Ads · Launch budgets
How much to spend on Google Ads in your first 90 days
Three months, three different jobs
In the first 90 days, a Google Ads budget should be set by the data the account needs to learn, not by a round number. Work out your likely cost per click and conversion rate, then budget for enough clicks to produce a few dozen conversions a month. For many Danish small businesses that lands between DKK 5,000 and 20,000 a month, and competitive sectors need more.
Read in order
How do you work out a starting budget?
Most first budgets are picked by feel: “let us try DKK 5,000 and see”. The problem is that a budget chosen this way has no link to what the account needs to work. Smart bidding strategies learn from conversions, and an account that produces three conversions a month gives the system almost nothing to learn from, however long you wait.
A better approach is to build the number from three inputs.
- Expected cost per click. Google’s Keyword Planner gives a range for your keywords in Denmark. Treat it as a rough guide; real costs often differ. In Denmark, clicks can cost from a few kroner in quiet local niches to well over DKK 50 in competitive areas such as legal services, insurance or B2B software.
- Expected conversion rate. The share of clicks that become an enquiry, booking or sale. Industry averages vary widely by sector and are often quoted at somewhere between 2 and 10 per cent for lead generation. Your own website’s history is a better guide if you have it.
- The conversions you need. Automated bidding generally works better with at least a few dozen conversions a month in a campaign. Google’s own guidance on minimums has changed over time, but more data almost always means steadier results.
Multiply the clicks needed per conversion by the cost per click, and then by the number of conversions you want. The result is a budget anchored to reality rather than to hope.
What does that look like in practice?
Here is an illustrative example for a Copenhagen business selling a service, with assumed figures. It is not a forecast for any real account, and your inputs will differ.
| Input | Cautious case | Expected case |
|---|---|---|
| Average cost per click | DKK 18 | DKK 12 |
| Conversion rate | 3% | 5% |
| Clicks per conversion | About 33 | 20 |
| Cost per conversion | About DKK 600 | DKK 240 |
| Monthly budget for 30 conversions | About DKK 18,000 | About DKK 7,200 |
Two things stand out. The range between cautious and expected is large, which is why the first month is about finding out which column you are in. And the conversion rate matters as much as the click price: improving the landing page from 3 to 5 per cent has roughly the same effect as cutting the click cost by 40 per cent.
Then sanity check the output against the value of a customer. If a conversion is a lead that becomes a sale one time in four, and a sale is worth DKK 10,000 in margin, a cost per lead of DKK 600 is comfortable. If a sale is worth DKK 1,500, it is not, and the plan needs a different keyword focus or offer before any money is spent.
How does Google actually spend a daily budget?
Google Ads budgets are set per day, but they behave more like a monthly allowance. Understanding the rules prevents a lot of alarm in the first weeks.
- Daily overspend is normal. On days with more search activity, Google can spend up to twice your average daily budget.
- The monthly limit is firm. Across a calendar month, you will not be charged more than your average daily budget multiplied by about 30.4, the average number of days in a month.
- Budget changes reset the maths. Changing the daily budget mid-month changes the limit for the rest of the month, so frequent changes make spend harder to read.
- Limited by budget is a signal. If a campaign shows “limited by budget”, it is missing searches it could appear for. That may be fine, or a reason to narrow keywords so the budget goes further.
Set the daily budget as your monthly figure divided by 30.4, and resist adjusting it every few days. Bidding strategies need stable conditions to learn.
How should the first 90 days be divided?
Each month in the first quarter has a different job. Keeping the budget broadly steady across all three makes the results comparable.
Days 1 to 30: collect clean data
- Confirm that conversion tracking records real enquiries or purchases, and nothing else, before spending anything.
- Start with a tight set of high-intent keywords and phrase or exact match, so early spend goes to searches close to buying.
- Review search terms several times a week and add negative keywords for irrelevant queries.
- Expect a bidding learning phase of roughly one to two weeks after launch and after significant changes.
