the top of page bid (high range) as your estimate.Â
Iâve never seen these estimates be 100% accurate and youâll never know your real CPC until launch.Â
To account for this margin of error I recommend adding +20% on top of your top of page estimate.Â
This means in our google ads courses example:
- It would potentially cost me $13.7 per click ($11.42 +20%)Â
- I can receive up to 1,600 clicks per month in the USA.Â
Based on these two data points we can assume itâs possible to spend up to $21,920 per month on this keyword ($13.7 * 1,600).Â
Outside of the return on investment, donât forget about return on effort.Â
If your dream keywords have very limited search volume (ex: < 100/month) it might not be worthwhile.Â
How to forecast a daily, monthly, and quarterly Google Ads budget
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Once you know your estimated cost per click youâre ready to put together a forecast.Â
Weâve created a free Google Ads Budget Calculator tool that you can use to easily plan your daily, monthly, and quarterly budget.Â
Youâre going to need the following information for the forecast:Â
- Your average cost per click (from the Keyword Planner or real data)Â
- Your quarterly sales goalÂ
- Your average win rateÂ
- Your average revenue per sale
With all this information at hand youâll plug these different values into the calculator.Â
Based on your landing page conversion rates you can model a worst, moderate, and best case.Â
From here you can see how much it will cost to acquire a customer and the budget required to hit your sales volume target.Â
I highly recommend paying attention to the number of clicks required per lead, this will help frame expectations on how much traffic youâll need and if your search volume is sufficient.Â
As youâll see, your landing page effectiveness is essential at reducing costs đĽ
With this forecast at hand youâll know exactly how much to invest.Â
How to allocate Google Ads budget by campaign strategy
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You should be clear on how much youâll need to invest in your Google Ads campaigns.Â
Now the next step is to figure out how youâre going to allocate your budget.Â
In my experience managing Google Ads campaigns for B2B SaaS companies, there are five proven campaign themes to invest in; NonBrand, Brand, Competitive, RLSA, and Content.Â
Hereâs my recommendation on budget allocation by each if you want to maximize volume.Â
Use all of these as starting points and modify the amounts based on your data/nuances.Â
NonBrand = 40% of total budget
NonBrand campaigns are where youâre bidding on high-intent keywords that donât include your brand, for example google ads courses would be non brand for us at AdConversion.Â
Think about your keywords youâd like to cover that problem aware prospects would search for.Â
NonBrand keywords typically contain high-intent modifiers such as:Â
- Software
- Platform
- Tool
- Technology
- Solution
If you have enough search volume on non brand keywords thereâs no easier way to drive conversions than showing up for people looking for solutions to their problems.Â
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Brand = 20% of total budget
Brand campaigns are commonly referred to as âdefenseâ campaigns where youâre bidding on your own brand name to outrank competitors bidding on yours. Â
You can make the case that people searching your branded terms would convert anyways and itâs not worth the investment.Â
This is why I recommend no more than 20% of the total budget on this campaign initially.Â
Iâve seen exceptions here with some of our clients where they saw net new revenue decline significantly from pausing their branded campaigns.Â
Let your data guide your allocation.Â
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Competitive = 25% of total budget
Competitive campaigns are the opposite of brand where youâre bidding on competitors' names to appear for their existing customers and prospects.Â
These campaigns can be really hit or miss depending on your execution.
Make sure youâre doing it in a classy way and have dedicated comparison pages.Â
This theme can be really powerful at driving qualified traffic as these searchers are solution aware.Â
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RLSA = 10% of total budget
RLSA stands for remarketing list for search ads.Â
This just means search remarketing, anyone that searches your keywords AND is part of an audience.Â
For example, anyone that has been to your site in the past 90 days and is searching your keywords.
RLSA campaigns can be really powerful when you have enough site traffic and are dealing in competitive niches.Â
Depending on your available remarketing audience sizes you can decide if this makes sense initially.Â
Given the limitation of size we typically only allocate 10% here to begin.Â
Content = 5% of total budget
Content campaigns are great for supporting SEO efforts.Â
If you have certain keywords youâre struggling to rank for, content campaigns are worth investigating.Â
This is where youâre going to bid on longtail content related keywords that typically have much lower cost per click prices and drive that traffic to a blog or relevant content piece.Â
Depending on your content strategy Iâd give this some consideration.Â
Hope you found this article helpful! and now know how to create a winning Google Ads budget strategy.Â
Frequently asked Google Ads budget questions
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Does Google Ads work on a small budget?
