Many clients have fairly small budgets to spend on Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. They need to see results from spending as little as $100 per month. This is not a lot of money for PPC advertising, but still workable. If you call any online marketing company they will probably ask for a minimum spend of $1,000 - $2,500 per month. This is simply not doable for many small merchants. So, what is someone with a small budget to do?

One of the first tips I give my client is to watch what keywords you’re bidding on. If your industry is indoor furniture, for example, do NOT bid on the word furniture! This top-level keyword will likely cost you a fortune, and receive a lot of unqualified traffic. If you’re selling furniture, do you really want clicks from people searching for “furniture repair”, “used furniture”, or “patio furniture”? These words are budget-busters, and they’re no good to you. You should be looking for very detailed keywords, that may not get as many searches, but when they do, the traffic will be much more qualified. For example, you may bid on, “living room coaches”, or “brown leather chairs”.

Of course any PPC campaign, regardless of the budget should be preceded by a keyword research period. However, don’t be too selective. It’s a good idea to start with a lot of keywords and narrow down the list every day when you see what keywords aren’t working. Google Adwords has great reporting tools to help you do this.