Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is one of the best ways to get ‘quick wins’ on Google – but how much does PPC management cost, what do PPC agencies do, and how much do they charge?
We answer each of these questions and more in a bid to help out ambitious businesses; after all, with a fully fleshed-out understanding of the cost, you can make your budget work not just harder, but smarter too.
But first, an overview:
- Rapid-Fire Breakdown
- What Does PPC Management Pricing Typically Include?
- The Cost Structure for Agency Rates
- How much do PPC Agencies Charge?
- Is a PPC Management Agency Right for me?
- Contractual Terms to Confirm
- Outsource Your PPC
Rapid-fire breakdown: The costs at a glance
Ostensibly, the cost of your PPC management completely depends on whether you decide to work with an agency or freelancer, or go it alone; not to mention your budget, marketing goals and industry niche.
Despite all of these factors, you can get a pretty good idea of what to expect with a cursory glance at the bullets below.
- Clicks & Ad Spend – The actual cost of your PPC ads, averaging at £500–£10,000+ / month and accrued on a pay-per-click basis.
- Agency / Freelancer Fees – Typically charged at 10–30% of your ad spend, or an average of £300–£2,000+ / month. Sometimes, this may include additional setup fees (around £250–£1,000) or extra one-off services.
- Software & Tools – Only applicable to DIYers or agencies, PPC tool subscriptions are typically £50–£500+ / month.
What does PPC management pricing typically include?
It’s all very well knowing the benefits of outsourcing PPC management to an agency like ours, but what’s actually included in your PPC management costs to make the investment worth it? Well, when you’ve got a hive of beefound worker bees at the helm, the answer is: quite a lot!
- Researching keyword relevance and user intent to optimise your bidding strategy
- Competitor analysis, ensuring your bids are placed most effectively.
- Tailored campaign and ad creation to meet your marketing goals.
- Website copywriting and optimised landing pages.
- Top-of-the-line landing page design to ensure conversion on click-throughs.
- Monthly campaign optimisation, reporting, and bid management.
- Connection to and configuration of Google Analytics and Tag Manager (among other performance tracking tools) to measure campaign success.
- Set-up of your Google Merchant Centre account to promote your products in the Google Shopping feed, plus Shopping Feed optimisation to improve product data accuracy and performance.
PPC management cost structure for agency rates
There are essentially two types of costing models for managed PPC: separate ad spends and fixed price packages.
Managed accounts with a separate ad spend
With managed accounts, you’ll pay a fixed monthly fee for the ongoing maintenance of your Google Ads and/or other PPC channel accounts. Management fees are usually calculated as a percentage – often 10-30% – of your desired ‘ad spend’.
Ad spend is entirely separate from agency costs, and you will typically pay it yourself. However, a good agency will advise you how much to budget each month as par for the course, using historic data and industry benchmarks to forecast performance. And this isn’t a one-off either; they’ll further advise when you hit your goals or during low/higher demand periods, so you’re always budgeting cost-effectively.
Fixed price packages
As these are all-inclusive (covering both PPC management and ad spend), they are often aimed at smaller businesses: e.g. those who have less than £1,000 per month to spend on all marketing.
It’s really important to do your research here. For example, if you have a budget of £1,000 and your agency starts bidding for very high-cost clicks, you could exhaust your spend long before the end of the month.
Always ask for 100% transparency, including reports on numbers of clicks!
Hybrid rates (the secret third option)
Some PPC agencies offer hybrid pricing models that combine monthly fees with hourly or daily rates, though it’s generally rarer than flat-rate or percentage-of-spend models. For instance, you might pay a fixed monthly fee for core services (campaign management, analysis and reporting), but splash out on extras like landing page design, one-off seasonal campaigns and ad creative revisions, etc.
In terms of cost-effectiveness, this model can suit businesses after a smaller regular spend but with the flexibility to meet occasional seasonal requirements, when an increased budget will bring higher returns.
Set-up fees
With either PPC management model, you’re likely to be charged an ‘initial optimisation’ fee – particularly if your account is new. Some people may transfer over from an old agency, or from an account they built from scratch. Even if it’s a total overhaul, you may still have to pay this fee.
