PPCChat | The Mysterious World of PPC Budgets | 9th September 2025

Here’s a recap of this week’s PPCChat session, where host Julie F. Bacchini asked PPCers to share their views on common budget-related questions, how they approach setting a budget strategy for a new brand, what clients typically understand about budgeting, and more.

Q1: What are the most common budget related questions you get from clients or stakeholders? How comfortable do you feel in answering them?

How much should we spend? Every. Single. Time. @NeptuneMoon

Why are we spending so much/so little. @navahhopkins

After deciding how much we should spend: why did Google overspend my budget? And being Canadian, all kinds of questions on the DST. what a SAGA @JuliaVyse

Similar to Julie, but if I get budget questions from the client, it’s “what do I need to spend to get XYZ to happen” @AnthonyMcDaniel

It also blows my mind how few businesses have any actual sense of how much they want or need to invest in marketing of any kind. @NeptuneMoon

Is there way to keep spending and keep earning in the same ratio in perpetuity? If yes then our budget is unlimited. @alimehdimukadam

And they all think they can start at bottom of funnel and clean up. Who needs awareness??? Apparently no one. @NeptuneMoon

I guess sometimes I get “why are we spending so much HERE and not THERE?” That one can be a bit easier, depending on whether the client is asking the question in good faith, or if they’re asking to try and find an reason to be upset. @AnthonyMcDaniel

Truly why teams like me exist. Typical convo: here’s xM in budget, what do I do with it? @JuliaVyse

Do your customers have the same budget questions about Microsoft as they do Google? @navahhopkins

@navahhopkins Yes… @NeptuneMoon

Mine do…@JuliaVyse

@alimehdimukadam If this is a client’s mindset, that’s usually a great thing! I love when my clients are open to growth/scaling their business. Although it’s obviously difficult if the expectation is a “guaranteed” ROAS or something like that. @AnthonyMcDaniel

Although sometimes it is how can we get Microsoft to spend/have volume. @NeptuneMoon

What budget should we start with? @navahhopkins  I also get how can we spend more on Bing / have gotten that in the past. @revaminkoff

I convinced a client to start Microsoft Ads this week. They have a promo going on spend 250, get 500 in credits. @alimehdimukadam

Set budgets aligned with new campaigns and know that Microsoft learning periods do not come into play so long as budget changes are 15% or less. Also remember that bid adjustments work and Multimedia ads are an underutilized spot on the SERP @navahhopkins

“How much should we spend?” -Client with no historical data. This one always feels uncomfortable to me. I can show you a range of estimated CPCs but without knowing your CVR I can’t answer your question. @williamhboggs

I think the classic is how much should we spend? Always a great question on a call without any information. After I receive the information, I tend to do a traffic light scheme. Green what they have previously used, red something 3x budget and amber a lower so from a b2b leads point of view they can see the difference. @JoeWilliams

I actually created a Market Viability Sheet recently that lets me input (a) top of page bid ranges, (b) a range of probable conversion rates, and (c) tROAS, and calculates necessary AOV at each level. This lets me ballpark market viability and shows best and worst-case scenarios. @williamhboggs

Q2: When you are working on a new account, how do you determine budget level recommendations?

For the account? I think 99% of clients I’ve onboarded have their total budget set (or ballpark) when they come in. My job then is to decide how to split it between platforms and campaigns. @AnthonyMcDaniel

I run the basics – ROAS/CPA goal vs investment and CPC. But I also zoom out to look at the calendar and plans for the year. You want to reserve budget for times when awareness will run and increase searches. Then add min 10% for a testing budget. @JuliaVyse

Typically, I’ll consider what the client’s goals are, and apply a majority of budget where I believe they’ll get the most value in alignment with those goals, with the expectation of shifting budget once we see the realities of data coming in. @AnthonyMcDaniel

I always start by asking client what they have budgeted for the PPC initiatives, but they sometimes give you the “our budget is flexible, what do you recommend” answer…But if they truly want a recommended level, we look at the average CPC, average CTR and average CVR and use those figures to set the absolute floor for the budgets. If there is existing data in the account, the estimates are better. But if not, you have to use planner data, which is more generalized. @NeptuneMoon

