The average daily budget
Every campaign has one. It’s a per-day average: a rough figure for what the advertiser is happy to spend in a day, taken across the month. It can be edited whenever the advertiser likes.
The spend moves around it on purpose. Google steers spending towards the days it expects more clicks and conversions, such as busier search days, so one day may fall short of the figure and the next run past it. Google calls running past it overdelivery, and presents it as a way to catch up after slow days.
The two limits, for most campaigns
- 2×
- The daily spending limit. On any one day, the most paid is twice the average daily budget.
- 30.4×
- The monthly spending limit. In any one month, the most paid is 30.4 times the average daily budget.
A campaign’s served cost is the value of every click or impression it received; if that runs past a limit, the bill still stops at the limit. Google’s billed cost report puts the two side by side, campaign by campaign.
From a monthly amount to a daily budget
Google’s rule for working with a monthly figure is to divide it by 30.4, the average number of days in a month (365 divided by 12). Its own example: $304 a month becomes $10 a day.
Worked example
An example amount, chosen to show the arithmetic. It isn’t a recommended budget or a typical spend.
- Monthly amount
- $1,000
- Divided by 30.4, to the cent
- $32.89
- Most on any one day (2 × $32.89)
- $65.78
- Most in any one month (30.4 × $32.89)
- $999.86
The limits are Google’s; the dollar figures are this guide’s arithmetic.
In the example, a quiet day might spend under $32.89 and a busy one more, but for most campaigns, and if the budget stays at $32.89 all month, no single day can pass $65.78 and the month as a whole can’t pass $999.86. Rounding the daily figure to the cent is why the monthly limit lands 14 cents short of the starting amount.
To set it, in Google’s order: open Campaigns from the Campaigns menu, pick the campaign, click the pencil in the Budget column, type the new figure, and save. Or one shared budget can cover several campaigns.
When the campaign is limited by budget
When the budget runs short, an ad can appear less often than wanted, or not at all. Google’s tips for that situation:
- Slightly lower the bids. Counterintuitive, Google concedes, but cheaper clicks on average can stretch the money further. Cut too deep and the bids stop competing and clicks drop, so it suggests a look a few days on.
- Hand bidding to Google Ads through an automated strategy aimed at a goal, clicks or conversions for instance.
- Check the recommended budget, which Google Ads offers when a campaign keeps hitting its budget and could have won more clicks and impressions.
Bid strategies, by goal
The budget says how much; the bid strategy says how each auction is approached. Google’s advice is to choose by goal: conversions, conversion value, clicks or visibility.
| Goal | Strategy | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Conversions | Maximise conversions | Chases conversions and uses the full budget, with no cost-per-action target. |
| Conversions | Target CPA | The advertiser names an average cost per conversion; individual conversions land above or below it, and Google Ads aims to hold the average there. |
| Conversion value | Maximise conversion value | Chases conversion value and uses the full budget. |
| Conversion value | Target ROAS | Grows conversion value while aiming at a set return on ad spend. |
| Clicks | Maximise clicks | Bids for the most clicks the budget allows; an optional maximum CPC caps bids, with bid adjustments applied on top of that cap. |
| Clicks | Manual CPC | The advertiser chooses the maximum CPC, per ad group, keyword or placement. |
| Visibility | Target impression share | Bids to put the ad in a chosen place: the very top, the top area, or anywhere on the page. |
Before choosing a conversion strategy
Target CPA, target ROAS, maximise conversions and maximise conversion value are Smart Bidding strategies: each one has Google AI set a fresh bid in every auction, aimed at conversions or their value. Three things Google asks for first:
- Conversion tracking. Smart Bidding needs it switched on. Bay 05 covers it.
- A learning period. Google expects a learning phase of 7–14 days, and warns that repeated changes to budgets, targets or conversion goals in that time restart it.
- Enough conversions to judge it. Google suggests judging results over a stretch holding at least 30 conversions, such as a month or more; 50 for target ROAS.
On target CPA in particular, Google suggests making sure a day’s spend of up to twice the average daily budget sits comfortably with the advertiser.