Please Help

How much should I charge for PPC services? I heard that most charge 15% of monthly spend.

It depends on who you're working with really... if it's a small business then they'll be thinking cashflow the whole time, so a better approach for them might be to pay you an Adwords setup fee, plus an ongoing monthly retainer for management.

Some small companies will baulk even at the idea of a modest monthly charge -- they might prefer to pay $500 for a three-month review instead of $150 each month. It really does depend on who you're working with, their psychology, their approach to advertising, and your relationship with them.

Personally I always try to avoid situations where I'm paying Google and then invoicing the client. It's more exposure to risk than I feel comfortable with. I'd be charging at least 15% to compensate for that risk exposure. Far better IMO to have the client log their card details with Google and pay direct, and then pay separately for management and reports.

HTH -- hit me if you want to know more

will people pay 15% for adwords management? I was going to list it as a service I offer but thought that most people with any sort of internet type knowledge can use it, there is so much hand holding from google?

Mind you i guess some companys dont have the resource. I'll find out what our company pays tomorrow as a guide, although I know that the agency manage all online ad placement rather than just PPC campaigns, so this might be reflected in their charges.

Thanks again dam10n.

So if they spend a lot, 15% is good. Otherwise, if they're a smaller company, a setup fee + weekly retainer is good. I don't want to undercut myself, and I don't want to rip them off either... I just want to offer a fair service.

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I think anyone can use it, but they aren't going effective off the starting line. It will also take some people a long time to learn adwords, on the job, so I guess they don't have time. If you see how many searches there are for ppc management, this offers some insight in to how many people are searching it. Then it could be people just checking their rankings, but I doubt it.

It would be helpful to see what your company pays, thanks.

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Guys I was reading a blog post yesterday and someone claimed that it wasn't possible to make a profit if you spend $300 per month on adwords. That's the most ridiculous claim I have heard in a while, and that's why people need proper ad management. I must stop here because this is sounding like self promotion

Have you sent off enquiries to PPC Management firms, digital / interactive marketing agencies, see what the going rate is? It's worth doing to see what the local competition is charging -- it's an eye-opener.

Certainly here in Australia it's a huge growth area -- one of the main newspaper groups has teamed up with one of the larger IT services companies to offer a packaged, one-size-fits-all Adwords setup and management. It'll be a complete disaster in terms of effectiveness, and I'll bet my last dollar it won't be an efficient or lean campaign by any stretch of the imagination --- but based on their heavyweight status, they'll clean up...

My point is that it's a booming industry at the moment, perhaps fuelled in part by companies having a (healthy) paranoia about getting left behind by the competition. See if your local market is showing the same signs, find out their charges and pitch your rates where you feel comfortable.


This is exactly it -- you need to work out how much value you're providing in your management and setup, and price yourself accordingly. Google has made it wonderfully easy for any organisation to set up a Starter Account with a very simple ad, a very simple set of keywords, and a very simple campaign structure. Your role is to take this to the next level -- and it's this "next level" where most organisations switch off.

Information Overload -- they want someone to come in, operate and manage the account, and provide meaningful reports highlighting ROI and competitor analysis. In a sense, you're not being paid to manage the account, but to extract data from the account and convert it into analytical insight. This is what sells!

I would change by the hour to set up the campaigns and then a monthly fee that could be based upon the spend.

If someone has you set up the campaigns (where the big work is) and then decides not to pay then... you are screwed.

Thanks for the input Egol. Some kind of contract may compensate for this. Or othewise I must judge them when I speak to them and if they're not appearing dodgy, I can at least hope they are honest. Or I hold their password hostage until they pay the setup fee, then I can link accounts afterwards. Though I don't want to be too paranoid, but a few times of getting ripped off and people get smart.

I've had a chat and the total figure is around £7k management fee per month based on an overall spend of £1.6mill. However this isn't only PPC, its all online ad management, so less useful. It's also a flat fee.

I chatted to the person who manages this our end and she though 15% management charge was pretty high, more like 8-10%. Maybe it depends on budget though.

