Most Estonian small businesses start Google Ads with €150 a month, get three clicks a day, see no enquiries and conclude that Ads does not work. In reality the budget was simply too small to generate any data. Here is the calculation to set the budget properly.
A simple formula
Budget = desired number of enquiries × cost per click ÷ conversion rate. Digitera also offers Google Ads management if you want us to run the campaigns.
Digitera also offers Google Ads management if you want us to run your campaigns.
Example: you want 10 enquiries a month. In your niche a click costs €0.80 and the landing page converts at 4%. That means 250 clicks or €200 – and that is the absolute minimum, not an optimised result.
Click prices on the Estonian market
These are typical ranges for search campaigns. In competitive niches prices can be several times higher.
- Local services (cleaning, moving): €0.20–0.60
- Construction and renovation: €0.50–1.50
- Ecommerce and retail: €0.15–0.50
- Legal and financial services: €1.50–5
- B2B software and consulting: €1–4
A test period needs critical mass
Google's algorithm needs conversions to learn – ideally at least 15–30 per month per campaign. If your budget only delivers three conversions a month, the system never learns and results stay random. It is better to fund one narrow campaign properly than five campaigns with a trickle of spend.
Where the money actually leaks
Before raising the budget, check these three leak points – they are many times cheaper to fix than to spend more.
- No negative keyword list → you pay for "free" and "job" searches
- The landing page is a generic homepage, not a topic-specific page
- Conversions are not set up → you are optimising blind
Recommended starting budget
For a service business in Estonia: €400–800 per month in ad spend, plus management. For an online store: start from €500 and raise when ROAS is stably above 3. The first 4–6 weeks are for collecting data, not making profit.
Related topic: search engine optimisation. Related: search engine optimisation.