Days 31 to 60: cut what does not work
- Pause keywords and ads that spend without converting once they have had a fair number of clicks.
- Move budget towards the campaigns with the lowest cost per conversion.
- Test new ad copy against the best performer and adjust the landing page if conversion rate lags.
Days 61 to 90: scale with care
- If cost per conversion is acceptable and campaigns are limited by budget, raise spend in steps of about 15 to 20 per cent rather than doubling it overnight.
- Consider broader match types or new keyword themes only once the core is profitable.
- Switch to target-based bidding, such as target cost per acquisition, when conversion volume is steady.
This is the same discipline our budget and bidding work follows every week, applied with more caution while the account is young.
What if the budget the maths suggests is too high?
Then shrink the scope, not the budget per campaign. A DKK 4,000 monthly budget spread across five services and the whole of Denmark buys a handful of clicks for each and teaches you nothing. The same amount focused on one service, one area and the most specific keywords can produce useful data.
- One service first. Choose the one with the highest margin or the clearest search demand.
- Narrow geography. Greater Copenhagen rather than all of Denmark, if that is where most customers are.
- Busy hours. If enquiries only matter when someone can answer the phone, schedule ads for those hours.
- Exact and phrase match. Broad match needs data and budget to work well; it is rarely the right start for a small account.
Our Google Ads setups for smaller budgets usually begin like this, with more services added once the first campaign proves its cost per lead.
How should you judge the first quarter?
At the end of 90 days, look at outcomes rather than activity. Impressions and clicks show that ads ran; they do not show that the money worked.
- Cost per conversion compared with what a customer is worth to you.
- Lead quality, checked with whoever handles the enquiries. Ten good leads beat thirty poor ones.
- Trend from month one to month three. A falling cost per conversion means the account is learning.
- Search terms that convert, which often reveal how customers actually describe what they need.
If results are close to target and improving, the account has earned a larger budget. If they are far off, the likely causes are the offer, the landing page or the keywords, not the budget level. Fixing those first is cheaper than spending more and hoping.
Spend questions
Setting the money aside
for a new account
Because Google allows a campaign to spend up to twice its average daily budget on days with more search activity. This is intended behaviour, not a billing error. It lets your ads appear more when demand is high and less when it is quiet. What protects you is the monthly limit: over a calendar month you will not be charged more than the average daily budget multiplied by about 30.4. If Google ever delivers more than that, the excess is credited. If you need strict control on particular days, for example during a short campaign, use a campaign end date, an ad schedule or a shared budget rather than relying on the daily figure alone.
Only if your data shows weekend clicks rarely convert, or nobody can respond to enquiries until Monday. For many B2B services in Denmark, weekend searches are fewer and often less commercial, so reducing or pausing them can make sense. For consumer businesses such as restaurants, events, weddings and retail, weekends are often when people plan and buy, and switching off would cut your best traffic. Rather than guessing, run ads across the whole week for the first month, then check conversions by day and hour in the reports. Use an ad schedule or bid adjustments based on what you find, not on assumptions about your customers.
Not automatically. Google’s recommendations can be useful, but a suggestion to raise the budget is based on available search volume, not on whether the extra clicks would be profitable for you. Before accepting, check the campaign’s cost per conversion against what a customer is worth. If the campaign is profitable and genuinely limited by budget, a measured increase is sensible. If it is not yet hitting its target, more budget buys more of the same problem. Also look at the optimisation score with some scepticism: it measures how many of Google’s suggestions you have applied, not how well the account performs. Review each recommendation on its own merits.
Usually yes, at least to begin with. Each campaign has its own budget and its own bidding data, so splitting a small budget across many campaigns leaves each one with too little traffic to learn from or to judge. One well-structured campaign, with a few tightly themed ad groups, concentrates the data and makes decisions clearer. Create separate campaigns when there is a real reason: different languages, different locations with different budgets, a brand campaign you want to control separately, or services with very different values per customer. As conversion volume grows, splitting becomes worthwhile because each campaign can then support its own targets.