New accounts get ~20% higher budgets to clear learning periods. @navahhopkins

But the struggle is that things will be least efficient in the beginning. I usually do the math out with the beginning efficiency levels – like you want to do x, it costs y per each x, so you need to spend z..@revaminkoff

@revaminkoff it’s helpful to have longer term convos at first. Get away from the ‘give it 2 weeks and we’ll see’ instead, we stay close each week, and have a deep discussion 2 months in. that accounts for the changeover, learning periods, and sets us up for the next quarter. @JuliaVyse

Yes @revaminkoff it is really important to set the expectation that it takes several cycles to land on a level as there can be so much volatility in the beginning of new campaigns. @NeptuneMoon

Onboarding Questionnaire/Discovery Call to get an idea of their budget – Keyword Planner and other tools – final recommendation. Revision every month or quarterly. @alimehdimukadam

I did have a client who was coming in with a new program and wanted to know what the minimum monthly budget I’d recommend was. Similar to @NeptuneMoon @JuliaVyse  I tried to get a feel for the potential volume and CPCs of their target keywords, then calculated to see what they were even able to spend (they’re a pretty niche program serving a local area, so they weren’t sure there’d even be enough inventory to spend more than a few hundred each month). @AnthonyMcDaniel

Client objectives & size matter depending on the industry and part of the funnel most important to them. @alimehdimukadam

Always a tough question with new clients, even if they have set budgets. If it is an existing account with data, it is always easier. I always start the conversation with what is the cost of goods and profit margins. If it is a B2B, I ask what their close rate is on cold calling for business. Both of these can at least give you a good starting point on what you need to be at in order for them to be profitable. Then we begin with the campaigns that are almost always profitable. Just like if you are investing, you put money into ETFs first, because they tend to be more reliable vs. picking single stocks that could perform. I will also ask the question. If we are getting 10X performance (as an example), will you be open to increasing spending? I prefer the clients who have flexible budgets based on performance. The other question is how much of the budget you put on each platform. Google, Microsoft, Social Media, Spotify, Twitch, etc… I prefer to have a 10% testing budget if possible. Some clients will give me upwards of 20% and some are pretty strict on their spends, so there is not much room for testing at all. @Ichasse

If they don’t have a set amount highlighted or haven’t spent in paid before, I use a traffic light style of system to show them a range of what is possible. @JoeWilliams

Q3: How do you go about determining a budget strategy for a brand new brand that needs awareness and sales/leads? And how do you manage client expectations when they want to jump right to being an established brand?

New brands have to invest in awareness but they often need to be wrestled into accepting this cause they think their product or service is “so unique” or “so cool” it will just sell itself…And then you have to gently say, you’re selling lip gloss or in home pet services, etc. it is not revolutionary. @NeptuneMoon

Everyone is brainwashed by Apple’s success in straight product marketing 20 years ago! @JuliaVyse

As marketers, we already have a pretty good idea of what has worked in the past for various segments. This is in the scientific method is our starting hypothesis. It may mean 50% of the budget goes to Google, 30% to Microsoft and then 20% to Social Media (just as an example). If you don’t have the experience, then you just test. Further down, we have to identify the things that work well in each platform. Search campaigns, Shopping, PMax, AI Search Max, remarketing campaigns, etc. Go with what you know works the best to start and reallocate as you start seeing results. Starting with what you know from past results is huge in helping get you the best starting point you can have at the beginning though. @Ichasse

New brands generally need to spend more than an established brand too for the same traffic. Demand may already exist for the type of thing they are selling, but if they are an unknown brand, it will take more effort to get sales/leads. @NeptuneMoon

I try to put awareness right in the first proposed budget or even the first convo. Showing hard numbers from the keyword planner or SEM Rush about how few searches there are for the brand or product turn it into a convo about increasing potential search volume, rather than a convo where you tell them their baby is ugly. @JuliaVyse

Yes, new brands need to invest in awareness to even get the ball rolling. I have had brands take right off and I have had brands that have taken a full year before we saw big numbers start to roll in. I had one that almost stopped and literally the next month we started seeing big growth, so patience is often in short supply, but can be worth the wait. @Ichasse