How much do PPC agencies charge?
The wider the scope, the more platforms used, and an increased depth of expertise can each push up the price – this is usually relative to the agency’s bank of resources. Here, your budget will govern the type of agency you can work with, but there are pros and cons to both ends of the spectrum.
For example, smaller agencies will be used to using shrewd tactics to get the most out of a smaller budget, whilst bringing you a more personalised experience. On the flip side, there might be more people at hand (and possibly more bureaucracy) with a larger agency. Always get a feel for how an agency works before signing on.
Clicks & ad spend
It doesn’t matter which pricing model or method you pick; clicks and ad spend underpin everything you do in the PPC arena. Click costs are determined by multiple factors, including: seasonality, the quality of your landing page, industry competition, how much you’re willing to budget, and which PPC platform you use (Google’s Display Network, YouTube Ads, Microsoft Ads, and so on).
The most recent statistics from WordStream’s 2024 benchmark report suggest that the average CPC (cost-per-click) ranges from £0.66–£1.32 for ads placed via Google, depending on sector and campaign type. For more of a ballpark figure, consider that businesses tend to shell out a few hundred per month for small, lower-cost campaigns and then between £2,000 and £10,000 for mid-range campaigns.
This said, the average price-per-click can fluctuate considerably, and may be higher in more competitive industries. For example, Statista UK reported that, in 2024, the average for the legal sector was as high as £5.60 per click.
Smaller agencies or freelancers
These are perfect if your ad spend is less than £1,000p/m. Fixed fees generally start at £400 or 10-20% of ad spend per month for small campaigns, equivalent to about one “day’s” work or 5-6 hours. Alternatively, freelancers or boutique agencies may offer hourly rates of £80–£150.
It’s best to approach smaller agencies if you have only a handful of ads. Otherwise, they may not be able to service all of your campaigns equally. For example, if you sell thousands of retail products, consider moving up a tier.
Note: Some smaller providers may not yet be Google Partners, meaning they haven’t met Google’s performance, spend and certification criteria, so watch out.
Mid-size agencies
A good fit for PPC budgets up to £50,000/month, mid-size agencies often offer broader expertise, including call tracking, shopping ads, and custom integrations. Many are certified Google Partners, thanks to a greater number of clients, and may have specialists on board for different campaign types (e.g. Display, Search, Performance Max).
Expect to pay between £750–£1,200/month for management, typically covering at least 15 hours/month of active work. Some offer bundled services, including landing page support, keyword strategy, and regular performance reviews as extras.
What about DIYing it? The cost of going solo
If you’ve already been put off by the thought of splashing out on such a large sum on your advertising, allow us to present you with another option: going solo with your PPC. Before we plunge in: do note that while this method might be low in cash, it’s high on time.
Unsurprisingly, you’ll be paying ad spend, but the amount will be entirely up to you – though we recommend starting with a few hundred pounds to drive the initial traffic. On top of this, there are optional costs in the form of tools and automation software like KWDFinder for keyword research and Cometly or What Converts for attribution and visitor tracking, which will tally up to £50-£500/month depending. While technically not a requirement, they’ll help you polish up your PPC, which is unspeakably important when campaign optimisation matters more than ever.
Finally, it would be remiss of us not to mention the hefty cost of time and energy you need to pour into the process, especially as a newbie unaccustomed to such a rapidly changing search landscape. To leverage Google Ads algorithms and outcompete the other players in the market, you need to feed back accurate, real-time data to pivot and scale your campaigns – and you can’t do that on guesswork. Thus, it takes not only learning the ropes of paid search in general, but picking up new software too.
Is a PPC management agency right for me?
Advertising with Google isn’t off limits to anyone, but it is not for the faint-hearted: you’re paying every time somebody clicks on your ad, and the costs of these clicks can soon add up. You also have to know how to navigate the world of Google algorithms to ensure your ads appear to the right prospects in the first place, which takes a steep learning curve.
