6 Factors Influencing Google Ads Management Prices and Cost Structures

Understanding the factors that influence Google Ads management prices and costs is crucial when considering hiring such services. This will help you to find the right Google Ads specialist to manage your campaigns and achieve the best ROI for less budget.

Managing Google Ads campaigns requires expertise, time, and resources. And this comes with a fee, so it should be handled effectively.

In this article, we’ll explore the key factors that affect the pricing and cost structures of Google Ads management, and provide insights to help you make informed decisions.

1. Ad spend and budget

One of the major factors to Google Ads management prices is the ad spend or budget in your account. Many agencies and Google Ads freelancers charge a percentage of your ad spend to manage your campaigns. And this amount is usually between 10 – 25% of your ad spend budget.

Typically, the higher your ad spend, the higher the Google Ads management fee will be. And this is because larger budgets usually mean more campaigns, keywords and ads which require more time, effort, and expertise to optimise and monitor campaigns effectively.

So, if you have a monthly ad spend of £4,000 for example, and the agency charges 15% of this, then you’ll pay £600 per month for management.

2. Size and complexity of campaigns

The size and complexity of your campaigns determines what Google Ads management prices you’ll pay. Larger and more complex campaigns require a lot more work and usually have to pay more for the traffic and conversions they are getting. And there tends to be a lot of competition or it can be hard to reach the target audience effectively.

A small-scale campaign on the other hand will require  less effort and resources to manage because it will have a limited number of keywords and a straightforward targeting strategy.

The more complex your campaigns are with multiple ad groups, extensive keywords, and more, will take more time to manage. So, as you reach out to a Google Ads specialist for a quote, make sure you provide as much info as possible so they can take every factor into consideration.

3. Campaign goals and objectives

The ideal set up in Google Ads is to have one goal per campaign. This allows you to focus on reaching the right audience with targeted ads and keywords and set the right budget for the campaign. So, each campaign objective requires a tailored strategy and ongoing optimisation to achieve desired outcomes.

Some goals you can set in your Google Ads campaigns include Sales, Leads, Website Traffic and Brand Awareness. A goal like Sales will allow you to run ads on Search and Shopping campaign types. These are the most popular campaign types and they usually require a lot more work than other types because they are not Smart campaigns. So, you make most of the optimisation decisions yourself.

And a campaign to raise Brand Awareness will run on Display and YouTube platforms, and most of the optimisation work will be automated. So, when you work with a Google Ads expert, the goal and campaign type you choose will determine the amount of management work required.

4. Additional services and expertise

The inclusion of additional services can have a big impact on Google Ads management prices and costs. These may not be part of the normal optimisation and monitoring work and will often come up later as the management is taking place.

These additional services include campaign setup, training, remarketing ads, landing page optimisation, Analytics reporting and so on. So, it’s important that you find out what is included or not early on as part of the Google Ads management service.

A service like campaign setup will cost about £300 per campaign. And if this is not included with the management, you’ll need to pay this if you require more campaigns. And the expertise of the Google Ads consultant or agency you select will also determine the costs – with more experienced experts charging more.

5. Industry competitiveness

The competitiveness of your industry or niche will determine the Google Ads management prices you pay. That’s because highly competitive industries require more effort and time to achieve results due to the fierce competition for keywords and ad placements.

Some highly competitive industries in Google Ads include mortgage and life insurance services. The average costs per click for these are above £10 per click and you’ll require a relatively large budget to advertise. And you’ll need to hire a Google Ads specialist with good knowledge on how to optimise and bid effectively for maximum results.

6. What is the hourly rate?

Some Google Ads agencies and freelancers charge by the hour. This helps you to know what the Google Ads management prices and costs will be when you agree how many hours work will be done each month.

The average hourly freelance rate for Google Ads management services is £56 per hour. And for agencies, the average hourly rate is £86 per hour. However, experience and expertise is a big factor in hourly rates and the best agencies and freelancers charge much higher rates.

If, for example you hire a Google Ads agency for 10 hours per month at £120 per hour, you can expect to pay about £1200 + VAT per month.

Conclusion

While evaluating prices and costs of Google Ads management is important, it should not be the sole determining factor. It’s important to assess the track record, expertise, level of service, results they’ve achieved and more, to ensure that the value they provide justifies the cost.

Contact me for a Google Ads proposal and quote.