I think the mythos of early internet still has brands thinking they can just put their stuff out there and then BOOM web magic has their site crashing and so much volume they can’t handle it. Has not been that way in 20 years but that myth persists big time! @NeptuneMoon

Explain the process and rationale or your recommendations, but keep a % aside for their wishes like a testing budget. @alimehdimukadam

I think it’s important to start with low-funnel – if you can’t prove product-market fit with search or something else low-funnel, you’re going to have an even bigger problem with high-funnel. and that’s especially important for a new brand @revaminkoff

It’s all about the funnel! Put more into TOF, test segments, test ad variations, reallocate budget into winners. Building an audience is key. Get a good seed and build out lookalikes. Make sure you have a good offer. @williamhboggs

Q4: If you are expanding onto a new platform for a brand, how do you determine the recommended budget level for that new platform? And how do you decide if a new platform is worth expanding onto?

Often times the client will say, we want to try Platform X and we have $Y to get started @NeptuneMoon

Great question! Ftr, I’m VERY skeptical of the Meta planner tool, but I tend to start with a planning tool to establish potential reach and est CPC/CPMs. Then I back that out into a fair budget for brand new messaging, with a hard stop date for review. If things go really well unexpectedly and consistently, the hard stop date becomes the first reporting date. @JuliaVyse

Agreed @JuliaVyse it is important to let clients know that the planner tools are not spot on, but more of an idea of what might be needed or happen. Your mileage may vary is very much in play! @NeptuneMoon

Usually, experience with other clients on the platform. At this point, I have tested most platforms for brands, so you can kind of have an idea of what you could see. If you have not, then just use the “testing” portion of your budget, whether that is 10% or if you are lucky, even more to test. Just make sure you study the platform and options so you go in with your best foot forward. Brands get very shy about testing new platforms if they have failed in the past or if in a few months, they are not seeing much in the way of success, so I would suggest putting some good hours into studying what others are doing on the platform and having a good strategy before you start. Success usually means more ad $$$ you can use and even some small early wins can mean the difference in a brand embracing the testing or being scared to test new platforms. @Ichasse

And of course, are you competitors already on here? are you fighting a current? @JuliaVyse

Often times, I’ll actually take our management fees into consideration, at least when the client isn’t wanting to take a huge leap into testing a new platform. So I’ll recommend a new platform only if they’re willing to spend enough to make it worth what they’re paying us to manage it. @AnthonyMcDaniel

@AnthonyMcDaniel build that retainer! @JuliaVyse

@AnthonyMcDaniel Great point ..@NeptuneMoon

@AnthonyMcDaniel, I will usually take it on the chin if I am learning the new platform and need hours to get comfortable with what is currently working for other advertisers in my client’s market. I am lucky at this point to have done stuff on most of the platforms, but that is how I generally do it. I figure they hire me as the expert, so if I need to learn more to become that expert, then I invest those hours myself and just charge for the time it takes me to do their actual work in the account. @Ichasse

@JuliaVyse, it’s always nice! But definitely try to dissuade the client if our minimum fees are more than they’re comfortable testing with. @AnthonyMcDaniel

This one is ‘it depends’, but mostly it is where I can get similar results or unlock a potentially new channel like a Quora/Reddit or Native – platforms that are often overlooked and underutilized. Whether it’s the right fit or not is a judgment call. @alimehdimukadam

@Ichasse great point. Although this is something I’m more likely to run into with a client that’s testing a platform that is new-to-then, not new-to-me. @AnthonyMcDaniel

If we have a monthly budget in play and they want to test Bing ads as an example, I tend to use a test budget of 20%…see how that performs in the first month and if successful and is limited by budget, discuss to put more in. @JoeWilliams

Q5: What do you wish clients or stakeholders understood better about PPC budgets?

