What's the minimum budget to run Google Ads effectively?

Enough to generate meaningful data within 30 days. For most local service businesses in Edmonton, $1,000–$2,000/month allows enough impressions and clicks to see conversion data and make optimisation decisions. Below $500/month, you're often too limited in volume to learn what's working before the month resets.

Do I need a website to run Google Ads?

Yes — and not just any website. You need a landing page that matches the ad's promise, loads quickly, and makes it easy to contact you or fill a form. Sending paid traffic to a homepage that doesn't mention the specific service advertised wastes a significant portion of ad spend. The landing page quality is as important as the campaign itself.

✦ PPC

What Is PPC Advertising?

PPC (pay-per-click) advertising is paid placement in search results. You bid to show your ad when someone searches a relevant term, and you pay only when they click. Google Ads is the dominant PPC platform. The cost per click varies by keyword competition, from under $2 for low-competition local queries to $15–$40+ for high-value competitive markets.

The auction mechanics: when someone searches on Google, an auction runs in milliseconds. Every advertiser bidding on the query participates. Google combines your bid with a Quality Score (relevance of ad to query, expected click-through rate, expected landing page experience) to determine ad rank. The advertiser with the highest ad rank wins the top position. You pay the minimum amount needed to beat the advertiser below you — not your maximum bid.

Why Quality Score matters: a business with a high Quality Score can outrank a competitor bidding more per click, and pay less for that position. This is why campaign structure (matching ads tightly to queries) and landing pages (directly matching the ad's promise) are as important as the budget. Google rewards relevance.

What PPC delivers that organic and AEO don't: immediate traffic. A new business or a business in a new market can generate leads within days of launching a Google Ads campaign, without waiting the months or years that SEO and AEO take to build momentum. PPC is the immediate return on marketing investment — AEO and SEO are the compounding long-term equity.

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What Is PPC Advertising?

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