How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Google Ads Specialist?

How much does a Google Ads specialist cost?

In Australia, most Google Ads specialists charge around $1,500 AUD a month to manage one platform. Newer freelancers charge $1,000 to $1,200, and big agencies charge more. We charge $1,725 a month for accounts spending up to $5,000 to $10,000 a month on ads, with no setup fee. Your ad spend is paid to Google on top of that.

The fee on its own doesn't tell you much. What matters is who does the work, how often they're in your account and whether the leads they report turn into customers. Below is how we price, what other people charge and what you get at each level.

TL;DR:

• Expect $1,000 to $1,200 a month for a newer freelancer, around $1,500 for most freelancers and local agencies, and more for big agencies.
• Our fee is $1,725 a month for one platform up to $5,000 to $10,000 in monthly ad spend. Bigger or more complex accounts sit between $2,500 and $3,000.
• You need around $1,500 a month in ad spend before a specialist makes sense.
• The biggest hidden cost is a 6 or 12 month lock-in with someone who isn't performing.
• You should see leads in the first 30 days. If you don't, ask questions.

Google Ads specialist pricing in Australia

Here's what we see across the market, based on the clients who come to us from other providers.

We're on the higher end, and that's on purpose. Every account manager on our team is senior. There are no juniors doing the work behind the scenes. Each manager looks after a small number of clients, so they have time to give each account proper attention. Paying a senior person to do that costs more, which is why our fee is where it is.

How we price Google Ads management

We charge a flat monthly fee based on how much you spend and how complex the account is.

Each extra platform, like Microsoft Ads or Meta, is another $1,725.

Complexity is about how much work the account takes. A service business offering one or two core services is simple to set up and manage. A business offering 10 different services needs separate ad groups, keyword research and ads for each one. That's a lot more work every month, even if the budget is the same.

There's no setup fee. It takes us 7 to 14 days to build the campaigns and get them live, and that's covered by the first month's fee.

We have a 3 month minimum. If the ads aren't profitable for you and you can show us that from your numbers, we won't hold you to it. We want the arrangement to work for both sides.

You can see more detail on click prices and budgets on our Google Ads cost page.

Why we don't charge a percentage of ad spend

A lot of agencies charge 10 to 20% of your ad spend. We chose not to, and here's why.

When the fee goes up with your budget, the manager gets paid more every time you spend more. That gives them a reason to push for budget increases when it would be smarter to wait, or to suggest a big budget during a month when it would put pressure on your cash flow.

With brackets, more of each extra dollar goes into the ads and into results you can see. As your spend grows, the brackets work out well for you, because the fee stays the same within each one.

I also don't like performance retainers, where the fee goes up when cost per lead goes down or lead volume goes up. They reward lazy account structure. The easiest way to make those numbers look good is to lean on brand traffic: people who already know your business, searching your name. Those clicks are cheap and they convert, so cost per lead drops and volume rises. But most of those people would have found you anyway. The account looks great on paper while it coasts on your brand, and you get very few new customers out of it.

What you get for the money

Here's what a month of management looks like with us at $1,725.

Every week, a review of the account

• Every week: search terms, to see what people typed before they clicked.
• Every second week: keywords and ads.
• Every third week: negative keywords.
• Every fourth week: the whole account from A to Z. Bidding strategies, conversion tracking, competitors, ad scheduling and all the small settings that keep an account tight.

Every month, a report and a call

You get a monthly report by email, with a link to book a video call. We go through the results and agree on what happens next.

Checking leads against your CRM

This is the part most specialists skip. We check the conversions in Google Ads against your CRM and your website, so we know the leads we report are leads you can sell to. A form fill from someone outside your service area, or a job seeker, still counts as a conversion in Google Ads. It doesn't count for you.

Most specialists stop at the data inside Google Ads. They never confirm the so-called leads are qualified, or what each customer wanted. Checking that is how we make sure the numbers in the report line up with what's landing in your inbox and your bank account. We explain why this matters in why your Google Ads reporting is probably lying to you.

What you get from cheaper and more expensive options

We take over a lot of accounts from both ends of the market, and the problems are pretty consistent.

Cheaper freelancers

The fundamentals get neglected. Someone logs in about once a month, adds a few negative keywords without much thought and leaves. When we open these accounts we usually find:

• Broad match keywords everywhere.
• Brand and acquisition traffic mixed into the same campaign.
• Conversion tracking set up wrong.
• Negative keywords added in the wrong format, so similar searches still get through.
• Very little work done from month to month.

Big agencies

Clients coming from bigger agencies were often paying for a nice report. The sales call is impressive, with dedicated teams and specialists for everything. Then the day-to-day work gets handed to a junior, and it isn't done to the standard you were sold.

Case study: $300 per customer on paper, $800 in reality

A real estate agency came to us from their previous provider. Google Ads reported a cost of $300 for each new customer, which they were happy with.

When we dug into the reports, the cost per new customer was $800. Branded traffic was sitting inside the acquisition campaign. People who already knew the agency were searching its name, clicking the ads and converting. Those clicks were cheap and the conversion rate was high, so on paper it looked like the ads were bringing in lots of new customers at a low cost. Most of them were people who would have found the agency anyway.

