The short answer
PPC management in the UK usually costs 10% to 20% of your monthly ad spend, or a flat fee of roughly £300 to £800 a month for a small account, paid on top of your ad spend. Freelancers more often charge a day rate or a fixed project fee: the median UK contract rate for PPC work is around £350 a day, and a one-off Google Ads audit typically costs £300 to £750.
The rest of this page explains how each pricing model works, where small advertisers overpay, and what a management fee should actually buy.
| What you are paying for | Typical UK price (2026) |
|---|---|
| Agency management, percentage model | 10% to 20% of monthly ad spend, usually with a minimum fee |
| Agency management, flat fee, small account | £300 to £800 a month |
| Agency management, flat fee, mid-sized account | £800 to £2,000 a month |
| Low-cost management packages | from around £150 a month |
| Freelance PPC day rate | around £350 a day (UK median contract rate) |
| Google Ads audit, standard written report | £300 to £750 |
| Google Ads account setup or rebuild | £250 to £1,000, more for larger builds |
These figures are drawn from published UK agency pricing and contract rate data. Your ad spend is paid to Google separately and is not included in any of them.
Is the management fee separate from ad spend?
Yes. Your ad spend goes to Google. The management fee goes to whoever runs the account. Some proposals present a single monthly figure, so check which part is which before comparing two quotes. Management fees also have VAT added if the provider is VAT registered.
How is PPC management priced?
There are three common models.
1. Percentage of ad spend
The provider takes a share of your monthly ad spend, typically 10% to 20%, with the percentage falling as budgets grow.
At small budgets the percentage matters less than the minimum fee. Most providers that price this way also set a floor. As an example: at £800 a month of ad spend, 15% would be £120, but under a £500 minimum you pay £500, which is the equivalent of 62.5% of your media budget. For small advertisers, ask for the minimum fee first.
The other issue with this model is incentive. The fee rises when spend rises, whether or not the extra spend produces anything.
2. Flat monthly fee
A fixed monthly charge for an agreed scope, priced by account size and complexity. Published UK pricing puts small accounts at roughly £300 to £800 a month and mid-sized accounts at £800 to £2,000, with larger accounts above that. Many agencies ask for a three-month initial term, and some add a setup fee in the first month.
Flat fees are easier to budget for and remove the spend incentive. The thing to pin down is what the fee includes.
3. Day rate or fixed project fee
This is how most freelancers and independent consultants work. You pay for a defined piece of work, such as an audit, an account build or a conversion tracking fix, quoted as a fixed fee or estimated in days.
IT Jobs Watch puts the median UK contract rate for PPC roles at £350 a day for the six months to October 2026. That figure comes from 12 advertised contract roles, so treat it as a guide rather than a benchmark; rates vary with experience and specialism.
Fixed fees suit businesses that know what they need doing and do not want an open-ended monthly commitment.
What should Google Ads management pricing include?
If you are paying a monthly fee, expect at least:
- Search term reviews and negative keyword management
- Bid strategy oversight, with changes explained
- Ad copy testing
- Budget pacing against your monthly limit
- A monthly report that ties spend to leads or sales, not just clicks
- Someone who can explain in plain terms why performance moved
What is often left out: conversion tracking setup, landing page work and analytics configuration. These are usually quoted separately or assumed to be someone else's job. That gap matters more than it looks, and is covered below.
Google Ads agency pricing vs a freelancer: what is the difference?
Most of the difference is overhead. An agency fee covers account managers, sales, office costs and margin, and the person who pitched is not always the person running the account. With a freelancer or independent consultant, it is usually the same person throughout.
An agency makes sense when you need breadth: several channels, creative production, large budgets, or cover when someone is away. A freelancer makes sense when the account is small to mid-sized, the work is specialised, or you want direct access to whoever is doing the work.
Neither is cheaper by default. A freelancer on a loose scope can cost more than a small agency retainer. A defined scope is what makes a freelancer cost-effective.
Is low-cost PPC management worth it?
Some UK providers advertise Google Ads management from around £150 a month. At that price, the thing being reduced is time. Reviews tend to be infrequent or automated, reporting is templated, and nobody is checking whether the conversion data is correct.
