Google Ads management is priced in four ways: a flat monthly fee, a percentage of what you spend on ads, a price per lead, or an hourly or project rate. A one-time setup fee is often added. Whichever it is, there are two bills: what you pay Google for the clicks, and what you pay the person who runs the account. Our own published management plans start at $500 per cycle for search, display and mobile app advertising, and at $400 per cycle for re-targeting.
The ways agencies charge
| Model | How it works | Good for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat monthly fee | The same fee each month, whatever you spend on ads. | Small and steady budgets. You know the cost in advance. | What the fee covers, and the ad spend at which it steps up. |
| Percentage of ad spend | The fee is a share of what you spend with Google. | Large or changing budgets, where the work grows with the spend. | The manager earns more when you spend more, whether or not you earn more. Ask for a minimum and a cap. |
| Pay per lead or per call | You pay for each qualifying call or form request, sometimes with the ad spend included. | Trades that know what a lead is worth. | How a lead is defined, who owns the ad account and the phone number, and whether the same lead is sold to other buyers. |
| Hourly or project rate | A rate for the hours worked, or a fixed price to build or audit an account. | A first setup, an audit, or training someone on your own staff. | Nobody is watching the account between projects. |
| Setup fee | A one-time charge for building the campaigns, the tracking and the landing pages. | Any new account. | Whether the account and its history stay yours if you leave. |
What Google itself charges
Google does not set a price for advertising. You do. You set an average daily budget for each campaign and can change it at any time. Google says that for most campaigns you may be charged up to twice that figure on a single day, and that in a month you will never pay more than 30.4 times it. An average daily budget of $50 is therefore at most $1,520 in a month.
Inside the budget, each click is priced by an auction. Your bid is the most you are willing to pay. Google says the actual cost of a click is often less, because you pay only what is needed to clear its thresholds and to beat the advertiser below you. Click prices differ widely by trade and by city, so do not rely on an average from an article. Keyword Planner, inside a Google Ads account, shows estimates of how many searches a keyword gets each month and the average cost for an ad to show on it.
What our own plans start at
These are the prices we publish for paid search management. Each is a starting price, quoted per cycle.
| Service | Starting price | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| Search engine advertising on Google, Yahoo and Bing | From $500 per cycle | Ad placement, daily monitoring and conversion optimization, keyword creation and research, call tracking and recording, ad copy with split testing, web and mobile search ads, performance review, custom reporting. |
| Display advertising | From $500 per cycle | Placement across ad networks and exchanges, call tracking and recording, conversion optimization based on your goals, mobile ad writing, ongoing performance reviews, custom reporting. Banners and graphics carry an extra fee. |
| Search re-targeting | From $400 per cycle | Display ads shown to people who have already visited your site, call tracking and reporting, ad writing, ongoing performance reviews, mobile ads and landing page optimization, custom reporting. |
| Mobile app advertising | From $500 per cycle | In-app ads shown to people near your location, GPS targeting, mobile call tracking, custom reporting. |
A starting price is where the range begins, not a quote. We tell you the price for your account before any work starts, and there is no contract. What we charge for our other services is on the pricing page, and how we run campaigns is on Google Ads and PPC management.
What Google requires an agency to tell you
Google has written rules for any third party that manages its ads on someone else’s behalf. They are worth knowing before you sign with anyone.
- The fee. An agency that charges a management fee separate from the cost of the ads must clearly inform its customers: at a minimum in writing before the first purchase, and by disclosing the fee on invoices.
- The real cost of the ads. When an agency reports what Google charged, it must report the exact amount, without its own fees mixed in.
- Your customer ID. The agency must give you the customer ID of your Google Ads account when you ask for it.
- Performance. Where Google’s terms call for a monthly report, it must include costs, clicks and impressions for the account. Letting you sign in to the account yourself also meets the requirement.
- An account of your own. Google requires a separate account for each advertiser an agency manages.
Questions to ask before you hire anyone
- Who owns the Google Ads account, and do I keep it and its history if I leave?
- Is the ad spend charged to my card by Google, or do you bill me for it?
- What is the management fee, how is it worked out, and at what spend does it change?
- Is there a setup fee, a minimum term or a notice period?
- What is included: landing pages, call tracking, ad copy, banners?
- Who works on the account, and how often is it looked at?
- What will the monthly report show, and will I have my own login?
- How will we count a lead, and how will we know what one costs?
- What happens to the campaigns, the tracking numbers and the landing pages if we part?
A manager who answers all nine plainly is worth more than a low fee from one who cannot. Put the same questions to us.
Three example budgets
The same account costs different amounts under different models. These examples use round figures to show the arithmetic: a flat fee of $500 a month, and a percentage model at 15 percent of spend. Ask each agency for its own figures.
| Monthly ad spend | Flat fee of $500 | 15 percent of spend | Fee as a share of the total bill |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | $500 | $150 | Flat: 33 percent. Percentage: 13 percent. |
| $3,000 | $500 | $450 | Flat: 14 percent. Percentage: 13 percent. |
| $10,000 | $500 | $1,500 | Flat: 5 percent. Percentage: 13 percent. |
Two things follow. On a small budget a flat fee is a large share of the bill, so the account has to be run well to carry it. On a large budget a percentage grows with the spend, so ask what extra work the extra fee buys. And a small percentage of a small budget buys very little time: fifteen percent of $1,000 is $150, which does not pay for many hours of anyone’s attention.
What Local Services Ads cost
Local Services Ads are billed differently. Google says you pay for valid leads, not for clicks: you are charged for each valid lead you receive through the ad. You set an average weekly budget based on the number of leads you want. A lead you believe is poor can be reported in the feedback survey for that lead, and Google may credit leads it finds to be invalid.
Are Google Ads worth the money?
They are when a lead costs less than it earns. Divide a month’s whole cost, ads plus management, by the leads it produced. Set that against the profit on a job and the share of leads you turn into jobs. If a lead costs $90 and one lead in four becomes a job, each job costs $360 to win. That is cheap for a boiler replacement and ruinous for a lock change. Ads that cannot pass this test after two or three months of honest tracking should be changed or stopped.
How ads compare with SEO over a year is worked through in SEO vs PPC.
Want a price for your account? Tell us your trade, your area and your monthly budget. We give the price before any work starts, and there is no contract.
Questions people ask
How much do Google Ads cost?
As much as you decide. You set an average daily budget, and Google says that for most campaigns you will never pay more than 30.4 times that figure in a month. What each click costs is set by an auction and differs by trade and by city. Management is a second cost on top of the clicks.
How much does Google Ads management cost?
It depends on the model: a flat monthly fee, a percentage of ad spend, a price per lead or an hourly rate, often with a setup fee. Our own published management plans start at $500 per cycle, and at $400 per cycle for re-targeting.
Do I pay Google or the agency for the clicks?
Either is possible, so ask before you sign. When an agency passes Google’s charges on to you, Google’s rules say it must report the exact amount Google charged, separate from its own fee, and must give you your account’s customer ID when you ask.
What does Google Ads management include?
In our search advertising plan: ad placement, daily monitoring and conversion optimization, keyword research, call tracking and recording, ad copy with split testing, performance reviews and custom reporting. Ask any agency for its own list in writing, and ask what is charged as an extra.
Is a percentage of ad spend or a flat fee better?
A flat fee suits a small, steady budget because the cost is known. A percentage suits a large or changing budget, as long as there is a cap and you are told what the extra fee pays for. Work out both as a share of your whole monthly bill before choosing.