Here's what we changed:

1. Split brand and acquisition into separate campaigns, so we could bid on new customers with clean data.
2. Rebuilt the account structure and ads around the services the agency wanted to grow.
3. Added a dynamic search ad campaign aimed at their key suburb and service pages. They wanted those pages showing up straight away rather than waiting months for SEO, and they didn't want to lose that traffic to competing agencies. We compare the two ad types in dynamic search ads vs responsive search ads.

Within about 3 months, the cost per new customer from acquisition campaigns was down to $68. It stayed there for the next 10 months we worked together.

Just as important, the agency finally knew what a new customer was costing them. Every decision since then has been based on the right number.

Hidden costs to watch for

Lock-in contracts

This is the one that hurts the most. A business signs up for 6 or 12 months, finds out a few months in that the person running their ads isn't any good, and they're stuck paying for the rest of the contract.

Some agencies run on this model. They sign clients up, lock them in and move on to the next one. Make sure you have a way out of the contract if things don't go the way they were sold to you.

Tools like call tracking, a CRM and landing pages

These usually cost around $20 to $50 a month per tool. They're worth it. Call tracking and a CRM let you and your manager see which ads bring in the leads that turn into work, and they keep the agency accountable. Good landing pages keep the message consistent from the ad to the page, which helps you get better quality leads.

Setup fees

Some providers charge a separate fee to build the account. Ask about it up front so it isn't a surprise on the first invoice.

What's the minimum budget to hire a Google Ads specialist?

You'll want to be spending at least $1,500 a month on ads. Below that, it's hard to make a profit once you add the management fee and your own margins.

• Above $1,500 a month: hiring a specialist is a no-brainer.
• Around $1,000 a month: worth a chat, if the data shows it's worth increasing your budget to $1,500.
• Under $1,000 with no room to move: come back to a specialist when the budget grows.

If you're in that last group and the account feels stuck, a one-off review is a cheaper place to start. Our $99 Google Ads audit goes through the whole account and gives you a step-by-step list of what to fix and how. It's enough to get the basics right before you're ready to hire someone.

Is a Google Ads specialist worth the cost?

Break-even maths is useful. Work out your average job value, your close rate and your margins, then check the ads cover the fee and the spend. There's a worked example on our Google Ads cost page.

The catch is that a good manager changes those numbers. If your account is full of poor quality leads and a senior manager fixes that, your close rate can jump. The maths you did before hiring them no longer applies.

Here's my rule of thumb. If you can spend $1,500 a month on ads and the management fee is under $2,000, you should be in a good position to make that money back. You get better results and you get your time back.

Most people get tricked by how simple Google makes Ads look. Then the Google reps call, pushing new features that are meant to help and usually don't. If you're spending $1,000 or more a month, you're probably losing money to mistakes you don't know you're making.

It's like cutting your own hair. It looks simple until you pick up the clippers. Then you realise you don't know which angles to cut, how to hold the mirror or any of the techniques a barber learned over years. You don't know what you don't know. Most people go to a barber for that reason, and Google Ads works the same way. If you're still weighing it up, here's more on whether to hire a Google Ads manager or do it yourself.

What to expect after you hire a specialist

Month 1

By the end of the first month, the account should be fully restructured. Brand and acquisition campaigns separated, new ads written and data starting to build up. Most importantly, you should have leads coming in, or sales if you're an eCommerce business.

If you're not getting results in the first 30 days, I'd be worried. A decent media buyer can make big changes quickly and get some results in the first month.

Months 2 and 3

This is where the refining starts, based on the leads that came in:

• Which leads were qualified.
• Your close rate for each service compared with the account as a whole.
• Which services bring in the most leads.
• Which services bring in the most sales.
• Which services get lots of traffic but very few quote requests.

All of that should feed into the ad copy, the messaging and the bidding strategy.

Month 3 onwards

By now you should be pretty happy with the account. Your manager should understand what you offer, how it all fits together and what makes you different. Cost per lead should be coming down. From there, each month should bring either more leads or cheaper leads.

The exceptions are seasonality, and clients who won't increase budget when the data supports it or don't give feedback on lead quality. Your manager can only improve what they can see.

Questions to ask before you hire a Google Ads specialist

1. Who will be doing the work on my account? Make sure it's the same senior person you spoke to on the sales call.
2. How long is the contract? Watch out for 6 or 12 month lock-ins.
3. Do I own the ad account if we stop working together? It should stay with you, along with all its data.
4. Can you show me results for businesses like mine? Ask for examples in your industry.
5. How will you check lead quality? Ask how they'll confirm leads are qualified, and whether they report on qualified leads or just lead volume.

The red flags are long contracts, not owning your account, no examples to show you and no confident answer on how they'll get you qualified leads. If you're already with someone and seeing these signs, here's what to know before you switch Google Ads agencies.

Jesse's take

"The cheapest specialist usually ends up the most expensive, because you pay for the mistakes you can't see. And the most expensive agency often means you're paying for a junior and a nice report. Hire a senior person, pay them a flat fee so they've got no reason to push your budget, and judge them on the customers your CRM says they brought in."

Jesse Lees, founder of Senior Ad Managers