Google Ads is a great advertising platform, but it can be difficult to manage all of the different campaigns that you have running.
One strategy that will help simplify your workload is setting up shared campaign budgets. This article will show you how to set up and use this budget type in Google Ads so that you spend less time managing your campaigns.
This feature may also be beneficial if you’re running multiple Google Ads campaigns and need help automating the management process.
Let’s get started!
The Shared Campaign Budget feature allows multiple campaigns to contribute towards one shared budget. Google will allocate a proportional amount of your total campaign spend across all linked campaigns based on each campaign’s performance in the previous period.
The feature makes it easier to manage several campaigns at once, usually during A/B testing sessions when you want to find the most profitable campaign from the rest of the bunch.
It’s a great way to optimize your campaigns and save time.
For example, if you have three Google Ads campaigns that are all performing well across the board, then using this feature can be an excellent way to allocate your marketing spend in order to maximize profits.
Using this feature offers the following benefits:
If you’re running multiple campaigns in Google Ads, then the shared campaign budget is an excellent feature that will allow you to simplify your workload.
This article will show you how to create a Shared Campaign Budget in Google Ads and what are some of its benefits.
One of the most common uses is when companies are conducting A/B testing sessions because it offers one simple way of managing multiple tests at once without needing additional work from you other than inputting a few numbers into the system.
The ability to use automatic allocation means less time spent micromanaging budgets which free up more time for optimization and other important tasks.
You should avoid this feature when you’re running campaigns with vastly different budgets.
For example, if one campaign is generating $100 and the other will generate $1000 in a period of time, then it would be better to let Google Ads allocate the budget for both campaigns instead of using shared campaign budgeting.
If your campaign is similar to what we just described, it’s best to manually adjust the budget of your campaign. If you still lack the time, it’s best to hire a PPC agency for the job.
Fortunately, using this feature is quite simple in Google Ads. Just follow these steps to get the job done:
And, just like that, you’re all finished. While this process is simple to carry out, hiring a PPC agency to make this change may be in your best interest. Continue reading below to find out.
The answer to this question depends on your budget and company size. If you’re working with a small business or don’t have the time, then hiring an agency is worth it for these reasons:
If you need help running a Google Ads campaign but lack the experience, skillset, or equipment necessary to do so effectively, outsourcing may be a better move than using the shared campaign budgeting feature.
So, you’ve decided to hire a PPC agency to enact the shared campaign budget feature or just run your Google Ads campaign? If so, you should familiarize yourself first with the benefits of making this hire.
These benefits include:
The PPC experts you hire will have the skills and experience necessary to get your campaign up and running.
In addition to handling things like keyword research, report analysis, and account management, professional agencies also know how much money should go where in order for a campaign to be profitable.
There are many features that might not seem intuitive or easy at first glance in Google Ads such as location targeting options which is why an agency has familiarity with them all when it comes time to decide what’s best for your business’ needs.
An agency will know how to set up conversion tracking, integrate Google Ads with other marketing channels and platforms such as social media or email marketing, and make the most of remarketing strategies.
A PPC expert from an agency is assigned exclusively for your account so you’ll never be alone in managing it which means that they’re more likely to stay on top of things like keyword research and competitive analysis than if they were just working with one client at a time.
PPC agencies often have access to 24/hour customer service lines where their experts are available to answer questions before, during, or after hours when other companies might not be able to provide this level of support.
A PPC agency can help with keyword research which is often the most difficult and time-consuming part of any campaign.
PPC agencies have access to tools like SEMrush, Google Ads Editor, keyword tool suggestions from Google Search Console, or Bing Webmaster Tools that you might not be able to get on your own.
They also know how best to analyze reports in order for them to provide useful information about what’s going well and where improvements are needed in a timely manner without ever being too late.
We take pride in being one of the most well-known PPC agencies in the United States. If you desperately need to turn your ad budget into more revenue for your business, then we can help.
We have more than a decade of PPC management experience. When you choose to hire us, we’ll put a dedicated account manager and a team of professionals to manage your campaign and ad spend.