Yes, and no. Small is relative to your average cost per click prices.Â
Iâd recommend being able to afford at least 100 clicks per month.Â
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Does Google Ads work for B2B SaaS?Â
Absolutely, intent is what makes Google Ads so powerful.Â
The biggest challenge for B2B SaaS is scale.Â
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What is a good Google Ads budget?Â
A Google Ads budget is one where you can support your business objectives.Â
Using the following information you can create a forecast to understand what is good:Â
- Your average cost per clickÂ
- Your quarterly sales goalÂ
- Your average win rateÂ
- Your average revenue per sale
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Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Â Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it đ)
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50+ Ad Specs for The Top 10 Ad Platforms
Have you ever wondered what dimensions does that ad require? đ¤
Then started searching to find the answer? (same here lol)
To save you (and ourselves) trouble, we gathered the most popular ad specs across 10 channels in one place:Â
- Google Display Ad Specs
- LinkedIn Ad Specs
- Twitter (X) Ad Specs
- Quora Ad Specs
- Reddit Ad Specs
- YouTube Ad Specs
- Google Discovery / Demand Gen Ad Specs
- TikTok Ad Specs
- Meta Ad Specs
âď¸ Bookmark this article and refer back to it when you need ad specs.Â
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Google Display Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
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LinkedIn Ad Specs
Source: business.linkedin.com
Browse examples at: linkedin.com/ad-library/home
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âX (Twitter) Ad Specs
âSource: business.twitter.com
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- You can request to have video lengths increased up to 10 minutes
- Carousel can use images or videos but must be in the same aspect ratio (ex: 1:1 or 16:9)
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Quora Ad Specs
Source: image ads, video ads
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Reddit Ad Specs
Source: reddit.my.site.com
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* Headlines will be truncated to 100 characters on mobile/mobile web for the conversation placement.
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Youtube Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
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Google Discovery / Demand Gen Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
â
TikTok Ad Specs
Source: ads.tiktok.com
Browse examples at library.tiktok.com/ads
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âMeta Ad Specs (Facebook/Instagram)
Source: business.facebook.com
Browse examples at: www.facebook.com/ads/library
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Resources for Mastering B2B Advertising
Hope you found this ad specs article useful!
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
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Hereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â 100% free access.
â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
â
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
⢠Scale their ideas
⢠Level up their careers
⢠Make a positive impact
â
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously I timed it đ)
3 Powerful Strategies For Scaling SaaS Google Ads You Need To Know
Google Ads is a blessing and a curse.
You're blessed with intent and cursed with scale.Â
Itâs a powerful channel for scaling pipeline for SaaS startups but low search volume is a challenge.Â
In this article youâre going to learn 3 powerful strategies for scaling your SaaS google ads further.Â
This wonât solve your limited search volume issues that's just the nature of your target keywords and B2B SaaS but these strategies will help you squeeze more performance from your account.Â
Letâs dive into it đ
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Strategy #1: Broad Match Discovery
- Strategy #2: Advertising outside of English
- Strategy #3: Industry campaigns
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Strategy #1: Broad Match Discovery
Before you click away Iâm not talking about using broad match in the traditional sense.Â
Where you let Google show your ads for WHATEVER they think is relevant.Â
Broad match discovery is where you combine broad match keywords AND an audience.Â
It essentially means youâre giving Google the flexibility to show your ads for whatever they feel is relevant but within the confines of your targeted audience.Â
I would not recommend testing this approach unless you have:
- Strong negative keyword lists
- Proven converting phrase match keywords
- Significant conversion volume (> 15/month)
The benefit is you get to scale your top keywords safely past phrase match.Â
How to implement broad match discovery:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Review your performance across converting phrase match keywords to identify which youâre going to prioritize testing with broad match discovery.Â
Donât rely on âtotal conversionsâ make sure youâre viewing performance by keyword based on the custom metrics that matter for your business (ex: Demo, Trial, SQL, SAL, Opp, etc).
