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Paid Search for Small Budgets with Brooke Osmundson

October 29, 2025·36 min·3 clips

Google Ads have gotten more expensive, and competition has changed—here's what small businesses need to know.

This episode features Brooke Osmundson, Director of Growth Marketing at Smith Microsoftware, sharing practical strategies for running effective paid search campaigns with limited budgets. Host Rich Brooks interviews Brooke, a seasoned expert who has worked both in-house and at agencies, to address the unique challenges small-budget advertisers face. They explore why traditional enterprise tactics fail for smaller spenders and how to adopt a smarter, more focused approach. A primary mistake is businesses trying to target overly broad keywords or entire geographic regions with a daily budget of only $20-$50. Brooke explains that in competitive industries like manufacturing or construction, cost-per-clicks (CPCs) can reach $20-$25, making a tiny budget unsustainable. She emphasizes using Google's free Keyword Planner tool to research historical CPCs and forecast seasonal competition before launching any campaign. For businesses with local or regional strengths, she advises initially targeting only those high-performing areas to gather meaningful conversion data. Brooke also discusses the strategic pausing of campaigns during off-seasons, clarifying that algorithms retain historical data and don't penalize advertisers for temporary pauses. One surprising insight is her evolved stance on keyword match types, where she now recommends a mix including broad match to help small budgets stretch further. She warns against segmenting ad groups by match type, as this causes internal competition and wastes money. Brooke highlights the underutilized power of audience targeting in search campaigns, like targeting by industry or employment, to narrow reach and improve conversion rates for general keywords. She notes that long-tail keywords, though lower in search volume, often have higher conversion intent and can be more efficient. The conversation reveals that simply running a brand campaign with a minimal daily budget during inactive periods provides little value if it generates no click data. Brooke advocates using AI tools like ChatGPT for competitor research and ad copy analysis when paid tools aren't an option. She stresses that success depends as much on a stellar landing page and website experience as on the ad campaign itself. The tone is highly educational and conversational, with Brooke offering clear, actionable advice drawn from her decade of hands-on experience. This episode is ideal for small business owners, marketing managers, or solo entrepreneurs who feel priced out of paid search and need tactical steps to compete. Listeners who manage large, unlimited budgets for enterprise brands will find the content less relevant.

As heard by us

Lean-budget search advice that narrows reach, clarifies goals, and keeps optimization realistic.

Brooke Osmundson and Rich Brooks present small-budget paid search as a matter of focus, not reach. When broad keywords are out of reach, the practical answer is to narrow the target as much as possible and be clear about what a limited budget is meant to prove.

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Why you'd press play

You need paid search advice that still works when the budget is tiny.

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