Pausing at Monthly Amount

without Compromising Daily Bid

[tmclellan]

This is a question I've had forever. I manage about four "My Client Center's" and have about 10 clients per center right now. They all have their own monthly budgets of say $500/month, $700/month, etc.

To rank higher, I set their Daily & Per Click budgets higher than what equals out to $700 for the month. However, this risks them going over that amount each month unless I manually log in and pause the account.

Do you guys know good software that will auto-monitor monthly budgets for me?

[LucidSW]

I don't understand your problem. If you (or in this case the client) want to spend no more than $700 per month, simply set the budget to that amount.

[tangor]

Chasing a daily, or even weekly moving target of "ranking higher" will use up the monthly budget a bit faster. AFAIK there is no automated method of pausing an escalated account...

[RhinoFish]

"to rank higher"
chasing position is a market share endeavor. if you're budget capped, best not to chase position / share. reduce your bids to maximize the clicks you get for your fixed budget. use conversion optimizer to maximize the conversions you get for those clicks. when your clients see their roi / roas, they'll increase their budgets. eventually, the right balance, optimized and maximized, will be found - a balance consistent with your clients goals. when that point is reached, your clients should be willing to set their budget cap a tad higher than usual spend, so caps don't clip you on certain heavy days.

[tmclellan]

I guess what I'm saying is what happens if I have a client who has a monthly budget of $30. Am I really going to set their Daily Budget to $1 a day? They will not even show up on the first page of ads?

[LucidSW]

You could set the budget to $1 a day. It's the same as far as I'm concerned as $30 a month. But I'd use the monthly setting myself for no particular reason.

The ads will show as long as your QS and bid warrants having your ad shown on the first page. Of course, if the clicks are 50 cents, you can only expect to get two clicks. And the ads are not going to show all the time as ad serving takes your budget into account. That would not be a fair test and personally, if someone is prepared to spend only $1 a day, they have no business using Adwords.

[sunday silence]

I dont get that last bit: you can set a budget for $1/day but if you so you have no business using adwords...Just dont get that.

[tmclellan]

That $30 a month was just an example. I have a client who has a $600 monthly budget. What is the monthly setting - LucidSW?

[briggidere]

You could use the automated rules now they are live for everybody.

Apply to all campaigns
Pause campaigns
Requirements: Cost > $5% less than client monthly budget (to give a slight buffer)
Frequency: Daily using data from same month

Would that work for you?

[LucidSW]

> What is the monthly setting - LucidSW?

Maybe they changed it or I remember it wrong. I'm sure you used to be able to say either "$300 a month" or "$10 a day". Seems now there's only a daily option. Doesn't matter as it essentially means the same thing.

There's only two possible budgets you should use. Either you set it to the maximum you want to spend per day (or per month if you look at it that way) or set it to a level that will ensure you cover 100% of the available impressions. So if there are 1000 searches on your keywords and you average 4% CTR at an average $1 per click, your budget should be at least $40. I would add 10 to 20% to cover any overages such as more searches than normal on some days, increasing click rates or increases in CPC. Adjust as necessary.

[Spyglass]

I think briggidere has nailed it!

[tmclellan]

Yes Briggidere! That's it!

Where do I set up the automated rules?

Thank you LucidSW for your comments, very helpful.

[fenway]

In low budget/traffic environments, I've come to the conclusion over the years, to try to steer my clients away from the "monthly" budget mentality if they can. Sure, most businesses have to report internally or externally their monthly/quarterly performance. For smaller campaigns, with only $10/day or $300 month, I encourage them to run it for a week at $42/a day if they have the manpower/fulfillment department to handle it.

Stretching low traffic, thin over time, I find to be counter-productive from a stat significance standpoint. It has to accumulate enough date within a short enough timeframe, before time, friction and unknowable randomness effect the performance. Take the 300 visitors over a week, analyze it, and be 3 weeks ahead of the game. You'll know better whats actually happening and much sooner.