What does it cost?
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Investing in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is one of the best ways to quickly boost your online visibility, leads, and sales.
But how much does PPC cost? PPC pricing can vary depending on factors like your industry or ad network.
The cost of PPC management for B2B businesses typically includes both ad spend—averaging $15,000–$20,000 per month—and management fees, which vary based on whether campaigns are run in-house or by an agency. Final costs depend on industry competition, chosen keywords, and ad platform, making ROI tracking essential for smart budget allocation.
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While ad budgets vary dramatically, on average, the PPC spend of small and midsize companies is around $15,000-$20,000 per month on PPC campaigns, with an average cost-per-click (CPC) of $2.59, based on data from WebFX.
Keep reading to learn more about what you can expect to pay for your PPC management and what factors go into that pricing!
And if you’re ready to browse PPC pricing plans right away, WebFX provides transparent pay-per-click rates and a PPC cost calculator so you know exactly what you’ll pay and receive with our plans. Visit our PPC services page to learn more about how we can help you drive more sales and revenue!
PPC is a type of advertising where companies pay a fee to place ads on a search engine result page (SERP) that appears when someone searches for a particular term or keyword. The SERP displays the PPC ads, and you pay only when someone clicks on them and goes to your website.
You may have heard marketers refer to both PPC and CPC when discussing pay-per-click advertising and wondered whether there’s a difference. While they are related to each other, these are two completely different things.
PPC (pay-per-click) is a type of paid advertising in which an amount is deducted from an advertiser’s budget each time the advert is clicked. The PPC spend per click depends on several factors, including bidding strategy, PPC budget, and keyword competition (how many of your competitors are bidding on the same keyword at the same time).
On the other hand, CPC (cost-per-click) is a metric used to measure the cost an advertiser pays each time someone clicks on their PPC ad. You can choose to measure the CPC for a specific keyword or determine an average CPC for your entire campaign.
Depending on your preferred search engine or advertising platform, setting up your PPC ad should follow a process similar to this:
Select a PPC ad campaign type that aligns with your advertising goals. For example, if you’d like your audience to complete a form enabling you to gather lead contact information, you’d choose a campaign focused on sales and leads.
Today, reputable pay-per-click advertising platforms offer advertisers a wealth of audience targeting options to help you pinpoint your ideal target market. You can target users based on specific demographics or similar criteria, as well as those who have purchased similar products or interacted with your website or content in the past.
Next, you’ll need to set your PPC budget depending on what you have available to spend and select a bidding strategy through the options available on your chosen platform. For instance, Google Ads offers automated bidding strategies to maximize conversions, improve conversion value, and increase clicks.
A key element of your PPC ad set up is adding the URL you’d like users to go to when they click on your ad. Make sure you send your visitors to an optimized landing page with relevant content, a professional-looking design, and a focus on one clear objective.
Regardless of the type of ad—search, display, shopping, video, etc.—you’ll need to create a compelling ad title, engaging ad content, and a great CTA. Make sure you include some of your most successful keywords in your copy where appropriate, and add quality images and videos for the best results.
Once approved, your ad will be live and may be chosen by the platform’s algorithm to appear within relevant search results based on your PPC budget, bid strategy, content, and campaign settings. The more relevant and trustworthy your PPC ad, the more likely it will appear higher up in the search results.
Depending on how your PPC strategy is structured, you could have a few or many line items tallying up the total PPC cost. Some key factors include who manages the PPC campaigns (in-house vs. agency vs. consultant), the average CPC in your industry, how often you update campaigns, and more.
Check out the table below for a full breakdown of average PPC management fees:
| Description | Cost |
| PPC Ad Spend | Varies |
| PPC tools and software | $15 to $800 per month |
| PPC management pricing (agency) | 12% to 30% of PPC ad spend per month |
| PPC management pricing (in-house) | Varies |
So, what determines the cost of PPC management? Many factors influence how much you can expect to pay for your campaign, such as:
Because PPC works by bidding on keywords your target audience searches for online. Your industry and the products and services you sell will determine which keywords you will bid on.
If you’re in a more competitive industry, like financial services, you’ll need to be more competitive in your bid strategies to ensure your PPC cost effectively drive sales and revenue through your PPC ads.
You can also choose from various ad networks, like Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising.
Each one requires its own unique strategy and has different costs and bid optimization strategies.
Just like with traditional advertising, placing PPC ads on different platforms will generate different costs. Compare what you can expect to pay for PPC management based on some popular ad networks you might use.
Google Ads is one of the most popular PPC ad networks. If you want your ads to display on the Google search engine results page, you’ll want to use Google Ads.
Google Ads has two networks—Google Search Network and Google Display Network.
Google Search Network focuses on ads that appear in the search results, while Google Display Network features ads that appear on other Google properties, such as YouTube and Gmail.
With Google Ads, you’ll bid on the keywords you want to trigger your ads. You can set a maximum bid for your PPC spend each time someone clicks on your ad.
While Google Search Network is typically more expensive on a CPC basis than Google Display Network, the actual cost of each ad will vary widely depending on your industry and bidding strategy. For example, a law firm might see an average CPC of $65 on Google Ads, while a salon might have a lower value, say $15, due to the difference in competition and cost of services.
With Microsoft Advertising, you can create PPC ads that display on Bing, Yahoo!, and DuckDuckGo search engines.
You can usually expect to pay an average of $1.54 per click for Microsoft Advertising PPC ads.
