Small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) face unique challenges when it comes to PPC advertising.
Unlike big brands with massive budgets, SMBs need strategies that make every dollar count.
Here’s how to optimize Google Ads campaigns to deliver real results for small businesses.
Why SMBs need a different approach to paid search success
SMBs are the backbone of the economy and a core part of Google’s advertising ecosystem.
Yet, when it comes to Google Ads, most attention is focused on the biggest advertisers.
While companies spending $300,000 or more monthly dominate the conversation, SMBs – local plumbers, small clothing startups, family-owned auto shops, and Shopify artisans – need strategies that make every dollar count.
Unfortunately, they often receive advice from paid search veterans who built their expertise managing massive accounts or from Google teams focused on big brand needs.
What works for a national retailer like PetSmart rarely applies to local businesses like Matt’s Pet Supplies.
Worse, SMBs are often managed by junior PPC specialists juggling numerous accounts due to the lower fees small businesses can afford.
This lack of tailored guidance and limited time per client makes it even harder for SMBs to compete effectively in paid search.
Dig deeper: How to make PPC work for SMBs
Effective strategies that work for SMBs
To maximize the value of every dollar invested in Google Ads, SMBs require a distinct set of best practices tailored to their unique challenges.
Unlike larger, high-volume accounts often featured in case studies, SMB accounts with fewer clicks and conversions demand a more customized approach.
Here’s a breakdown of common recommendations versus proven strategies that work best for small businesses in both lead generation and ecommerce.
Lead generation for SMBs
Most lead generation advice designed for large accounts goes like this:
Build a branded search campaign and set it to tCPA.
Build several generic search campaigns with themed ad groups using broad match segmented by offering and/or service locations, and set them to tCPA.
Add a Performance Max campaign with assets.
Implement offline conversion tracking (OCT).
This structure casts a wide net across queries and ad formats and relies on Google’s machine learning-based bid algorithms to narrow the targeting down over time.
The problem for SMBs is they have neither the time nor the ad budget to burn through a broad match campaign that may return results – even if they install showers.
Small businesses typically don’t have the capital to teach broad match what is and isn’t relevant.
It’s the same with Performance Max.
Below are some realistic lead gen recommendations for SMBs.
Build a branded search campaign on manual bidding
Build a branded search campaign on manual bidding.
I’ve often seen searches like “brand name + phone number” charged at 10 times the normal rate.
Why?
Google’s algorithms bid up these searches due to their high likelihood of conversion to meet CPA targets. However, this spend is wasted as it isn’t incremental.
Worse, it can result in inflated costs when someone calls to cancel a service, as Google continues to bid up these terms.
Build a generic search campaign with a few key SKAGs focusing on exact match, set it to tCPA with a CPC cap
Create one generic search campaign with a few key SKAGs focusing on exact match keywords.
Avoid broad match to keep search terms, landing pages, and ads maximally relevant.
While this approach reduces volume, it results in higher quality scores, making ad dollars stretch further.
Set the campaign to tCPA bidding with a CPC cap to prevent overspending on irrelevant traffic (and to avoid situations like the one below).
Build a DSA targeting all webpages and set a very conservative tCPA cap
This setup ensures the DSA only picks up highly efficient volume that might otherwise be missed by a generic search campaign.