Search engine advertising is the placement of advertisements on search engine results pages (SERPs). Ads are designed to show up on SERPs when someone searches for a keyword in the query related to your ad. This method is more commonly know as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising because advertisers bid on the amount they are willing to pay each time their ad is clicked.

The bid price on a keyword is a major factor when search engines are determining which ad to show. In todays highly competitive digital advertising world, its likely that some of the keywords and queries you want your ads to show up for will be expensive clicks. This brings up the question, how much should you spend on search engine advertising?

Look For Industry Trends

The amount of money you should spend of search engine advertising is going to vary between industries. Therefore, you should look for industry trends to see what others are doing to stay competitive. You can do your own industry research by following publications in your industry, using different analytics systems, or asking others in your field.

No matter what industry you're in, we recommend committing a monthly budget of no less than $500 per platform to start. Any less than that amount and it's likely that your ads won't show because you've either been outbid or you spent your budget too quickly. 

Review and Adjust on a Regular Basis

We also recommend that you establish a performance baseline for metrics such as impressions, clicks, and click-through-rate. If you notice these are going down over time, it probably means your current PPC budget isn't cutting it and needs to be increased. 

Search engine advertising isn't an easy task, there are a lot of variables to consider outside of budget and it requires constant management. If you would like to get a second option on the set up of your search engine advertising we are here to help! Just click the button below for a free PPC evaluation.