Google Ads Pricing | How Management Fees Are Set
When people ask about Google Ads pricing they usually mean two different things that get mixed together: the ad budget you pay Google, and the fee you pay the person managing that budget. These are separate line items, set by different logic.
The ad budget: what you pay Google
In Google Ads you pay per click, and the price of a click is not fixed. The number of competitors bidding on that keyword at that moment, their bids, your Quality Score and your ad’s expected click-through rate all determine it together. That is why quoting a single click price is not meaningful.
The difference between industries is large: in a low-competition local service, cost per click stays low, while in fiercely competitive areas like law, healthcare and insurance it climbs many times higher. The only way to see the real range in your own industry is to measure it with the keyword planner in your account.
The management fee: what you pay me
I do not work on a percentage of your spend. That model is common in the industry, but it has a flaw: cutting the budget reduces the manager’s income, so removing wasted spend is financially penalised.
Instead I set a fixed fee based on scope. How many campaigns, which campaign types, how often changes are made and what reporting is delivered — these are agreed in writing and the price follows from that. If scope grows we discuss the price; it does not rise by itself just because spend grew.
What is a realistic starting budget
To answer meaningfully we first need to know: what does an average customer earn you, and how long is your sales cycle. Monthly budget should be at least several times your target cost per conversion so the algorithm can gather enough data. At very low budgets the campaign never exits the learning phase and performance stays volatile.
If your budget is genuinely too low, I say so in the first call. Sometimes the right answer is not to start with Google Ads yet — that budget might do more work in local SEO or fixing your landing page.
When do results appear
The first week is data collection, the campaign is in its learning phase, and judging it by that period is misleading. The picture usually starts to clear after a few weeks, and meaningful optimisation needs a few months of data. That is why I suggest working together for at least three months.
How do we start? First a free 20-30 minute call. We discuss your goal and current situation and arrive at a realistic budget range. If it fits, I send the scope and price in writing. You can reach me from the contact page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the management fee included in the ad budget?
No, they are separate. You pay the ad budget directly to Google from your own account; the management fee is paid to me separately. That separation matters so that all of your spend goes to advertising.
Can I change my budget whenever I want?
Yes. Daily budget in Google Ads can be changed at any time and campaigns can be paused. Because frequent, large budget swings disrupt smart bidding’s learning, I recommend making changes gradually.
Why are clicks so expensive in some industries?
Because the customer value behind that click is high. For a law firm the return on a single client is large, so competitors can afford high bids and the auction is pushed up. In that case the answer is not to bid higher but to target narrower, higher-intent searches.