I get asked all the time - is it worth it to do paid search if I only have a budget of $15, $20, $25 a day? My answer? Always yes… followed quickly by several, “But, you know, you really should…”

Figure Out What’s Important

$15 a day isn’t going to get you very far if you don’t have a focused approach. You will end up frustrated and your campaign will never go anywhere if you don’t make smart decisions about your brand, your products, and your goals.

Know Your Brand

Seems like a no-brainer, right? But within this subject lies one of the most contentious and misunderstood areas of paid search – should you bid on your brand terms? The entire idea here is to keep your potential customers from getting siphoned off by your competitors. So here are a few pointers to get you going:

•    If competitors or unruly affiliates are bidding on your brand terms, you better be doing it too. Not only does this give you more shelf space with which to combat all of those pesky competitors, but you can customize your messaging to address specific competitor’s ads. Competitor A offers free shipping and a $10 trial? Well, you offer free shipping and a $5 trial. Win.

•    If you rank first organically on your brand name and you are lucky enough to have no competitors bidding on your brand terms, I wouldn’t worry about bidding on your brand terms at this point. Spend your money elsewhere.

Know Your Products

Do you want to drive traffic to your highest converting products, your highest revenue-driving products, or maybe a new product that needs exposure? Be selective, and be clear about what your goals are. If you aren’t hitting those goals, change your approach.

Know Your Data

I implore you, even if you have a very small budget, monitor your campaigns. $15 may not seem like a lot, but it adds up over time. Taking just a few minutes a week to review your campaigns and get familiar with the data can make a huge difference in campaign performance and your anxiety levels.

Don’t Get Lazy!

You’ve done all this work to get your campaigns going – don’t get lazy now. With just a little time and attention, maybe someday you’ll be successful enough to move your budget up to, say, $50 a day?