Interestingly there is a performance bonus based on certain sucess criteria too.

Hope this gives you a little food for thought.

I'm still eating in thought. However, the best thing I have read so far and is a great idea, is to charge a % of monthly revenue! Ever heard of that one? I think it's bril.

I am not sure about a fee based upon revenue....

Let's consider a situation.... You are helping a guy sell widgets...

The last SEO who helped him found hundreds of keywords such as these and loaded them into Adwords with broadmatching....

brass widgets
wooden widgets
aluminum widgets
ceramic widgets

.... now you see this and decide... this is wasting lots of money because people are searching for... "brass widgets recycling".... "ceramic widgets disposal"

Those terms deliver ads under broad match... and since those searchers do not click on your ads they are worthless to your client.... you decide.... Let's add "recycling" and "disposal" to a list of negative keywords. That will decrease the number of impressions and increase the CTR of the campaign... this can increase your quality score and get the client higher positions for the same spend. It will also save client money because the "recycling" searchers might have clicked his ad.

So, you lowered ad spending, moved his position up... and revenue probably stayed the same. This was a really smart move for you client is now making huge PROFITS, yet client knows nothing about how you made that happen and is not rewarding your for this genius.

Now client gets greedy and raises prices by 50%.... sales fall immediately. Revenue goes to almost zero.... and client is yelling... Hey Goat! You are not producing!

Its really hard to find a good way of pricing a PPC service because your work can go unattributed and actions of client can make sales impossible.

Percentage of spend has some problems. You can always have a minimum.

I charge a monthly fee based on the number of ad groups. Clients know how much they expect to pay each month and there's no surprises. They love it and so do I. I'm sure there are but I don't know of others doing it this way. Most seem to charge a percentage of spend or a fixed amount regardless of campaign size.

I'm thinking of testing a price based on the difference between their CPS and the CPS I will achieve. I know I can significantly lower the CPS of an existing client campaign. Not sure if clients would go for it and have yet to think how to do it.

Another thing I'm thinking about is a percentage of sales. Maybe a percentage of sales above their average. Again, may be problems implementing this.

I think I have just entered the world of complete and utter confusion.

What do you think is a good hourly $ £ to charge? I saw one place charging £70 per hour.

My own opinion is to start at £25 per hour, and when I have clients coming out of my ears, it's then that the prices go up to obstruct growth.

I would cut an affiliate deal with them.... you build a website that promotes their products and you get a commission for every sale that you generate. That way the smarter you are the more money you will make - but the deal needs to be really sweet for you.

And when they get greedy and raise prices.... you move your affiliation to some other company.

In this arrangement you build equity in your campaign... and your landing pages.

If you want to charge an hourly fee, that's fine too. Most people will expect you to quote an hourly fee.

When it comes down to it, everyone charges per hour. My own fee per ad group is based on an hourly fee. I figure how much time it typically takes me to optimize a campaign times what I want to earn per hour.

The question is not "what is good hourly rate". It's how much is your time worth? Add to that your expenses and don't forget you won't be busy 8 hours a day so do you compensate for that or not?

Given that many services (car shop for example) charge $50-60 per hour, £70/$110 US per hour for a highly specialized service is not out of line in my opinion. I assume you are very good too.

Your price will have an effect on the number of clients you get. Many want to pay only $10 per hour (or less!) thinking that PPC is easy and anyone can do it. You have to convince them that your services will be greatly beneficial and increase their profits. That's another reason I "hide" my hourly fee in a per ad group set up. Makes it sound much less and a great value.

As for increasing your rate, be careful. Some people may refer others to you and if you now quote £50 when the other guy told them they pay £25, your credibility will suffer. Remember too that you will have very few long-term clients. Few stick around for long. Even big clients (two major ones stopped using me the last few months and that hurts). So you should always be looking for new ones, even when you think you have enough and making a good living.

I read this at seo book.

If you charge very low prices it's just a reflection of your inner self.

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Thanks guys anyhow, this is solved now. I am charging a fixed rate setup fee for x number of adgroups and a monthly management fee for x number of adgroups.

I hope this takes off...