Marketers from a cross-section of categories and industries are feeling the pinch of budget belt-tightening – over half (53%) expect ad budgets to be reduced over the next six month – according to a survey from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA).

However, for those firmly focused on the right metrics, such as cost-per-conversion, justifying the marketing budget should be easy.  With the detailed metrics provided by Google AdWords and Google Analytics, marketing costs can be demonstrated as being an investment rather than an expense.  It would be a rather dim-witted CFO or CEO who reduces the budget when you can firmly articulate the exact ROI from every marketing dollar spent.

General reductions in marketing budget also present some opportunities for pay-per-click advertisers.  Overall bid amounts may drop in AdWords, as the number of advertisers drops. Also clicks may well cost less later in the day, as competitors drop off-line due to their budgets being spent.

If your budget is being cut, consider trimming some of the fat in terms of pausing keywords with a higher cost per conversion and leaving the most profitable ones live.  Also consider using ad scheduling to run your ads later in the day, when competitors may already be offline.