You’re reading this because you want to know how to set up a simple online marketing budget, right?

You’re in luck because here’s the answer. I’m going to show you exactly how to set up a budget that doesn’t break the bank and how to make maximum use of the limited resources you have.

Here’s the question:

How do I set up a simple, inexpensive online marketing budget?

More and more businesses are turning to online marketing to help them reach their target audience. With the right tools, techniques, and strategies, you can effectively target consumers wherever they are.

By establishing a simple online marketing budget, you’ll be able to save money, increase your return on investment (ROI), and build a solid foundation for your marketing efforts.

So let’s get started.

Set A Limit

The first and most critical step to creating a simple, inexpensive marketing budget is to set a limit. What exactly does that mean?

Simply put, you need to have a certain amount of money to spend on certain kinds of marketing activities. For example, if you have a budget of $500, you can spend up to that amount on PPC (pay per click), CPC (cost per click), SEM (search engine marketing), Email Marketing, and Social Media Marketing. However, you cannot spend more than that amount on Google Ads, website development, and design.

The reason for this is simple. When you run ad campaigns or pay for the cost of clicks and installs on websites, you are essentially asking Google to perform a task for you. As a result, you’re making a tradeoff: Either you give up a bit of control (of what is shown) in exchange for reaching a broader audience, or you limit the amount of money you can spend on ads.

If that limit isn’t challenging enough, consider this: You are not limited to one form of online marketing. Instead, you can mix and match paid and unpaid forms of marketing to reach your target audience. For example, you could start with paid ads on social media followed by some of your own sponsored posts on forums like Reddit or Quora, all the while continuing to build your email list.

Avoid Unnecessary Expenses

As much as possible, you want to avoid going over your budget. That means cutting down on the smaller expenses first. What are these expenses, you ask?

The most critical ones to avoid are those that don’t bring value. Value is subjective, so it’s tough to quantify. However, there are indicators you can look out for. One of the best is cost per acquisition (CPA).

CPA is simple. It’s the cost you incur to gain a new customer. In some cases, you might not even realize you’re incurring these costs unless you track them closely. You can see CPA in action if you take a look at the earnings of any online marketing company. You’ll usually see costs (to the penny) alongside the revenue.

On the surface, this might not seem like a bad thing. After all, you’re paying for acquisition. You’re just trying to reach as many people as possible, right?

The problem is that when you’re paying out of pocket for every single acquisition, it’s easy for the numbers to look good at first. You’re simply not taking into account all the indirect costs that go into generating those sales.

To put it simply, if you run a CPA campaign and don’t track your costs closely, you’re setting yourself up for failure. You can’t optimize for value without knowing exactly where it comes from.

The Bottom Line

Now that you’ve set a limit, the next step is to analyze the results of your campaign. You can either track the number of visitors you get from each channel or you can look at how many people click on paid ads compared to those who just happen to show up on your blog’s front page because they were interested in your content. The only difference is in the latter case, you’ll have all the valuable data at your fingertips.

Analyzing the results of your simple online marketing campaign should be easier than you think. In most cases, you’ll just need to keep track of the following three things:

• The cost of the campaign (your budget)
• The number of visitors you got from each channel (the place to start)
• The amount of sales you made (revenue)

When you have that information, it’s time to revise your strategy and set a new limit for the following year.