“Google Ads Limited by Budget” What it Means and What to Do

“Google Ads Limited by Budget” is an alert you might receive when accessing your Google ads campaign and ad sets. But what does this notification really mean, and more importantly, how should you respond?

“Limited by Budget” is not just a warning; it’s a signal from Google that your campaign has some missed opportunities. If you’re wondering whether to take this alert seriously, keep reading. We’ll tell you what this message means and how to make it go away. 

“Google Ads Limited by Budget”: What it Means

“Google Ads Limited by Budget” is a Google ads notification that’s triggered when the keywords you’re bidding on are getting more traffic than your ad campaign budget can support. This limits the impressions, clicks, and conversions you could be getting. Basically, your ads don’t have enough budget to show up every time someone is searching your keywords. 

“Google Ads Limited by Budget”: Do I Have to Increase My Budget?

No, receiving a “Google Ads Limited by Budget” notification does not necessarily mean you have to increase your campaign’s budget. It is simply a warning from Google to let you know your ad could be getting more traffic with a higher budget. But if more traffic is not something you need, increasing your budget would not be helpful to you.

When and When Not to Increase Your Google Ad Budget

1. When to Increase Your Ad Budget:

1. Cost-Per-Click (CPC) and Conversion Rate is High: If your cost-per-click (CPC) and conversion rate are high, you might be missing out on valuable leads. High CPC isn’t always a sign that you need to increase your budget. Often, CPC can be reduced by changing your targeting. But if your ads already have a good conversion rate, and the CPC is high, increasing the budget will definitely help. 

2. Your Targeting is Expanding: If you’re expanding the services you offer or the geographic areas you serve, a budget increase will expand your visibility with it. As your company is scaling up, so too should your ad budget. 

2. When Not to Increase Your Ad Budget: 

1. Your Team is Already Over Capacity: If your team is already over or close to being over capacity, increasing your ad budget will likely lead to more form submissions, leads, and conversions than you can realistically handle. Keep your ad budget the same. 

3. When to Consider Increasing Your Ad Budget

1. Your Ads are Underperforming: If your ads are not performing as you’d like, increasing your budget is an option, but first, ensure that your ad campaign is effective. Underperformance may not be a budget problem, but actually a problem with your ad copy, keywords, or geography. Let us audit your ads for free to make sure they’re effective and optimized!

2. You’re Satisfied with your Ad Performance: If you’re already satisfied with your ad performance, you might still consider increasing your ad budget for more results. Consider your team’s current capacity and if your business would benefit from more form submissions, leads, and conversions. 

How do I Remove the “Limited by Budget” Notification?

You can remove the “Limited by Budget” notification on Google AdWords by either increasing your budget to meet the demand or refining your targeting. 

You can refine your targeting by:

1. Narrowing your geographic radius. This will reduce the amount of searches your keywords are getting, reducing the chances of triggering the “limited by budget” notification. 

1. For example, if you’re a company located in Guelph, but your geographic targeting includes the entire Waterloo region, you can reduce your geographic radius to only serve ads in Guelph. 

2. Changing your targeted keywords. The “limited by budget” notification is frequently triggered if your campaign contains too many broad keywords. Using more hyper-specific, high-intent keywords ensure your ads are only seen and clicked on by those with genuine sales intent. 

1. For example, if you’re a home renovation company, you might target a keyword like “home renovation”. This keyword is very broad, and someone might search it for a number of reasons outside of sales intent. Instead, target long-tail keywords like “bathroom remodel guelph”, “affordable home renovation guelph”, or “home renovation company guelph”.    

3. Adjusting your bid strategy by changing your “focus” in the bidding settings. Most campaigns will maximize clicks by default, but there’s also options to maximize impressions and conversions. We can show you how to do this!

Other than this, there is no way to clear or remove the “limited by budget” notification from view. It will continue to show as long as your budget continues to not meet the searches your keywords are getting. 

Get the Expert Guidance You Need

There’s no doubt that the world of digital ads is complex. It can be hard to navigate if you lack the expertise to pinpoint issues and come up with reliable solutions to solve them. 

With years of experience using Google and Meta ads, we’ve put the blood, sweat, and tears into understanding online advertising. We’ve used this knowledge to guide dozens of Kitchener-Waterloo businesses through ad creation and optimization. 

Whether you’re looking for a quick ad audit, strategic advice, or need someone to take over completely — we have the people for the job! 

With Tactycs, you can discover new ways to bring your products and services to high-quality leads. It isn’t just Google search ads in our tool belt, we also know how to implement Google Local Services Ads (LSA), Bing Ads, Meta Ads, and more!

Find out how our ad management services helped this Kitchener-Waterloo roofing company get 45 more qualified leads in just 1 month. 

Read our case study!

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