How to Spend More of Your Google Ads Budget

Google Ads is typically very good at helping you spend your budget, as doing so benefits Google! But sometimes, your well-targeted, finely-tuned campaigns just won’t spend as much as you’d like.
Below you will find how to spend your entire Google Ads budget, effectively.
1. Reallocate Budget
First, take a look at your current campaigns’ potential to spend more. Check out how much impression share you’re losing due to budget restrictions by adding the column named “Search Lost IS (budget)” to your table in the Campaigns tab. This estimates how often your ad didn't show on the Google Search Network due to budget limitations. Increase the budget on any campaigns that show more than 0% (assuming they are running at a profitable cost/conversion).

2. Cast a Wider Net
Now that you’ve established your budget, let’s consider other options. While increasing your location targeting to expand your reach may not make sense for all businesses, it can be worth testing. Perhaps potential customers are making relevant searches just outside of your reach.
Expand campaigns, ad groups, and keywords.
You can also expand your campaigns, ad groups, and keywords. Keyword research can help you uncover additional groups of relevant terms. Start by reviewing your Search Terms Report in Google Ads to identify opportunities related to your current keywords. Then, go back to the drawing board with an open mind, using Google Search Console, Google Keyword Planner, and third-party keyword research sites such as Ahrefs and Semrush to help generate new ideas. Increasing the number of searches your ads are eligible to show for can increase impressions and clicks (which will, in return, spend more of your marketing budget), ultimately leading to an increase in conversions generated.
Use different match types to broaden your keyword set.
The next option is broadening your keywords with different match types. If you’re currently bidding on exact or phrase match, add modified broad-match keywords. For example, include +new +toyota +corolla in addition to the more specific phrase or exact match term of “2019 Toyota Corolla.” While the search queries to which you’ll start matching might not be as specific and targeted, you’ll be able to reach more searchers. The nature of modified broad match will enrich your Search Terms Report with new information with which to create new keywords. Be mindful to also uncover negative keywords (keywords unrelated to your products or services) and add those to your account to improve your keyword-to-query matching.
3. Increase Bids
Did you know you can spend more by increasing keyword bids without adding to your campaigns? This often increases the average position, which can help lead to higher click-through rates. You’ll be generating more clicks at a higher cost-per-click, which helps you spend more of your budget. You can do this manually—but nowadays, automated “Smart Bidding” strategies are usually the way to go for bidding. The “Maximize Clicks” and “Maximize Conversions” options are both good options for spending your full daily budget. However, if you have specific goals and KPI targets you’re looking to hit, it may be beneficial to set target CPA (cost-per-acquisition) or target ROAS (return on ad spend) caps to ensure your budget is spent efficiently throughout the day.
4. Try Additional Campaign Types
If you’ve employed all the above strategies and still have a budget you’re looking to spend on Google Ads, consider moving up the conversion funnel and creating a Display or Video campaign. If you can run a well-targeted campaign with an enticing responsive display or YouTube ads, that can be an effective way to use any unspent budget. They may not convert as effectively as the bottom-funnel approach such as Google Search, but you can set awareness goals for other metrics like impressions, click-through rate, or video Views. Google Ads also provides Attribution reporting, which allows you to see the paths customers take to complete a certain action or conversion on your website. This will allow you insight into how effective your different marketing initiatives are in driving your business’ bottom line. All of these ideas assume you are only authorized to spend in Google Ads. If that’s not the case, you may want to explore other platforms like Bing, Meta, or LinkedIn. We have a LinkedIn guide that can help you determine if investing in LinkedIn is right for you!
Spend More of Your Marketing Budget with Expert Advice
The options here are by no means exhaustive, but hopefully, they’ve at least given you a place to start in your quest to spend those marketing dollars. If you'd like some expert advice on where and how to spend your marketing investments smarter, let us know – we're happy to help.
This blog post was originally published on October 27, 2015, and was updated and republished on May 28, 2024.