If you’re only planning to spend a few hundred £, in this case, a freelancer or agency support will likely pay for itself and allow you to scale the account far beyond what you could achieve DIY. While there are additional PPC management costs associated with having an agency like beefound look after your digital marketing, they are far outweighed by the benefits as you’re about to find out…
Top 5 benefits of PPC agency management
In the long run, you’ll save money on your Google Ads spending by teaming up with a Google Partner like beefound.agency. Not only is it an effective lead generation or sales strategy in of itself, but outsourcing the work allows newcomers to hit the ground running, no matter how familiar they are to this niche.
PPC management costs are offset by the following benefits of letting experts do the heavy lifting:
- Gain more from other marketing channels – Specialists can also integrate data from other areas; better tracking and attribution will help you determine what is effective, where there are additional opportunities, and how everything works together to boost returns.
- Get off on the right foot – An agency will forecast what you need to spend in order to gain enough visibility to start snagging leads or sales, which then can be optimised.
- Increased returns – Agencies incrementally increase spend on what works whilst reducing wastage, meaning you get more returns for the same amount. They’ll tease out the potential of your ads, helping you hit the average 200% ROI or indeed higher – yes, roughly twice your investment!
- Scalability – With wider experience, knowledge and accurate forecasting, the experts help determine if more spend will yield better results and put plans in place to get more leads/sales. A quality digital agency will have a holistic view of your goals and inform their PPC management with these best practices.
- Real methods that work – Agencies allow you to let go of the guesswork. For instance, at beefound, we only use tried and tested strategies to deliver increasing returns over a period of time. We’re not employed or rewarded by Google for you spending more; our only intention is to get you a greater return from Google Ads.
Gain more from other marketing channels – Specialists can also integrate data from other areas; better tracking and attribution will help you determine what is effective, where there are additional opportunities, and how everything works together to boost returns.
Ones to watch – what to nail down in the PPC fine print
As with any long-term contract, you’ll need to read the small print. Make sure you have the following PPC management elements in writing, so you’re getting the most out of the cost:
Setup and cancellation fees
The amount an agency will charge for ‘initial optimisation’ of your PPC strategy, copy, and ad content, as well as the amount charged for early termination of the contract. This fee is often equivalent to one month of pay-per-click management, so again, around 10-30% of your ad spend.
Transparency and account ownership
Before you get started on your new partnership, it’s crucial you confirm whether you’ll have access to the account throughout the process. It might surprise you, but there are still agencies operating on a zero-ownership basis, meaning that your business can’t access or move your ads accounts; should things not work out with them, you’d be starting from scratch, despite having paid them each month! Transparency is a must to ensure you know what you’re getting yourself into.
Minimum contract times
The minimum length of time your PPC agency contract, and thus your agency-optimised PPC strategy, will run for. Make sure to negotiate these terms before you sign, so you don’t run into any unexpected consequences.
Fixed monthly fee (including adjustments for inflation)
The monthly PPC management cost, covering services such as keyword research, ad creation and copywriting, bid management, landing page design, monthly reporting and re-strategising, plus competitor/industry analysis. Most agencies will incorporate the full list into their solutions, but some work on a tiered basis. Thus, you might want to do some shopping around.
Ad-spend percentage (for all-inclusive management)
The maximum percentage of your monthly budget you wish to spend on ad bids. You will never pay more than your monthly budget, but you may ultimately pay less, depending on your agency’s ability to improve the ‘quality score’ of your landing page (a factor which Google uses to calculate cost-per-click, AKA CPC).
Hourly- or day-rates
This rate is most common with freelancer PPC managers, and it can fluctuate month-to-month based on the nature of your campaign or other factors such as client requirements.
Start reducing PPC management costs today with the help of beefound.agency
It’s without a doubt that moving the administrative burden from greener shoulders to expert ones is the most cost-effective route for small business PPC. Considering the proficiency, specialism and access to expensive tools, it just makes sense.
So, are you ready to see a return on your ad spend, with none of the hassle of managing PPC in-house? Become a part of the beefound hive today, and let us help you take your PPC strategy to the next level and achieve your current marketing goals.
Not quite sure yet? Then why not continue down the learning rabbit hole? We’ve plenty more articles where this came from over on our blog.