We realize there are dozens of PPC agencies in your area to choose from. Many of them will claim to offer the best PPC management services for your company. At PPC, we prioritize providing exceptional benefits to our clients, which include:
We’re always on top of the latest PPC trends so that we can take full advantage of them for your business.
Reports are a critical part of any successful campaign and they should be detailed enough to provide information about what’s going well with your account, as well as where improvements may need to happen in order for you to achieve your goals.
It’s important to have an expert review everything before moving forward which is why our free consultation service allows you to get advice from one of our experienced professionals without having to spend too much money just yet.
You’ll get a return on your investment every time you work with us. We make it our priority to give clients the best possible ROI for their advertising dollars which means getting them as many conversions and leads at the lowest cost-per-acquisition that we can manage.
We have a team of professionals who are experts at keyword research, so they’ll be able to help you select the right keywords for your campaign.
The budget is something that often gets overlooked when it comes to PPC advertising which is why our agency will work with yours in order to create campaigns and ad groups within your set restraints without ever wasting money on anything superfluous.
PPC agencies are experts in ad copywriting which is often the most important part of any successful campaign. We strive to provide amazing copywriting services to ensure that your ads are engaging to your target audience.
We have more than a decade of PPC management experience. We’ll take the time to get to know you and your business so that we can provide our expertise in an area where it’s needed most, without ever being too late.
More importantly:
We have a team of specialists who are willing to work with you in order to help save time.
It’s important for any business owner or manager to try and find ways of saving as much time as possible, which is why we offer PPC management services that will get your account back up and running quickly so you won’t be wasting money on ads that aren’t performing well.
You’ll want to know how your campaign is performing so that you can make adjustments accordingly.
We offer a variety of tracking services that will help you in making decisions about the future of your account, and it all starts with one simple consultation from our team today.
We are committed to providing our clients with money-saving PPC techniques that will get them the most ROI for their advertising budget which is why we run campaigns vigorously with a watchful eye, so you’ll never waste time or money.
As your business grows, you’ll want to scale up so that it can keep up with the demand of an increased number of customers.
We offer a variety of options for scaling our campaigns which means we’re able to work within any budget and grow at any pace that is necessary without ever missing a beat or wasting money on anything superfluous.
It’s not always possible for businesses to hire an in-house team of PPC experts, which is why it can be a money saver to work with our agency.
When you partner with us, we’ll take care of all your current campaigns plus provide consultation on future projects so that you don’t have to worry about anything other than what comes most naturally: running your business and making decisions based on the data from one campaign.
We offer impeccable ad creation services which will ensure that every aspect of your ads is focused directly on your target demographic while also engaging them enough so they click through onto the landing page where conversion rates will be higher because their interest has already been piqued.
Wading through the murky waters of PPC can be a time-consuming and confusing process, but not with us.
Our team has more than ten years of experience in the industry which means you won’t have to waste any valuable hours learning how to do it yourself when we’re happy to help.
Do you need help turning on the shared campaign budget feature in Google Ads? If so, contact us today to speak to a member of our team to see how we can help.
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Launching an online course is easy once you’ve created your content. Filling your virtual classroom with motivated, paying learners is a little more challenging. Advertising strategies aren’t intuitive no matter how user-friendly a platform might be, and trying to guess at how to market your courses online can feel like you’re shouting into the void. But with a little knowledge and some expert PPC ad strategies, you can get your courses in front of people who are hungry to learn what you teach.
With precise targeting, a professional strategy, budget control, and regular tracking, a PPC ad campaign can transform your course into a thriving program. The key is knowing how to structure your ad campaigns for both clicks and hot leads that convert.
Unlike search engine optimization (SEO), which can take months to gain even a little traction, PPC provides you with immediate visibility right where your target users are hanging out. SEO is important but it’s a long-term game that should be executed alongside PPC ads for the best results. While you’re waiting, PPC generates immediate clicks and drives traffic to your website on the spot.
