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Small Budgets, Big Goals: Small Business Google Advertising in 2025

Just because your business is small doesn’t mean your goals need to be. Most small businesses we work with are looking to grow their business by multiple factors year over year. Unfortunately, those same big goals typically don’t come with big marketing budgets. This means you have to be smarter about how and where the marketing budget is spent.

There are a ton of marketing channels that a small business can choose from. Traditional marketing like TV, radio, and print can be effective for many. However, these channels can come with a higher degree of risk. If you are not dialed in on your messaging, audience, or positioning, your ads can go unseen, unheard, and unrewarded.

For those reasons, among others, we often recommend that small businesses start their advertising efforts with Google Ads.

Google Ads provides a large and powerful advertising platform to reach your target audience when they’re actively searching on Google and passively browsing the web. Its versatility and customizability makes it ideal for small businesses that need to squeeze every penny of their marketing dollars! It’s a low stakes way to get your ad pennies working for you.

Before you get started, here are a few things you should know.

Start with Setting Your Monthly Budget

When setting your monthly budget, it should include advertising spend as well as management and creative costs. If you choose to create and manage ads yourself, most of your monthly allocated budget can go directly toward ad spend.

However, any business considering self-management should be careful not to OVERestimate the time and knowledge they have available while UNDERestimating what it takes to create and manage an ad campaign. Most small businesses would be better off focusing on running their business to the best of their ability while a reliable and cost-effective digital marketing expert manages their Google Ads efforts for them.

Your budget plays a huge role in how you advertise on Google Ads – or any other marketing channel, for that matter. You can determine your budget in a number of ways. But however it is determined, it needs to be consistent. Set a number that is truly safe to invest in your business each month. Try to leave the “I think” or “we could probably” estimating out of it.

Remember, you can always raise your budget. But lowering your marketing budget can throw off an entire campaign. So, be as confident in your monthly budget as possible.

For most small business, this means a total investment of between $1000 and $5000 a month.

If this seems too high for your business, it doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. It just means that you may have to either self-manage the campaign or choose a campaign type that can work for you without constant management.

“There Can Be Only One” – Choose a Single Campaign Type

One of the biggest factors in the success of a Google Ads campaign is data. Having as much data as possible allows you to bid most efficiently on placement for your advertising campaigns. With a smaller budget, you don’t have the luxury to try multiple campaigns to see what’s working. You’ll need to choose the campaign that gives us the best opportunity for success as possible from the get-go.

  • Google Search: One of the safest and most direct choices. You are able to get in front of your customers while they are actively searching for your product or service.

  • Google Shopping: Get shown in the product listings at the top of a Google search. If you are an e-commerce-focused company, Google Shopping may be the best place to start. Just remember that you are competing with every merchant out there. So, if your products are not especially unique, you need to be competitively priced, offer fast delivery, or be conveniently located for your customer in order to find the most success. Lean into those differentiators.

  • Local Service Ads with Google Guarantee: This can be a very solid choice for any local trade or service-based company. Your business is featured in the map results during a customer’s search. When certified, your business receives a Google Guarantee checkmark next to your business name which adds trust and improves conversion rates.

Narrow Your Focus

Focus on a Single Product or Service

With a smaller budget, we need to maximize our exposure and our conversion value. It is important that we get the most out of each opportunity and conversion. For companies with multiple products or services, we need to choose just one thing to promote. But which one?

A campaign that focuses on a product that is easy to convert but has razor-thin margins makes it difficult to reach a positive ROI. Conversely, a service that has huge margins but rarely converts may require months of marketing to make a single sale. Small businesses have a great many virtues, but patience isn’t typically one of them. So, try to find a product or service that has a good balance between conversion rate and profit margin. When in doubt, err on the side of profit margin.

Reduce the Geographic Focus Area

A customer is more likely to choose a service provider that is closer to them. By focusing on customers that are closest to your business, you are increasing your chances of conversion. By narrowing the reach of your advertising to a few geographic areas, you are able to increase your impression rates with people most likely to convert. This can result in a much higher return on your advertising investment.

Keyword Costs – Pinch Those Pennies

Keywords play a key role in many types of advertising on the Google Ads platform. Take care to choose the right ones when selecting what keywords to include with your campaign. Sometimes, all that glitters is not gold. A costly keyword with only a slightly higher conversion rate may not be worth it. Maximize your overall budget by focusing on keywords that provide a balance between cost per click and conversion rate.

By balancing keyword cost with conversion rate you are able to:

  • Maximize ROI: Reduce costs while driving quality traffic.

  • Increase Conversions: Attract users with strong purchase intent.

  • Stretch Your Budget Further: Avoid overpaying for overly competitive keywords. Prioritizing keywords with the best value to conversion rate to get the most out of your marketing budget.

Start Smart and Stay Focused

Google Ads offer small businesses a great way to advertise, even on a tight budget. However, success comes down to a winning strategy. By setting a realistic budget, choosing a single campaign type, and narrowing your focus, you can maximize every advertising dollar and drive meaningful results.

With a well-planned Google Ads strategy, your small business can compete effectively, attract the right customers, and build momentum toward your big goals. Ready to start strategizing and make the most of your marketing dollars? Do Google Ads right and contact Fuzzy Duck today.

Author

  • Jared Law

    For over 15 years, Jared has led online interaction and web projects for Fuzzy Duck. With a diverse background in online interaction, digital marketing, communications, web design & development, Jared is able to turn advanced concepts and needs into reliable and manageable online solutions. He has a unique combination of both design and development capabilities that enable him to take an all-encompassing approach to accomplishing each client’s goals.