PPC for Every Budget

How Small Businesses Can Compete with Big Brands

Picture this: You own a small bakery in town, making the best croissants anyone has ever tasted. You know people would love them—if only they could find you. But every time you search for “fresh croissants near me,” there it is—an ad from a big chain with an endless budget. Sound familiar? It’s easy to feel like you’re in a David vs. Goliath battle when running PPC against big brands. But here’s the truth: PPC isn’t just for companies with deep pockets. With the right strategy, small businesses can absolutely compete—and win.

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Why Clients Quit PPC (And When They Shouldn’t)

PPC isn’t cheap. Let’s just start there.

It’s not a magic button that spits out endless leads or sales overnight. It takes time, strategy, testing, and yes—money. But too often, businesses pull the plug on PPC for the wrong reasons, leaving potential revenue on the table and starting from scratch later when they realize organic and social alone won’t cut it.

So why do clients quit PPC? Some reasons are preventable. Others, not so much.

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Hidden Default Settings

Discover a world of possibilities

Let’s be real—default settings in Google Ads and Bing Ads aren’t always set up with your best interests in mind. They’re designed to maximize reach (and often spend), not necessarily performance. If you’re not careful, you could be bleeding budget on irrelevant placements, unnecessary bid adjustments, or even audiences you never intended to target.

Checking these settings is the difference between wasting money on low-quality traffic versus investing in the right audience and placements. If you’re serious about saving your clients’ money and driving quality results, this is where you start.

So let’s break it down: here are the sneaky default settings in Google Ads and Bing Ads that you need to fix ASAP.

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Conversion Tracking: Why It Matters & How to Set It Up

  1. Know what’s working (and what’s not). Without tracking, you’re flying blind. With it, you can see which campaigns, keywords, and ads are driving actual results.

Let’s talk about something that should be non-negotiable in your PPC campaigns: conversion tracking. If you’re running ads without it, you’re basically throwing money into the void and hoping for the best. And hope is not a strategy.

What Is Conversion Tracking?

Conversion tracking is how you measure what happens after someone clicks on your ad. Did they fill out a form? Make a purchase? Call your business? Download your whitepaper? Without tracking, you have no clue whether your campaigns are actually working or just draining your budget.

Why Is Conversion Tracking So Important?

  1. Know what’s working (and what’s not). Without tracking, you’re flying blind. With it, you can see which campaigns, keywords, and ads are driving actual results.
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PPC Best Practices: Setting Up Google & Bing Ads Like a Pro

Welcome to the PPC Jungle

Setting up a PPC account is like packing for a trip. If you throw everything into a bag without checking the weather, setting a budget, or knowing your destination, you’re setting yourself up for disaster. But don’t worry—I’m here to help you avoid PPC chaos and set you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to PPC or have been running ads since the Stone Age (aka pre-automation), this guide will break things down in a way that makes sense, saves money, and delivers results.

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Duolingo’s Marketing Playbook Is Genius

How to Join the Conversation and Make It Your Own

If you’ve been following Duolingo, you know they’re not your average brand. When it comes to marketing, they’ve completely broken the mold. Instead of just talking at their audience, they engage in a way that feels authentic, timely, and fun—no matter the platform.

Take Duolingo’s ability to show up in real-time. When TikTok was banned for 24 hours, they didn’t miss a beat. Instead of sitting back and waiting for things to settle, Duolingo jumped in and created content that had the internet buzzing. Not only did they listen, but they joined the conversation with humor, speed, and relevance.

But it doesn’t stop there. Let’s talk about the Super Bowl. I know you all were watching (who wasn’t?), and sure enough, Duolingo was right there with content that felt like it was made just for that moment. It’s not about just showing up; it’s about engaging in a way that feels natural, fresh, and just a little cheeky.

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Relevancy is Queen: Stop Wasting Budget on Ads No One Cares About

A breakdown of why relevancy is everything in PPC, with real talk on keywords, audience signals, and how to stop showing up in useless auctions

Let’s be real—just because your ad is showing up doesn’t mean it’s doing its job. You can have the best ad copy in the world, but if it’s showing up in the wrong place, to the wrong people, at the wrong time, it’s about as useful as a sunroof on a submarine.

Relevancy is EVERYTHING in PPC. Your keywords, audience signals, ad copy, and landing pages all need to align like a well-oiled machine. Otherwise, you’re just setting money on fire. So, let’s break down how to ensure your campaigns are as relevant as possible (and stop wasting your budget on clicks that won’t convert).

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Your PPC Campaign Failed—Now What?

  1. You’re targeting the wrong audience. If your ads are showing to people who don’t actually need what you offer, they’re not going to click—or worse, they’ll click but never convert.
  2. Your keywords are too broad. Broad match keywords can bring in a lot of traffic, but not all of it will be relevant. If you’re showing up for searches that don’t align with your business, you’re wasting money.

No-BS guide to diagnosing underperforming campaigns, learning from the data, and pivoting instead of panicking.

So you launched Google Ads campaigns, and they didn’t work out. Maybe you’re spending a ton of money but not seeing results. Maybe you’re getting traffic, but no one is converting. Maybe you’re just staring at your reports wondering what went wrong.

Before you panic and start making random changes, let’s break down why your campaigns might be struggling and how to fix them.

Common Reasons Your Campaigns Are Failing

  1. You’re targeting the wrong audience. If your ads are showing to people who don’t actually need what you offer, they’re not going to click—or worse, they’ll click but never convert.
  2. Your keywords are too broad. Broad match keywords can bring in a lot of traffic, but not all of it will be relevant. If you’re showing up for searches that don’t align with your business, you’re wasting money.
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PPC Basics Aren’t Basic: Why the Fundamentals Still Matter

Stop skipping the essentials—because bad targeting, lazy ad copy, and ignoring search intent are still killing campaigns

Let’s talk about PPC—that’s Pay-Per-Click. The concept is simple: you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad. But how much do you pay for each click? That’s where things get interesting. It depends on a few key factors like your industry, the competition, and how well your ad is structured. Think of it like bidding for a spot at the front of the line, except the price is constantly shifting.

Once that click happens, where do people go? To your website, of course. And guess what? You get to control where they land. Whether it’s a landing page or your homepage, the power’s in your hands to decide where you want to direct that click.

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