How Much Does PPC Management Cost?

There is no price list. But almost every quote you get is one of five things: a cut of your ad spend, a flat monthly fee, an hourly rate, a salary or a software fee.

This page puts agency, freelancer, in-house hire and software side by side, and names who published each number. We build the software option, so you know where we stand.

AgencyAnalytics, a reporting tool agencies use, calls a cut of ad spend the most common model, usually 10 to 20% of monthly ad spend. Some agencies charge a flat monthly fee instead. The same guide says management can run anywhere from $250 to $1,500 a month on average, and much higher. At ZenoX Media, our Google Ads agency, retainers run $3-8K a month, from our own agency work.

Freelancers mostly charge by the hour. A full-time hire is a salary, and the biggest bill of the lot.

A percent sounds small until you put your own spend next to it. So here is the same math at four budgets.

The agency column uses the 10 to 20% range from AgencyAnalytics. The Scaley columns are our real prices, worked out at each spend. These are worked examples, not a promise of what any one agency will quote you.

AgencyAnalytics names both models: a cut of ad spend, or a flat monthly fee that starts around $500 for smaller budgets. On a small budget, the gap between them is big.

Say you spend $2,000 a month on ads. At 10%, the fee is $200. A $500 flat fee is 25% of your ad spend. For scale, Scaley Media Buyer at that same spend is $119 a month.

Some deals also put a minimum fee on top of the percent. AgencyAnalytics mentions minimums but gives no figure. So ask for two numbers in writing: the percent, and any minimum. Work out what you would really pay at your spend, then divide it by your spend. That is your true rate.

Every low cost option saves money by cutting something. Here is what each one cuts.

A cheap freelancer is often great at setup and slow at follow-up. Ask how many hours a month your account gets, and what they check each week.

On a cheap agency plan, ask who runs your account and how many other accounts they look after. If one junior runs dozens of accounts, nobody reads your search terms every week.

That is the check we watch most. When a store's account lands with us at ZenoX Media, the search terms report is the first thing we open. It is slow work, and it never shows up in a pretty monthly report, so it is the first thing a cheap plan drops.

Software is the cheapest paid option. Google Ads has its own Recommendations tab for free, and paid tools like Optmyzr add rules and reports on top. Many reporting tools show you numbers and stop there. You still have to know what to do with them.

Doing it yourself has no fee. It takes your hours instead. For a store that already runs its own Google Ads, that is often still the right call, with a tool watching the waste.

Start with your monthly ad spend. The cut-offs below are our own worked examples from the numbers on this page, not a rule.

Under $1,000 a month: WhatConverts says hiring a specialist might not make financial sense. At that size, a fee eats the money that should buy clicks. Run it yourself, with a cheap second look.

$1,000 to $5,000: a $500 flat fee is 50% of your spend at the bottom of this band and 10% at the top. A tool plus your own time usually fits, or a freelancer with clear weekly hours. Watch the minimum fee.

$5,000 to $10,000: an agency at 10% costs $500 to $1,000 a month. Here a good freelancer or agency starts to make sense, if they show you what they check each week.

Over $10,000: AgencyAnalytics says larger or more complex accounts can pay over $5,000 a month. One fixed leak can be worth more than the whole fee, so a good senior person can pay for themselves.

One simple check works at every size. Add up the monthly fee. Then ask the person or tool what they check each week, and how much waste that finds in an account your size. You want that number to be bigger than the fee.

Scaley is the software option, built by the team behind ZenoX Media. We run Google Ads for 400+ store accounts, and Scaley does the checks we do by hand.

Scaley Consultant ($99/mo flat) answers from screenshots and CSVs you upload. It connects to nothing.

Scaley Media Buyer ($99/mo + 1% of total ad spend) is the one we point most stores to. It reads your live account, read-only. You ask in chat and see your waste right away: the search terms and products that spend and never sell. It never changes anything, and it never scans on its own.

Scaley Suite ($199/mo + 4% of total ad spend) finds the fixes for you. Only the Scaley Suite writes to an account, and only after an individual yes from you, one change at a time.

Media Buyer and Suite also come with the Leak Guarantee. The conditions are in the FAQ below. Every tier starts the same way: 3-day free trial. Card required. Cancel anytime.

When is a person the better buy? When you want someone else to run the account day to day, and you have the budget for it. Then hire a good freelancer or an ecommerce Google Ads agency, and use the checks on this page to keep the fee honest.