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How much money do you think is spent erroneously per year on digital marketing budgets? In 2021 $209bn was spent on Google Ads. That – I’m sure you don’t need me to point out – is a lot. When it comes to overspend I don’t know the exact number, but I do know that every digital marketer and every agency has stories about overspend. It’s not uncommon. So pick whatever conservative fraction of a percent you like, digital marketing overspend is a multi-million dollar industry. Digital marketers need to know how to prevent overspending on PPC.
Digital Marketing Overspend Is A Multi-Million Dollar Industry
Some housekeeping first: I am not talking about the mechanics of Google Ads’ budget limits. The fluctuations that allow for 2 times your specified daily budget, or its monthly limit of no more than a 30.4 multiple of your daily budget. That’s because those rules work on a principle where a digital marketer treats budget as a static value. Budgeting in a way that generates the best return rarely means “client’s budget divided by 30.4”.
There are two forces at play here: getting whatever edge you can in your saturated vertical (because they are all saturated now) by gaming budget. And desperately trying to keep track of spend across all platforms and campaigns to ensure you don’t go over budget. This aligns with client expectations. They want the best results, so you need to deliver better than the next guy; they are also trusting you with their media spend. Nothing demolishes trust quicker than overspending someone else’s money.
The true complexity, of course, lies not with controlling budgets within a single platform. Ideally clients entrust their digital marketers with a digital marketing budget. Not a prescriptive per platform amount. It is then up to us to decide where to best invest that budget. The complexity is controlling budget across all your platforms.
The Complexity is Controlling Budget Across All Your Platforms
I’ve seen some of the most sophisticated digital agencies utilizing the spreadsheet method. Sometimes dynamically populated, sometimes manual. Regardless of the method, the amount of risk is enormous, and populating/maintaining it is time consuming.
The answer, and with it the shameless plug, is a digital marketing budget control tool. That tracks spend dynamically against expected spend across a multitude of platforms. Alerts you when you’re spending too hot. That even steers where investment should be shifted in order to maximize high-return campaigns.
Morphio makes this complex monitoring and alert system accessible to every digital marketer. Set a budget (monthly or limited time), set a cadence for your alerts, and that’s it. As soon as budgets start to pace incorrectly you’ll get alerted, and you’ll get recommendations on how to change investment levels.
Call it budget control or overspend insurance – it’s the best way to ensure you’re not a contributor to the multi-million dollar overspend industry.