Learning periods. @revaminkoff

The budgets aren’t magic. ROAS is not fixed as you scale up or down. Sometimes, just sometimes, people don’t want your product. @JuliaVyse

That infinite scale rarely exists. @NeptuneMoon

Today’s budget doesn’t need to be the same as tomorrow’s/next year’s. @AnthonyMcDaniel

Always be learning, always be testing. What got you here won’t take you there….what worked then won’t work now and in the future. Paid Media is not linear anymore – it’s a loop just like the buyer journey. @alimehdimukadam

And that ad spend is an investment, at least at first. The return I’d in the long-term performance. @AnthonyMcDaniel

Some brands believe they have more market share then they actually have. Reality vs. fantasy is the hard one to discuss with brands sometimes. We have been in business for 80 years, and we own the market only to dig and find they actually have less than 5% of the market, and they are nowhere near the top 5 names mentioned when thinking about a particular segment. I have pulled up in AI tools the top 5 of a particular market before right in front of the client to show them they are not in the list, lol. They are usually not very happy, but it speaks to how much folks will convert who do not know you. You need to have the budget to build that awareness and begin to move the needle with potential customers for your brand, whether it is B2B or B2C. @Ichasse

@AnthonyMcDaniel  and the budget next year will probably need to be 10% more just to see the same revenue unless we find pockets of opportunities better than we had the prior year just due to platforms inflating CPCs for their shareholder value! @Ichasse

Cushions will always be shaken..@alimehdimukadam

@Ichasse Such a great point about needing more budget annually just to keep last year’s results levels intact! @NeptuneMoon

Campaigns take time to perform, it’s not a set live and instant success. And that budget is a marathon not a sprint. Once we start to see data coming in, we can optimise the budget better, placing into areas we see success and pause where we don’t  @JoeWilliams

I wish more people would take into account how budgets actually get divied up. $1000/mo sounds like a lot for some brands, but when you divide that by days in a months and x number of campaigns/ad sets/groups, it gets real small real quick. @williamhboggs

Couldn’t agree more on this point above! Looks good, giving a big strategy but when broken down it’s not enough to be successful. @JoeWilliams

Q6: What do you wish you understood better about PPC budgets and/or forecasting?

Sometimes clients don’t share relevant information like seasonality or if there is say a huge event they participate in every year, etc. Those things impact PPC. I try to synthesize as much information as I can for clients but sometimes it feels like there are big holes @NeptuneMoon

I wish there were more robust planning tools. I wish you could turn off non-search in Microsoft. I wish TikTok didn’t put weird pangle placements in easy to miss areas. I wish partners would be consistent with mins for reservation buys and other min spends. Just tell me what I need to know, and make ALL placements clear in self-serve platforms. oh and for something very specific: I wish Google had an opportunity planning tool for PMax and AI max. I do not operate in a ‘this many more conversions for x dollars’ space. I plan everything, and with no ceiling or opportunity metric, pmax gets whatever is left over. @JuliaVyse

We can’t control search volumes and competition budgets. @alimehdimukadam

Google knows WAY more than we do. And while we can’t control things, we can certainly get a sense of how much to spend to make a dent. @JuliaVyse

I would have to agree with you @NeptuneMoon the data the client does not tell you. Sometimes that missing data is huge. I also wish Google’s forecasting tools were more accurate, because you know they have the data to have pretty accurate models to build forecasts from. The forecasts are usually pretty garbage though. @Ichasse

Those “ranges” from Meta…like, a delta of 600k people is a bit wide. @JuliaVyse

Yes, those ranges are stupid for the amount of data they have available to them. Literally billions spent on ads in their tool and they could forecast so much better if they wanted to. @Ichasse

Would be cool if there was a platform-agnostic budget tool that could help give ballpark budget splits based on a client’s target audience, targeted results, and what they’re hoping h to accomplish along the funnel. @AnthonyMcDaniel

They could still put a disclaimer on the tool saying this is only for estimation purposes and your results could vary greatly sort of thing. @Ichasse

@AnthonyMcDaniel so I work for a holdco with bespoke audience tools and AI-powered budget planners….we should talk @JuliaVyse

They don’t want us to know too precisely or even pretty precisely though it seems. @NeptuneMoon

PPCChat Participants

• Navah Hopkins @navahhopkins
• Julie F Bacchini @NeptuneMoon
• Ali Mehdi Mukadam @alimehdimukadam
• Reva Minkoff @revaminkoff
• Anthony McDaniel @AnthonyMcDaniel
• Boggs @williamhboggs
• Joseph Williams @JoeWilliams
• Lawrance Chase @Ichasse

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