The best part is that when done right, PPC ads offer a high ROI compared to many other advertising methods. According to the data, businesses earn an average of $2 for every $1 they spend on Google Ads, making PPC a powerful resource for course providers. Here’s everything you need to know about mastering PPC to generate hot leads for your online courses.
1. Understand the learner’s journey
If you want your PPC ads to generate leads ready to buy and not just curious clicks, you need to align your ad strategy with how learners make decisions. Signing up for an online course is not an impulse purchase. It’s a journey that usually starts with curiosity and then moves to research and comparison. When successful, that journey ends with enrollment.
A one-size-fits-all ad won’t work because a student who is just browsing isn’t ready for the same pitch as someone about to hand over their credit card. Understanding the different parts of the funnel, and tailoring your ad campaigns to match each stage, is what will make your course successful. A typical buyer’s journey for learners involves the following stages:
At this stage, your potential students are still exploring broad ideas related to the courses you’re offering. They may not know exactly which course or platform is right for them, but they’re actively looking for options. You’ll need to use a certain type of keyword phrase to capture their attention.
Searches like “learn coding online,” “how to get TEFL certified,” and “language courses for beginners” will work well at this stage. PPC ads in this phase shouldn’t hard-sell enrollment, but rather, focus on positioning your course as credible and informative.
Think free guides, introductory webinars, and blog posts that answer frequently asked questions about your topic. By nurturing your leads’ interests and providing value right off the bat, you’ll have an easier time becoming a trusted brand that people keep in mind as they move deeper into the journey.
During the consideration state prospects know what they want but they’re comparing their options. They’ve narrowed down their choices and are considering factors like price, flexibility, depth, instructor quality, platform, and accreditation. Ideal search terms in this phase are related to specific things that your prospects value or want to achieve like “affordable Python bootcamp,” “online MBA with scholarships,” or “best UX design course with certification.”
Your PPC ads should also highlight unique selling points for your course like “self-paced learning,” “industry-recognized certificate,” or “job placement success.” It’s at this stage where comparison charts, testimonials, and detailed course previews are highly effective. The goal is to show your prospects why your program beats the competition.
At this point, hesitation is minimal. Prospects are ready to sign up but might need one last push. This is where urgency, social proof, and simplicity make all the difference. Ads should feature strong calls to action like “Enroll Today,” limited-time incentives like “Save 20% - Ends Sunday.” This is the perfect time to showcase real student success stories. Landing pages for ads in the decision stage should remove all friction. Avoid long forms and distracting links. Just provide a clear and simple path to enrollment.
Keep in mind that most of your ideal market will encounter your brand multiple times along their journey across different devices and platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Mapping your PPC ad campaigns to these three stages ensures you’re showing up with the right message at the right time. When done correctly, focusing on all three stages with separate messages will turn casual searchers into qualified leads ready to buy your course.
The backbone of every PPC campaign is your keyword selection. You can write the most convincing ad copy in the world, but if you’re bidding on the wrong phrases you’ll either waste your budget or attract people who have no intention of enrolling.
Your goal isn’t just to drive traffic to your site. You need to drive qualified traffic – people who are serious about learning what you teach and are ready to invest in themselves. This requires targeting a mix of high-intent keywords, longtail phrases, and negative keywords.
Broad keywords like “data science” and “coding” cast a net that’s too wide. You’ll get clicks but most will be from people who are just curious or looking for free resources. To reach people who are committed, you need to target high-intent keywords that show purchase intent. Phrases like “enroll in our data science course” and “online JavaScript certification with ongoing support” will attract users who are actively seeking instruction.
You’ll pay more for high-intent keywords but they deliver more value and higher conversion rates, and that will increase your ROI when you choose the right ones.
Longtail keywords are used to target a smaller pool of people and that’s a good thing. Since these keywords are more focused, the traffic they generate is more valuable. Instead of competing for saturated, general terms like “learn graphic design online,” you target specific phrases like “best graphic design program for working professionals with evening classes.” The people searching with this level of specificity already know what they want, which means they’re more likely to convert.
If you skip targeting longtail keywords you’re leaving money on the table. Data shows that 70% of all online searches involve longtail phrases – it’s just how people naturally search when they know what they want.
