Knowing how the Google ads budget works can save you from headaches at the end of the month.

Google ads are an excellent tool for promoting your business, service, or product. No matter your budget, you can take advantage of Google’s vast search traffic, spending as much as your business can handle on advertising.

Manipulating your Google ads budget, and understanding how the platform spends your money, can maintain your sanity towards the end of the month. There’s nothing worse than feeling like you might spend more money than you’re comfortable with on advertising!

This article will outline a problem many ad managers face when dealing with the budget, how the system works, two methods for setting up your budget, and one tip to make your life easier!

Things are changing

When I was learning Google ads, just getting my feet wet with modifying the Google ads budget, the person I learned from insisted on changing the budget daily. 

Their logic: update the daily spend based on how much Google had spent so far that month, based on how many days remained in the month.

The problem with this is that Google already does this, in a way. When someone sets their daily budget at the beginning of the month, any remaining budget gets stashed away for later days in the month. In effect, Google takes the target daily spend and projects that to a full month’s spend. 

The daily changes to the Google ads budget I was taught to make would occur in Google ads without any interference. All the meddling did was alter the rate of how often the ads served, which worked against us.

Setting your Google ads budget

The best way to use your Google ads budget is to set it for however much you want to spend that month and leave it alone.

There are two main ways to set your Google ads budget. They both rely on daily spending.

The first requires you to change the budget on the first of each month. In this method, you average out your monthly budget over how many days are in that month. So, in February, you divide your monthly budget by 28; in July, by 31.

The second way takes advantage of the average number of days each month: 30.4. This method is much more of a “set it and forget it” strategy. As long as you, or your client, don’t want to change the Google ads budget, you can leave it alone indefinitely.

High-spend days and shared budgets

Google wants the best possible experience for the people who use their search engine. Combine that with their insider knowledge about the frequency of searches, and we get to a common reason why consistent tweaks of a Google ads budget occurs:

High-spending days. 

Since Google knows, on average, how popular a search term is over the course of a month, they might spend more money on specific days, knowing there will be fewer opportunities later. For example, if nobody buys blue running shoes on a Friday, they might spend the Google ads budget for Thursday and Friday on Thursday.

This logic is why some ads managers adjust their budgets regularly, fearful of overspending.

Another factor comes into play when there are multiple campaigns on an account. This problem has an easy fix: shared budgets.

According to Google, shared budgets “let you allocate budget across multiple campaigns.” Say goodbye to those constant tweaks, and rest easy knowing you won’t spend more than you’ve specified.

Note: There is a chance the system spends more than specified in the Google ads budget. In these rare instances, you’ll only be billed for your specified spend amount.

1 tip to make your life easier

Let’s assume you choose to alter your Google ads budget every month. This method accounts for the variation in the number of days each month.

The clock starts at midnight on the first day of the month. If you’re like me, this is well past your bedtime. Is there some way you can set it up, so your Google ads budget changes as soon as the new month begins?

There is. It’s called rules. In the “tools and setting” tab at the top of the page, go to “bulk actions” then “rules.”

Push the blue “+” button, and make a new campaign rule.

Once there, you can choose the type of rule you want to run (change budgets), the filter (avg., daily), and the action (set new budget).

Once you fill out the rest of the relevant information, your new Google ads budget will go into effect at the specified time. Of course, you can go in and double-check the next morning.

Google ads with Algorithmic Global

Setting the Google ads budget is just one small part of the services performed by Algorithmic Global when it comes to Google ads management. Working with our team guarantees you won’t spend more than your budget allows and that that budget is spent as effectively as possible.

There’s no need to change your budget more frequently than once a month unless you or your client decides they want more ad spend.

Are you interested in promoting your business, service, or product with expert Google ads management? The team at Algorithmic Global can help! Give us a call or reach out to us via our contact page, and our experienced team will follow up with you and find out how we can work together on your digital marketing!