How much should a small business spend on Google Ads per month?

Work backwards from the value of one job and your close rate rather than picking a figure. Most local small businesses in this area start between $500 and $2,000 a month, and the number only means something once conversion tracking is in place.

Google Ads or Facebook Ads, which is better for a small business?

Google catches people already looking for what you sell, so it usually converts faster. Meta creates demand among people who were not searching yet, and costs less per click. Businesses with an urgent service tend to start with Google.

77 Media · Portfolio · ACP Waterjet · Advertising

ACP Waterjet: advertising

Waterjet & laser cuttingLittleton, MAGoogle & Meta Ads

Where they started

A shop quoting real jobs every week, advertising into the dark. Spend went out on multiple platforms, enquiries came in by email and phone, and nothing connected the two, so no one could say which platform earned its budget.

What we did

Tracking before spend
Attribution built into the website first: every enquiry arrives stamped with where the visitor came from, first visit and last. Only then did campaigns get budget.
Campaigns on Google and Meta
Search campaigns for the terms engineers actually type, and Meta reaching the fabrication world, each pointing at pages built to quote, not to browse.
A monthly close, not a dashboard
Once a month the ad platforms are reconciled against real enquiries, so decisions run on jobs, not clicks.
Budget at cost
Ad spend goes straight to the platforms. No markup, no percentage, so the advice on spending more or less has no thumb on the scale.

What changed

Ad spend is now judged against real quotes, every month.

This engagement runs alongside the website build shown in the ACP Waterjet website case.

How much should a small business spend on Google Ads?

The honest answer is that the number does not matter until you can trace an enquiry back to the ad that caused it. Spending more without tracking just buys you a bigger unanswered question. Once tracking is in, the budget works itself out.

Start from what one job is worth, not from a budget
If a job is worth $2,000 to you and one in five enquiries becomes a job, you can afford roughly $400 per enquiry before you break even. That sets the ceiling, not a gut feeling.
Set tracking up before the first dollar
Conversion tracking, call tracking and form attribution first. Otherwise month one is spent buying data you did not record.
Expect the first month to be tuition
Early spend buys search-term data. The saving comes from what you switch off in month two.
Judge it monthly against real enquiries
Platform-reported conversions flatter themselves. Reconcile against the enquiries that actually arrived.

On this account, spend is closed out monthly against real quotes, and the ad budget goes to the platforms at cost with no percentage on top, so the advice to spend more or less has no thumb on the scale.

Work like this runs on the Growth plan — ads management starts on the Growth plan. See the plans and prices.

The service behind this: Google & Meta Ads Visit the live site

More work