I think most businesses are budgeting Google Ads backwards

A question I hear a lot: "How much should I spend on Google Ads?" There's a better question to ask first: how much can you afford to pay for a new customer? Those aren't the same thing. I've seen businesses pause campaigns because cost per lead looked too high, only to realize weeks later those were the leads actually converting to sales. I've also seen the opposite: low cost per lead, almost no revenue to show for it. So I don't judge a campaign by spend. I judge it by whether the cost of acquiring a customer makes sense for the business. Before raising your budget, ask: if Google brought you one more customer today, what could you afford to pay for them and still profit? If you don't know that number, you can't actually tell if your campaigns are working. Budget matters. Knowing what a customer is worth matters more.