That can be acceptable for a very small, stable account with tracking that has already been verified. It is a poor fit for an account that is new, being restructured, or has never had its tracking checked, because a low fee spent optimising toward a wrong conversion signal is not a saving.
If you are considering a low-cost package, ask exactly how often the account is reviewed and what is excluded.
How much does a Google Ads audit cost?
A standard written Google Ads audit from a UK provider usually costs £300 to £750. Deeper reviews of larger or more complex accounts cost £750 to £1,500 or more. Free audits exist, but they are generally a sales tool: a high-level overview designed to lead into a management proposal.
A paid audit should give you a written list of findings ranked by impact, the evidence behind each one, and a plan anyone could implement. If the findings only make sense when the same provider carries them out, it is a proposal, not an audit.
How much does a Google Ads setup cost?
Building a new Google Ads account or restructuring an existing one typically costs £250 to £1,000 as a one-off, depending on the number of campaigns, services and locations involved. Larger builds cost more.
A setup quote should say whether conversion tracking is included. An account built without working tracking cannot be optimised properly, because automated bidding has nothing reliable to learn from.
What is the cost most PPC pricing leaves out?
Conversion tracking. Most pricing pages treat it as a line item or omit it, yet it decides whether every other pound is spent well.
Google's automated bidding optimises toward whatever you tell it counts as a conversion. If that signal is wrong, because a tag fires on the wrong page, a form is counted twice, or a booking is valued at the full price when only a deposit was taken, the account will spend steadily in the wrong direction. You end up paying a management fee to optimise against a number that does not reflect the business. That is the failure mode behind Smart Bidding on polluted conversion data, and the reason a conversion count is the number least likely to be questioned.
A tracking build or fix is usually a one-off cost, and it is the piece of work that makes a monthly management fee worth paying. For a sense of what one involves on a single platform, see adding Google Tag Manager to Wix and building conversions from its dataLayer.
What does Praxia charge?
Praxia is my practice. I am an independent Google Ads and Microsoft Ads consultant in Manchester, specialising in conversion tracking and measurement. I quote a fixed fee for a defined scope, agreed in writing before the work starts, with half paid up front and half on completion.
| Work | Typical fee |
|---|---|
| Google Ads account audit, with written findings and a plan | from £375 |
| Conversion tracking fix, single platform | from £500 |
| Measurement build: GA4, Google Tag Manager, conversion tracking, call tracking and click ID capture | £1,000 to £2,000 |
| Google Ads account build | £1,000 to £2,000 |
The build figures sit above the typical UK setup range quoted earlier because conversion tracking is inside them rather than quoted separately. Every project ends with a completion report documenting what was built, so the work stays usable if you move to someone else. The current packages and prices are on the homepage.
What is not on that list is monthly management, because I do not sell it. The work above is one-off: built, verified, documented and handed over, with the accounts in your name. If you want someone in the account every week, you want an agency or an in-house hire, and the figures on this page should help you price one.
What should you ask before signing up for PPC management?
- Is the fee a percentage of spend, a flat fee or a project fee, and is there a minimum?
- What is the minimum term, and what is the notice period?
- Who will actually work on the account?
- Is conversion tracking included, and who checks that it is correct?
- Do I own the Google Ads account, the GA4 property and the Tag Manager container?
- What will the monthly report show?
The ownership question matters most. If the provider owns the accounts, you lose the history when you leave.
Frequently asked questions
How much does PPC management cost per month in the UK?
For a small account, usually £300 to £800 a month on a flat fee, or 10% to 20% of ad spend subject to a minimum fee. Ad spend is paid to Google separately.
What is the average PPC management fee?
Most UK providers charge between 10% and 20% of ad spend. For accounts spending under a few thousand pounds a month, the provider's minimum fee usually sets the real price.
How much does a freelance PPC consultant cost?
The UK median contract rate for PPC work is around £350 a day. Many freelancers quote fixed fees for defined projects instead of a day rate.
How much is a Google Ads audit?
Usually £300 to £750 for a standard written audit, and more for large or complex accounts.
Is AdWords management cost the same as Google Ads management cost?
Yes. Google renamed AdWords to Google Ads in 2018. Pricing pages that still say AdWords are describing the same service and the same pricing models.