100 budget ppc campaign

What You Can Learn from a $100 PPC Campaign Budget

I give myself a seven-day window to generate leads for one hundred bucks. You will be amazed at what you can learn from a PPC campaign with JUST $100.

Let’s go back in time and return to your high school days when your English teacher assigned you a ten-page essay that was due at the end of the month.

Within the first week, you tried to muster up some words but the pen had a hard time hitting the paper. It wasn’t until the day before the paper was due that your writer’s block was relieved and you were able to finish.

I know that I’m not the only person guilty of procrastination. There is something about being on a tight deadline with some pressure added to the mix that helps our creative juices flow.

Luckily, in high school, there was no money tied to the ten-page essay, just a letter grade. If you are a PPC marketer, you are well aware of the pressures of delivering results with an actual budget. If you don’t generate new leads and new business, your client will give you a flunking grade.

My best results are often accomplished when I put some pressure on myself. I make sure that I’m on a tight deadline with a strict budget.

Even if my client provides me with a $10,000 monthly budget, at the beginning stages of a new campaign, I try to work magic with just $100.

Why $100?

It is easy to become complacent when you have a larger budget. If you don’t see leads coming in right away, you figure the campaign just needs more time to mature.

What I have discovered is when I only have $100 to work with, I’m laser focused on every click that comes in. If my average cost per click is $3.00, I’m only getting 33 clicks. I need to make sure I’m generating the highest quality traffic.

Only 33 Clicks

With a shoestring budget, I need to make sure I’m capitalizing on each and every click. I know it is crucial to have a high-converting landing page, remarketing advertisements, killer advertising copy, call tracking/monitoring and analytics integrated into my campaign.

My keywords only consist of phrase match, broad match modifier or exact match (sorry broad match, you don’t make the cut).  I also make sure to have a laser focus on the specific zip code, area or region I’m looking to generate leads from.

If you have the proper foundation in place, you should be able to start capturing leads with just 33 clicks. Additionally, you will start to identify the initial keywords that drive conversions and high quality traffic; you can better optimize your campaign’s performance based off those first seven days.

Stay Thrifty

Since you’re working with just $100 here, let’s stay thrifty.

Imagine you own a vintage thrift store in Austin, Texas. Instead of going after “Austin” in the keyword for the area, I would want to go after “SoCo” since that is the district where my store is located. I know this keyword will bring in higher quality traffic since this is a specific shopping district in the city of Austin.

Additionally, you wouldn’t want just the keyword “Thrift Store”. You would want to go more long tail, so you have “+Vintage +Thrift +Store” in the mix. You know your demographic is hipsters and millennials, and that vintage keyword will drive higher quality traffic that can result in new customers.

With a $100 budget and 33 clicks, you can listen to the phone leads that came through (if you have call tracking and recording in place) and gauge the contact forms to see if you are delivering high quality traffic.

Deadline

Let’s face it, a $100 PPC budget won’t last you very long. When I run this one hundred dollar campaign, I will typically spread it out over 5-7 days so I have a full week worth of data.

Since I’m a business owner, (we just celebrated our 5-year anniversary, yay!) I always try to put myself in other business owners’ shoes. Sometimes, they have a very limited budget and a small window to bring in new customers. Sticking to a one-week test allows for me to assess all of the necessary data.

Pass or Fail?

Follow my lead and try setting-up a $100 PPC campaign to see if you can deliver results. You’d be amazed how many more minor details you will pick up, which will only further improve your campaign.

Just make sure the foundation of your campaign is set up properly so you are driving the highest quality traffic.

Fortunately, you don’t have to nervously sit at your school desk and wait for your teacher to deliver your grade.  That being said, if you can deliver some leads with just 33 clicks, you are honor roll worthy.

NOTE: If you are in a competitive industry like car insurance or medical malpractice, you might have to increase your test budget since $100 might only get you 4-5 clicks. I recommend trying to get at least 30 clicks to gauge the early results of a campaign.

Jason Parks

Jason Parks

Jason Parks is the President and Founder of The Media Captain and Cleveland Marketing King, two digital marketing and development agencies based in Ohio. He's a VIP Contributor for Entrepreneur.com and has been featured in the New York Times, Yahoo News and Search Engine Watch on digital-marketing topics. Jason's agencies have helped hundreds of businesses increase their online exposure.

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