As we embrace the new year, many businesses are looking for ways to reduce Google Ads costs. If reducing marketing costs is on your resolution list, here are seven tips to maximize your Google Ads budget without sacrificing results.

Implement Day Parting

Not all hours are created equal in digital advertising. By analyzing your campaign data, you can identify the most cost-effective times to run your ads. Focus your budget on periods that deliver the best performance, whether that’s measured by the lowest CPC, cost per acquisition (CPA), or highest return on ad spend (ROAS). This targeted approach ensures your budget isn’t wasted during low-performing hours.

Leverage ROAS Bidding

One of the most effective ways to optimize your Google Ads spending is to leverage automated ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) bidding. This powerful feature incorporates various bidding signals, including location, time of day, and device type, while using your historical advertising data to work toward a specific ROAS target over approximately 30 days. The beauty of this data-driven approach is that Google automatically optimizes your budget toward customers who drive more value for your business while reducing spend on those less likely to convert.

Eliminate Underperforming Keywords

At times keywords can drive clicks that don’t convert. Regularly review keywords and identify terms that are consuming budget without delivering results. My go-to rule is straightforward: give a keyword twice the expected conversion rate before deciding. For example, if your campaign’s conversion rate is 4%, pause any keywords converting below 2%. To put this another way after a keyword has received 50 clicks without a conversion, pause it. By eliminating these underperformers, you’ll reallocate your budget to keywords that drive meaningful results.

Boost Your Quality Score

Ad quality isn’t just about good copy; it’s about relevance. Ensure your ads are tightly matched to the keywords in your ad groups. Remember ad groups are aligned to ads. Aim to include all possible headlines and descriptions, along with at least four ad extensions (e.g., site links or callouts). Google rewards advertisers with high-quality scores by reducing your cost-per-click (CPC). If you want to dive deeper into improving ad quality, Neil Patel has an excellent guide on this topic that’s worth exploring: Neil Patel on Quality Score.

Master Negative Keywords

Sometimes, your ads appear for irrelevant searches, wasting valuable ad spend. Running a search query report can help you uncover these mismatched queries. Once identified, add them as negative keywords to prevent your ads from showing up for those searches again. This step ensures you’re only paying for clicks that have real potential to convert, maximizing the efficiency of your budget.

Target Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords often offer significant savings while maintaining targeting precision. For example, using Keywords Everywhere data, we can see that “best air purifier” has an estimated CPC of $1.52. However, a more specific long-tail variant like “air purifier for smoke” costs just $0.76 – a 50% savings. While these terms might have a lower search volume, they often convert better due to their specific intent.

Consider Microsoft Ads (Formerly Bing)

While Google dominates the search market, don’t overlook Microsoft Ads. According to SpyFu, a leading search competitor intelligence tool, advertisers can save approximately 43% on cost-per-click (CPC) by advertising on Microsoft’s platform. While the audience might be smaller, the reduced competition and lower costs can make it an excellent complement to your Google Ads strategy.

Make 2025 cost-efficient

Implementing these seven strategies can significantly reduce your Google Ads costs while maintaining or even improving campaign performance. While some tactics, like setting up a data feed for ROAS bidding, may take extra effort upfront, the long-term savings and improved performance make it all worthwhile.

If you’d like help implementing any of these suggestions feel free to visit the contact page. I’d be happy to discuss how to optimize your paid search campaigns.