Your negative keyword list is how you’ll preserve your budget and prevent wasting money on irrelevant clicks. Without a list of words you don’t want your ads to show up for, you’ll end up paying for clicks that never convert.
Build a negative keyword list of words that indicate someone is looking for something free or irrelevant to your course. For example, words like “free,” “PDF,” “torrent,” and “Reddit” are usually used in searches when someone is looking for shortcuts and freebies. Adding these and similar words to your negative keyword list will filter out tire-kickers and boost ROI by preserving your ad budget for relevant prospects.
Once you have the right keywords that generate impressions, your ad copy has to do the work to get clicks. Your ads need to grab people right away to prevent them from scrolling and possibly clicking on another course provider’s ad. For e-learning, your ads need to inspire people. Instead of talking about your course you want to highlight what your course will do for the learner. This is accomplished with benefit-driven messaging, emotional triggers, and strong calls-to-action (CTAs).
· Benefit-driven messaging. Most course providers list features like “40 hours of video content” and “downloadable PDFs,” but these details aren’t going to capture attention at first glance. In fact, telling learners they’re going to need to sit through 40 hours of content right off the bat might be a deterrent.
Instead, your ads should highlight tangible outcomes like “land high-paying clients with our program,” or “start a new career as a web developer in just 12 weeks.” Benefits speak directly to a person’s goals and aspirations, which is far more compelling than a list of specs.
· Emotional triggers. Emotional triggers are the heart of every marketing strategy, including PPC ads. People make emotional buying decisions and buy courses because they’re chasing a dream, avoiding a fear, or seeking transformation.
Great ad copy taps into these emotions and creates a sense of urgency. For instance, “Don’t miss the enrollment deadline” plays into the fear of missing out, while “Join 10,000 successful graduates” leverages social proof. The right emotional triggers will give people a good reason to act now rather than bookmarking your page and forgetting about it.
· Clear CTAs. Irresistible ad copy includes a direct, compelling call-to-action that tells the prospect what to do next. Generic instructions don’t cut it. “Learn more,” “Click here,” and similar phrases don’t communicate urgency or value. Choose CTAs that direct prospects to sign up for your course. For example, “Start your free trial” and “Reserve your seat today” work well.
In a crowded marketplace where hundreds of course creators are competing for the same attention, clarity and emotion will generate better results. Lead with benefits and tap into people’s emotions and your ad copy will generate serious leads.
Generating clicks from your ads is only the first half of the equation. Once a prospect clicks your landing page needs to convert them to a paying customer or your ad spend goes to waste. Your landing page is like the final pitch where prospective students choose whether to enroll in your course or move on. If your landing pages create any confusion, friction, or distrust, your prospects will lean toward other course creators. On the other hand, an optimized landing page can become a conversion generating machine.
Your landing pages should be simple and clean without too much information. The page content should be specifically designed to direct people to sign up for your course. You want to eliminate navigation menus and sidebars to prevent people from clicking away from the page and getting distracted. Each landing page should have one end goal, either to get sign-ups/purchases or apply for acceptance if required. Too many options will create cognitive overload and reduce the chance of any action.
It’s crucial to include trust elements on your landing pages. When people are thinking about investing their time and money in an online course, they’re naturally going to be skeptical. This is where trust signals can help. Testimonials, instructor bios, refund guarantees, and case studies will help build your course credibility. The goal here is to reassure people that your program is legitimate and worth their investment.
Clicks are important but they’re somewhat of a vanity metric when measured on their own. The only time clicks matter is when you’re looking at your conversion rate. If you generate 100 clicks and get 40 people to enroll that’s much better than generating 1,000 clicks and only getting one person to enroll in your course.
The metrics that matter most are your conversion rate, your cost per lead (CPL), and lifetime customer value (LTV). For instance, you’ll want to track completed signups, demo requests, and enrollments rather than overall clicks.
