When you have a small marketing budget, you have to choose your marketing channels very carefully. After all, you want to choose the ones where you will get the best return on investment for your business.

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising can be a good option if you have a limited budget. The great thing about PPC channels like Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising and Facebook Ads is that you can set a finite budget. This means that there is no risk of overspending.

However, you still need to take action to make sure you get as many conversions as possible for your money.

Here are our top four tips for managing a high-quality PPC campaign when your budget is small.

1. Stick to manual bidding

If you don’t have much time, automated PPC campaigns can be a great choice. You can set adverts up in the background and leave them to run, safe in the knowledge that Google, Microsoft or Facebook will do the hard work for you.

However, if the wallet strings are tight, manual bidding is the best choice.

With automated bidding, you are putting bidding decisions in the hands of the platform, which may mean you spend more money than you initially expected. For example, with Google Ads enhanced cost per click (CPC) option, Google can increase your bid by up to 30% of the maximum keyword price.

Manual bidding can take more time and effort, but gives you more precision over your ad campaigns.

2. Consider brand keywords

When you’re using search ads, some keywords can be incredibly expensive. According to WordStream, if you have a casino or bail bonds business, you can expect to shell out nearly $60 a click!

If you’re looking to do ads on a budget, branded keywords (i.e. ones that include your business name) can be a savvy marketing technique. As you use your own branded keywords across your website, your quality score will be higher, meaning you will pay less to appear in the number one position.

3. Try retargeting

If someone has already visited your website, a retargeting ad campaign can be a cost-effective way to get them to buy your product or service.

With remarketing, you can serve a social media advert or display ad to someone who has already engaged with you, reminding them to come back and make a purchase.

In fact, marketers see retargeting as the best ad placement strategy, with an incredible 1,046% efficiency rate compared to other types of PPC ad!

4. Keep checking your campaign

When you have a reduced budget, you have to make every cent count.

Ideally, you should check your PPC account of choice every day to see how things are working and whether any ad campaigns are wasting any money.

If you are using search adverts, can you tweak your ad copy or add new keywords? If you are using social media advertising, will changing your target audience help?