This guide is general information for Australian service businesses. Account decisions should be based on your own search terms, conversion tracking, margins, service area and sales outcomes.
There are three separate Google Ads costs
A useful quote separates the money paid to Google from the money paid to the person building and managing the campaign. When those costs are blended together, it becomes difficult to see whether the advertising or the management is creating the result.
- Ad spend: paid directly to Google for clicks and traffic.
- Setup: research, tracking, campaign structure, ads and landing-page work.
- Management: ongoing search-term review, testing, reporting and optimisation.
Common Australian pricing models
Providers commonly charge a fixed monthly fee, a percentage of ad spend, an hourly rate or a hybrid. A percentage model can make sense for complex accounts, but it can also increase the fee simply because the media budget grows. Fixed pricing is easier to forecast when the service scope is clearly defined.
The important comparison is not the cheapest monthly number. It is the total cost to acquire a qualified lead and the work included in achieving it.
Questions to ask before accepting a proposal
Ask who owns the account, whether conversion tracking is included, how landing pages are handled, how often search terms are reviewed and what happens when a lead is poor quality. The answers reveal more than a long list of platform features.
- Will the campaign be built in an account your business owns?
- What exactly counts as a lead in reporting?
- Is Google ad spend paid directly by your business?
- Can you leave without losing the campaign history or landing page?
- How are sales outcomes fed back into optimisation?
How the Google Ads Guys offer is structured
Google Ads Guys charges a one-off A$499 setup for the landing page, campaign build and keyword research. The management fee does not begin until the first qualified lead. It is then $150/week, billed monthly at $650. Google ad spend remains separate and is paid directly to Google.
Google Ads spend is paid directly to Google and is separate from anything you pay Google Ads Guys. Minimum recommended budget: A$40/day.
All prices are in Australian dollars (AUD).