Shared Budgets is a new feature just released within Google AdWords.
This allows a single budget to be applied across selected campaigns.
To access the Shared Budget settings just browse within your account to the ‘Shared Library’ section.
Budget Cannibalisation
A word of warning. On the surface this feature sounds great – perhaps something which has been long overdue.
However there is cause for concern.
Budget cannibalisation within AdWords has always been a key issue.
Primarily this occurs when a dominant high volume competitive keywords and campaign are allowed to consume any available budget.
The danger with this is that budget can quickly be sucked up by less profitable campaigns.
Impression share can therefore be strangled in some campaigns or keywords – to the detriment of the account.
So it’s important to consider the effect that a Shared Budget with have on your AdWords Campaigns.
Setting a Maximum Shared Budget
Another crucial consideration when setting a Shared Budget within AdWords is the maximum budget you choose.
For example, If you calculate an average daily spend based on a total monthly budget, this will not give you a correct maximum daily limit.
Campaigns will need sufficient budget to drive traffic on the busiest days of the week, or peak days in the month.
So ensure you consider a Shared Budget that will suit all campaigns for all situations.
Selecting Campaigns for a Shared Budget
A really nice feature is the option to select which campaigns you wish to add to any Shared Budget.
This gives us the ability and flexibility to control how we apply the Shared Budget and to which campaigns.
The selection of campaigns however is a pretty painful process, particularly in granular accounts.
Certainly scope for more development please Google! But a welcome addition.