Once youâve identified some worthwhile keywords itâs time for step 2.Â
Step 2: Brainstorm your targeted audiences
Google has 5 audience types you can leverage for targeting in your search campaigns.Â
- Your data = website visitors or contact lists
- In-market = people actively researching a given topic
- Life events = people whoâve accomplished a life milestone (ex: create a business, get married)
- Detailed demographics = industries, company sizes, education level.Â
- Affinity = people who are interested in a certain topic
You can use a mixture of all these different types of audiences to layer on top of your broad match discovery campaigns.Â
If youâre dealing with < 500 searches/month for your keywords I recommend clustering a minim of 10-15 audiences on top of your campaigns to help with delivery.Â
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Step 3: Setup a campaign experimentÂ
The safest way you can test broad match discovery is in a 50/50 experiment alongside your top converting phrase match campaign.Â
You can easily AB test in Google Ads using the campaign experiments feature.Â
Located under Campaigns > ExperimentsÂ
Using this feature build an experiment splitting the traffic by 50% for your original campaign vs the experiment version using broad match AND the targeted audiences you brainstormed in step 2.Â
Strategy #2: Advertising outside of English
English is the most competitive language in the world with the majority of advertisers.Â
Weâve seen reductions of up to 70% in our average CPC targeting other languages.Â
If your company has the resources to sell in multiple languages â take advantage of localization!
Localization campaigns are when you target keywords, write ad copy, and design landing pages that all are in your audience's native language (ex: Spanish, German, Portuguese).Â
Youâll reap the benefits of lower costs due to less competition.Â
The downside however with localization is search volume.Â
If youâre already advertising in English outside of North America and finding success, definitely recommend testing this strategy.Â
How to implement localized campaigns:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Review your performance across converting phrase match keywords to identify which youâre going to prioritize testing with broad match discovery.Â
Donât rely on âtotal conversionsâ make sure youâre viewing performance by keyword based on the custom metrics that matter for your business (ex: Demo, Trial, SQL, SAL, Opp, etc).
Step 2: Brainstorm your targeted languages
Ask your internal team what languages your sales team is able to sell in.Â
Based on your options make a list of potential languages.
Next, if youâre advertising outside of North America, review the top performing countries and identify their local languages and see if you have the internal resources that can speak that language.
If you canât sell in this language then this strategy wonât make sense.Â
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Step 3: Hire a local translator Â
Donât make the mistake of relying on Google Translate to perform the bulk of your translation.
Youâll want to hire a translator that grew up in the area in which you want to advertise.Â
For instance, if youâre advertising in Portuguese.Â
The dialect for Europeans living in Portugal and those living in Brazil is very different.Â
A local brazilian can tell if itâs not their dialect just like a native portuguese.Â
I recommend hiring locals off Upwork can be as low as $12/hour depending on the language.Â
These translations will make a world difference in your ad and landing page copy.Â
Strategy #3: Industry campaigns
Industry campaigns can be great for coverage and quality.
This is where youâre going to bid on a desired keyword and add a related industry term.Â
For example, letâs say bidding on the keyword âcrm softwareâ hereâs how you can modify this keyword to make it industry specific:
- healthcare crm software
- crm software for fintechÂ
- crm software for small businesses
The benefits of industry campaigns:Â
- Personalized ad copy that can yield greater CTRs
- Higher quality leads due to a more qualified search term
- Lower cost per click prices due to less competition
The downside however is search volume (the constant struggle of Google for SaaS đ ).
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How to implement industry campaigns:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Just like the other strategies weâre going to identify proven keywords first that we can create industry variations for.Â
Step 2: Brainstorm your target industries
Run a win rate analysis in your CRM and understand which industries have the shortest sales cycles and largest deal sizes? Based on your findings, prioritise the industries in which you want to target.Â
Step 3: Build and prevent keyword overlap
Once you have your keywords and target industries youâre ready to build your campaigns.Â
Make sure to add your industry terms as negative keywords in your generic non-brand campaigns.
Otherwise you can have people seeing your generic ads for your industry terms.Â
Hope you found this article helpful!Â
Best of luck scaling your Google Ads campaigns for your SaaS.Â
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Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Â Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it đ)
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