Cost per lead is a simple measurement that can tell you how efficient your campaign is. For instance, if you’re paying $50 per lead but your average enrollment fee is $500, your margins are good. If your CPL is too close to your revenue then your course might be priced too low or you need to adjust your targeted keywords.
For e-learning, many students invest in more than one course or renew their subscription, which increases their lifetime value to your business. Tracking LTV will help you determine how much you can afford to spend acquiring each new student. For example, if your LTV average is $1,500, it makes sense to spend $200 to acquire each lead. This long-term view helps you maintain profitability and allows you to outbid your competitors who aren’t willing to spend much.
PPC ads require fine-tuning and you can’t just “set it and forget it.” What works today might underperform tomorrow or not perform at all on other platforms. Even small changes can make a huge difference in conversions and that’s why it’s important to test variations. For example, Dell is just one example of a company that saw a 300% increase in conversions from A/B testing.
By running experiments to test different elements you can identify what resonates most with your target audience and optimize your ads based on those results. The most important elements to test are your headlines, CTAs, and images.
· Testing headlines. Your ad headline is usually the first thing a prospect sees. Testing different headlines can help identify which promises resonate most. For example, “Land your dream job” might appeal to people looking for a new career, while “Get certified in 12 weeks” might hook people in a hurry. If you get more conversions from the former, your main audience is likely people looking for a new career, and you can tailor your ads to that group.
· Testing CTAs. A strong CTA can generate more clicks, but what works will depend on your audience. For example, “Get started today” might work for some courses while “Reserve your spot” works better for others. Avoid vague CTAs like “Learn more” that don’t instruct people to take action.
· Testing visuals. Images can put people off or draw them closer. Visuals are processed faster than text and are perceived in a split-second. A single image can make or break an ad. For instance, sometimes a photo of an instructor works well, but other times it’s better to use abstract graphics.
Split testing isn’t optional when you’re running PPC ads. It’s the only way to know which elements make your ads more effective.
At the end of the day, PPC is a great way to build a pipeline of motivated students who want to enroll in your courses. By aligning your campaign with the learner’s journey and optimizing your ads and landing pages for conversions, you can turn your PPC campaign into a reliable growth engine. As the e-learning market becomes more competitive, ads that hit hard are a must.
If you’re ready to stop wasting ad spend and start filling your online classrooms with qualified leads, it’s time to bring in PPC experts. At PPC.co, we specialize in turning clicks into enrollments through high-converting campaigns that deliver qualified leads for online course creators . Contact our team today and let’s build campaigns that fill your classroom.
Pay-per-click (PPC) remains one of the fastest paths to pipeline, but the economics vary widely by industry and are shifting as AI reshapes the SERP. CPCs are up versus prior years, conversion rates have improved in many categories, and lead quality is increasingly a function of how well advertisers feed first-party data into bidding models.
The table below summarizes 2025 search-PPC benchmarks by sector—CPC, conversion rate (CVR), and cost per lead (CPL)—so you can compare what “good” looks like in your niche and calibrate ROI assumptions.
Use these numbers as directional guardrails, then layer in your own close rates and LTV to get to the only metric that matters: profitable growth.
In short, AI is changing the way PPC campaign management is occurring, and it's happening FAST.
ROI ≈ (Close-Rate × Avg Customer LTV ÷ CPL) − 1
Example (legal): if close-rate 12% and LTV $6,000 on CPL $132 → ROI ≈ (0.12×6000 / 132) −1 ≈ 4.45x (345% net). Improve any one input (faster intake bumps close-rate; better routing lowers CPL) and ROI jumps. Benchmarks for CPL/CVR above provide solid starting points. LocaliQ
PPC will keep paying when two things are true:
(1) you can convert and qualify leads quickly, and
(2) your bidding models are trained on the outcomes that actually make you money.
As AI compresses differences in targeting, the edge shifts to first-party data, creative velocity, and value-based bidding.
Treat the benchmarks above as starting points, then rebuild your ROI math from the ground up: ROI ≈ (Close Rate × LTV ÷ CPL).
Contact us today for your customized PPC audit to see how we can improve your search engine marketing ad spend.
