Small Business PPC Budgeting for the 2025 Holiday Season

The holiday season is the most expensive time of year for pay-per-click advertising. Cost-per-click rates on Google Ads typically increase 25-40% between late October and December as competition intensifies. For small businesses with limited budgets, that means every dollar needs to work harder. Here is how to plan your holiday PPC spending strategically.

Start by Looking at Last Year’s Data

If you ran paid campaigns last holiday season, your historical data is the best starting point. Look at:

• Which campaigns and keywords drove actual conversions (not just clicks)
• When your peak conversion days occurred — they may not line up with when you expected
• Your cost-per-acquisition during November and December compared to other months
• Which ad copy and landing pages performed best

If you do not have historical data, that is okay — but it means you should start running campaigns now to gather baseline performance data before the holiday rush pushes costs up.

Set a Total Holiday Budget First

Rather than adjusting your monthly budget piecemeal, set a total budget for the October through December period and allocate it strategically across the season.

A practical allocation for most small businesses:

Tactics to Stretch a Small Budget

Focus on high-intent keywords. During the holidays, broad keywords get expensive fast. Shift your budget toward specific, purchase-intent terms. “Buy [product] gift” or “[product] holiday deal near me” will cost more per click but convert at much higher rates than generic category terms.

Use ad scheduling aggressively. If your data shows that conversions happen primarily during certain hours, limit your ad delivery to those windows. There is no reason to pay for clicks at 2 AM if nobody buys at 2 AM.

Increase bids on your brand terms. Competitors often bid on your brand name during the holidays, hoping to intercept customers who are searching specifically for your business. A modest brand campaign protects this traffic at relatively low cost.

Set up remarketing campaigns now. Retargeting ads that follow visitors who have already been to your site are far cheaper than acquiring new visitors, and they convert at 3-5x the rate of cold traffic. Install your remarketing pixels and build your audience lists in October so you have a substantial pool by Black Friday.

Pause underperformers quickly. During the holiday season, you cannot afford to let poor-performing campaigns drain your budget while you wait to see if they improve. Set clear performance thresholds and pause anything that is not meeting them within 48-72 hours.

Do Not Forget Landing Pages

Your ads are only as good as the pages they send people to. Before the holiday season:

• Create dedicated holiday landing pages with seasonal messaging and clear calls-to-action
• Make sure your pages load in under 3 seconds on mobile
• Simplify the path from click to conversion — every extra step loses customers

Track Everything with the Right Tools

Use Semrush to monitor your competitors’ ad strategies and identify keyword opportunities you might be missing. Understanding what your competitors are bidding on — and what they are not — can reveal gaps where your budget will go further.

The Bottom Line

Small businesses cannot outspend big retailers, but they can outmaneuver them. Start early, focus on high-intent keywords, protect your brand terms, and invest heavily in remarketing. A well-planned $2,000 holiday PPC budget, deployed strategically, will outperform a $10,000 budget thrown at the problem without a plan.