There is no universal number that is the right Google Ads budget. What matters is whether your budget is large enough to collect useful data and whether you have a clear idea of what an enquiry is worth to you.
Start from the value of a customer
Work backwards. If an average customer is worth a certain amount to your business and roughly one in several enquiries becomes a customer, you can estimate how much you can afford to pay per enquiry. That figure, not a random monthly number, should guide your budget.
Budget for learning, not just results
The first weeks of any campaign involve testing: which keywords bring serious enquiries, which ads get clicks, which locations respond. Expect to spend some budget learning. A campaign that is starved of budget never gathers enough data to improve.
Keep campaigns tight
- Focus on a small set of high-intent keywords first.
- Target only the areas you can actually serve.
- Add negative keywords early to avoid irrelevant clicks.
- Send traffic to a page that matches the ad, not just the homepage.
Track what matters
Clicks are not the goal. Set up conversion tracking for calls, form submissions and WhatsApp clicks so you can see which keywords and ads produce real enquiries.
Be realistic about timing
Search campaigns can produce enquiries quickly, but performance usually improves over several weeks as data accumulates. Review results regularly, change one thing at a time and give changes time to show an effect.
If you would like help setting a sensible starting budget for your industry and area, get in touch and we will walk you through it.