Google Ads costs a small business two things: the ad budget you pay Google for clicks, and the fee for whoever manages the account. Size the budget backwards from how many enquiries you want and what one costs in your industry; in a 2026 study of US search campaigns the average was about $67 USD per lead. Management is priced as a flat fee, a percentage of your spend, or your own time, and the model matters more than the number, because one of them quietly works against you.
Two costs, not one
There is the money that goes to Google for the clicks, and there is the money that goes to whoever manages the account. People blur these together and end up unable to tell what they are paying for. Keep them separate in your head: the ad budget is fuel, the management fee is the driver.
How much to spend on the ads themselves
Google does not set a minimum. You choose an average daily budget, and Google's own guidance is to divide a monthly figure by 30.4 to get it. So the real question is what a sensible monthly number is for your business, and the most useful way to answer it is backwards, from enquiries.
WordStream and LocaliQ publish yearly benchmarks from real accounts. Their 2026 report covers 13,474 US search campaigns that ran from April 2025 to March 2026, in US dollars. Across all industries, the average click cost $5.42 and the average lead, meaning an enquiry such as a form, a call or a booking request, cost $66.69. The spread by industry is wide. A few of their published cost-per-lead figures:
- Restaurants and food: $30.57 per lead
- Automotive repair and service: $29.96
- Beauty and personal care: $39.25
- Travel: $44.70
- Dentists and dental services: $72.97
- Home and home improvement: $90.92
- Real estate: $102.51
- Attorneys and legal services: $131.63
Now do the math for yourself. If you run a home improvement business and want ten enquiries a month, ten times $90.92 is about $900 USD a month in ad spend as a first estimate, before any management fee. If your average job is worth a few thousand dollars and you win a fair share of those enquiries, that is a budget you can judge on results. If one job is worth less than a few enquiries cost, paid search may not be your channel, and it is better to know that before you start.
Three cautions. These are US averages, so Canadian costs will differ; Google's free Keyword Planner shows estimated click costs for your own keywords in your own area, and I pulled those numbers for 14 trades across eight Durham-area towns. An average is not a promise, because a well-run account beats it and a badly run one can cost several times more. And the whole calculation depends on the account counting enquiries correctly, which is the part most accounts get wrong.
The three ways management is priced
- Flat monthly fee. You pay a set amount for the work, regardless of budget. Predictable, and the fee does not rise just because you spend more.
- Percentage of ad spend. The manager takes a cut of what you spend. Common, and the one to look at hardest (below).
- Do it yourself. No fee, but it is not free. It costs your time, and the learning curve is exactly where most of the expensive mistakes happen.
What the market publishes about management fees
Nobody sampled the Ontario market to produce the numbers below. They are what one agency-matching directory, hellodarwin.com, publishes on its Ontario Google Ads agencies page, quoted here in that form on purpose:
- Setup fee: $500 to $1,500.
- Management fee: 10 to 20 percent of ad spend, or a flat $500 to $5,000 a month.
Treat these as one directory's published numbers, not "the going rate." What they are useful for is the shape of the market: a setup fee before anything runs, then either a percentage of spend or a flat fee for the ongoing work. Whatever you get quoted, you now have a published reference point to compare it against.
The hidden conflict in percentage-of-spend
When your manager earns a percentage of your spend, their income goes up when your budget goes up. So the incentive built into the arrangement is to push you to spend more, not to make each dollar work harder. At the 10 to 20 percent that directory publishes, a $3,000 month sends $300 to $600 to a percentage before anything else is judged. Most people in the industry are honest, but you should never have to rely on someone resisting their own pay structure. A flat fee, or a 0 percent markup, removes the conflict entirely: the manager earns the same whether you spend more or less, so their only job is to make the spend work.
How I price it, and why
I do not put a number on this page, because a real number depends on your account, your budget, and your market, and anyone who quotes you a guaranteed price or result before looking at your data is guessing. What I will tell you is the principle: I take 0 percent markup on your ad spend. Your budget goes straight to Google and Meta, and what I charge does not climb just because your budget does. I have no reason to tell you to spend more than you should. The rest of the terms are on the paid advertising page.
The one question to ask any manager
"Does what you charge me go up if I spend more?" If the answer is yes, you know the incentive you are working against. If the answer is no, their interests and yours point the same way, which is the whole point. It is one of five questions worth asking any agency before you sign.
Sources: WordStream and LocaliQ, Google Ads Benchmarks 2026 (13,474 US search campaigns, April 2025 to March 2026, USD; read 14 October 2026). hellodarwin.com, Google Ads agencies in Ontario (read 14 October 2026). Google Ads Help, "Set your budget".
All writing · Related: How to tell if your Google Ads are set up badly · What conversion tracking is, and why most accounts get it wrong