How to Design Strategic Budgets for Major Clients in Paid Media

When creating budgets for major clients with significant investments, the approach must be meticulous, strategic, and aligned with the client's objectives. This process is not just an administrative task; it lays the foundation for building a solid professional relationship and establishing clear expectations.

The first step is to identify the Paid Media channels to be used. Each channel has unique characteristics and plays a distinct role within an integrated strategy. For instance, Google Ads may be ideal for capturing existing demand, while Meta Ads might work better for demand generation and audience building. This initial analysis not only defines the scope of the budget but also demonstrates a deep understanding of the tools available.

Calculating the budget is more than just crunching numbers. It requires basing decisions on historical data, industry benchmarks, and clear objectives. A significant investment demands well-founded justifications, including return expectations and risk analysis. For example, if the client plans to spend over €100,000 per month, a detailed breakdown of costs by channel and campaign type, along with an optimization plan, is essential.

Defining the overall strategy is a crucial aspect. This step involves structuring a clear approach that the client can understand and visualize. High-investment clients seek transparency and clarity, so it is vital to show how each component of the budget contributes to the campaign's success. This could include the distribution between upper and lower funnel activities and the expected frequency of creative updates.

The campaign structure should be detailed yet flexible, including the investment allocated to each channel and the selected ad formats. Additionally, it is important to explain concepts that the client may not be familiar with, such as the importance of the first 3 seconds of a video or how lookalike audiences work.

Another critical element for large budgets is calculating the time required for management. Managing high-investment projects demands more constant oversight, so including estimated hours and the need for additional team members, such as designers, reflects professionalism. If the budget’s scale requires it, having a second manager dedicated to the project ensures that all aspects are monitored appropriately.

Finally, everything must be presented in a high-quality document. This document serves as a reference and enhances the perception of professionalism. Presenting the budget in a clear, organized, and visually appealing format makes a significant difference in conveying confidence.

Creating budgets for large clients is an exercise in strategy, communication, and foresight. It is an opportunity to establish the groundwork for successful projects and long-lasting relationships.

How to Optimise Your Paid Media Budget

Spending on paid media can determine the success or failure of your digital marketing strategies. Deciding how much to invest isn’t about picking a random number but rather balancing your goals and having a clear understanding of Cost Per Action (CPA) and Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV). A well-structured approach will allow you to establish a sustainable foundation for growth.

The starting point is to define what you want to achieve. Your goals will dictate how much you need to invest. For instance, a startup aiming for rapid growth might afford a higher initial spend, whereas an established business will prioritise sustained profitability.

CPA is a key metric. Spending between 5 and 15 times your CPA is common practice, although certain scenarios may justify deviations. For example, in the luxury market, where customers have a very high CLTV, it may be acceptable to invest 20 to 25 times the initial CPA to acquire exclusive customers. In contrast, a startup in a testing phase might limit spending below the common range to collect data without straining cash flow. A business with a high CLTV can justify greater spending as the long-term return outweighs the cost. Conversely, for an e-commerce business with tight margins, exceeding this proportion could jeopardise viability.

Highly competitive markets also require greater investment. For example, sectors like enterprise SaaS might justify spending up to 100 times the CPA if client relationships are long-lasting, CLTV is substantial, and the target CPA is relatively low. However, these cases are the exception rather than the rule.

Your business stage is another important consideration. New companies in growth markets might spend 10 to 20 times their CPA to establish themselves in the industry. This is justifiable because they often need to build brand recognition, gather initial data, and create a customer base from scratch, which requires greater upfront risk. In contrast, businesses in mature markets tend to maintain more moderate and targeted spending.

Budget allocation is equally crucial. Not all platforms offer the same ROI, and your strategy must be adjusted based on historical results. For instance, a business consistently seeing strong performance on Google Ads might allocate 60% of its budget there while exploring platforms like Meta Ads with the remaining 40%.

Finally, continuous testing is essential. An initial budget should be designed to collect sufficient data. As you gather insights on what works best for your audience, you can redirect resources to the most effective tactics and channels.

Once your campaign is running, increasing the budget will force the system to explore new audiences, which can destabilise the initial learning phase of your campaigns. This happens because the algorithm must test segments that may not be as effective as the original ones, leading to fluctuations in conversion rates and CPA while the campaign identifies new high-potential audiences.

This adjustment period may result in temporarily inconsistent performance as you expand into audiences with lower purchase intent. To avoid a significant negative impact on performance, gradually increasing the budget—ideally no more than 20% at a time—allows the system to adapt without resetting the learning phase. Accounts with larger budgets tend to manage this risk better, as campaigns have a greater capacity to run rapid tests and validate new channels with more flexibility.

Investing in paid media is about balancing investment and return with a strategic, data-driven approach. Prioritise analysing metrics such as CPA and CLTV, adjust according to your business stage, and never underestimate the importance of constant testing and learning.

Consent Mode: A Key Tool to Improve the Measurement of Your Google Ads Campaigns

Consent Mode is a tool that can enhance the measurement of your Google Ads campaigns. Are you making the most of it?

Proper implementation of Consent Mode not only helps comply with privacy regulations but also significantly improves the ability to measure and understand campaign results, especially in a context where user consent is becoming increasingly complex.

What happens without Consent Mode?

Ad clicks that lack appropriate consent turn into lost data for platforms, leading to incomplete conversion reports. For instance, a campaign might appear less effective than it actually is, prompting decisions such as cutting budgets or changing strategies based on inaccurate data. This impacts the efficiency of advertising investment. With partial information, decisions are based on an incomplete reality.

How does Consent Mode help?

With Consent Mode, Google can model conversions that would otherwise remain invisible. This is achieved using statistical modelling techniques that analyse similar behavioural patterns to estimate how many conversions likely occurred, even when direct data is unavailable. Even without cookie consent, statistical modelling allows the estimation of conversions to provide a more realistic view.

The difference is clear: a 5% conversion rate without Consent Mode could rise to 5.9% with conversion modelling enabled, representing an 18% improvement in reporting accuracy.

Implementation is key

Ensuring that Consent Mode is properly configured is crucial. It’s not enough to rely on just any CMP (Consent Management Platform). A Google-certified CMP, such as Cookiebot, can automate this process, simplifying management and ensuring compliance with regulations.

In my experience, there are several ways to check if a website has implemented Consent Mode correctly. Some useful tools include Consent Mode Inspector and Google Tag Assistant (the latter is used to verify proper implementation of Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics on the site). You can even perform a more in-depth analysis through Google parameters, where "gcs: G111" would indicate that Google recognises Consent Mode.

Do you already have Consent Mode implemented on your website?