Microsoft Advertising works similarly to Google Ads in that your ads appear at the top and bottom of the search results. However, the Microsoft ad platform can be slightly less competitive than Google Ads, with more than 80% of companies solely focusing their PPC efforts on Google Ads.
Smaller businesses competing with big brands in a competitive industry, like SaaS software, could find more success in Microsoft Advertising’s less competitive ad network.
There are three options for managing PPC advertising: running PPC campaigns using your in-house marketing team, working with a freelance marketer, or going through a marketing agency. Each method has its pros and cons, so considering their differences can help you make the best decision for your business.
One option for managing PPC advertising is your in-house marketing team. This strategy can give you more control over your PPC ads and overall marketing strategy and help you keep your marketing budget lower.
However, there are several disadvantages to managing PPC in-house. Your marketing team may already juggle other duties, like social media, email campaigns, website updates, etc. Your current staff may not have the expertise to run PPC campaigns effectively, and it could be far more costly to hire additional team members than to outsource PPC management.
You can also use the PPC management services of a freelance marketer. These freelancers don’t work for a marketing agency and are solely responsible for your PPC campaigns. This option can be cheaper than going with a marketing agency.
But working with a freelancer brings its own pitfalls. Successful PPC advertising requires skill, resources, and experience. Freelancers typically don’t have access to nearly as many resources as a PPC agency. As with managing PPC in-house, using a freelancer runs the risk of wasting your advertising budget on ineffective campaigns.
If you need help maximizing your PPC results or lack the time or resources to manage your campaign, you might opt to work with an experienced PPC agency. A PPC agency uses expertise and technology to help you craft and manage a PPC campaign that enables you to achieve your goals.
Working with a PPC agency will typically cost you more than either of the other two options. You can expect to pay anywhere from 12% to 30% of your total ad spend per month if you opt to partner with a PPC agency.
However, an agency’s staff brings experience in creating and managing PPC campaigns that can produce high-value results for your business. You can also scale your advertising up and down as needed to maximize your value.
Invest in professional marketing services from WebFX and kick your company’s growth into high gear.
Pay-per-click prices from a freelance marketer versus a marketing agency may be fairly similar. Both could charge you a flat monthly fee, an hourly fee, or a percentage of your ad spend for services like strategy planning, keyword research, and reporting. The difference is in the experience and resources each has access to.
Trying to decide whether it’s worth partnering with a PPC agency? When you partner with a PPC agency like WebFX, you’ll gain a team of experts who help you save time and earn a higher ROI.
PPC agency pricing packages from WebFX include:
We offer personalized PPC management services tailored specifically for your unique business. Visit our PPC services page to learn more about our custom PPC agency pricing packages and request a proposal!
PPC is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies because it works for almost any budget.
You can choose how much you want to bid on your keywords, so you never spend more than you want. Plus, you can see results almost immediately.
So, just because companies spend an average of $9,000 to $10,000 on their PPC management doesn’t mean you need to.
Your PPC spend depends on your company’s unique needs and goals.
You may already have a decent amount of web traffic and leads coming in from your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy and want to maximize your visibility even more with PPC ads.
In this case, you should spend less on PPC than your other marketing strategies. On the other hand, if you don’t have a well-developed content program that is sending you organic traffic regularly, you’ll likely want to spend more on your PPC campaigns.
So, what’s the bottom line? Consider your company’s needs and goals to determine the most sensible PPC budget.
When you invest in a PPC campaign, your number one goal is to earn the highest ROI for your efforts. That’s where WebFX can help.
At WebFX, our PPC experts have more than 25 years of experience helping companies like yours maximize their PPC budget to drive more sales and revenue.
From helping you create a winning bidding strategy for high-value keywords to continuously improving your campaign for optimal results, our team does all the heavy lifting so you can sit back, relax, and watch your revenue soar.
Our PPC experts help you optimize your bid strategies to ensure your budget earns the highest return on investment (ROI). You’ll also gain access to our award-winning software, RevenueCloudFX, to unlock advanced ad tracking and in-depth reports that allow you to track your campaign’s success.
Plus, we’re a full-service digital marketing agency. That means our team can help you channel your marketing spend into other campaigns and strategies, like social media and search engine optimization (SEO), to drive incredible results for your business.
Contact us today to chat directly with one of our friendly strategists about the needs and goals of your business. We can’t wait to hear from you!
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You can start PPC campaigns with as little as $500−$1,000 per month in ad spend, though $1,500−$3,000 monthly typically yields better results. This budget should cover both your ad spend and management fees. Start small, track performance for 30-60 days, then scale up based on what’s working.
Most PPC campaigns start generating clicks and traffic immediately, but meaningful results typically take 3 months. The first 90 days are a learning phase where you’ll gather data, optimize targeting, and refine your strategy. Expect to see consistent conversions and positive ROI after this initial period.
Flat fees work best for smaller budgets (under $5,000/month) since they’re predictable and won’t increase with spend. Percentage-based pricing (typically 12-30% of ad spend) makes sense for larger budgets as agencies scale their services with your investment. Choose based on your budget size and need for cost predictability.
Agencies offer team expertise, scalability, and diverse skill sets (designers, strategists, analysts), making them ideal for budgets over $3,000/month. Freelancers provide personalized attention and lower costs, perfect for smaller budgets under $2,000/month. Consider your budget, project complexity, and need for ongoing support when deciding.
Most businesses see an average 200% ROI from PPC, meaning $2 in revenue for every $1 spent. However, ROI varies by industry, competition, and campaign optimization. B2B companies often see higher returns due to larger deal sizes, while competitive industries may need 3-6 months to achieve positive ROI.
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