netic3D printer retail chain
Running since 2017. Orders grew 11x, with a search CTR of 21.11 per cent.
777,295 clicks114 months3 countries
How much does Google Ads cost?
Two numbers matter. What you pay Google for clicks, and what you pay someone to run the account
- Our management fee is flat, from $400 a month
- Your ad budget goes straight to Google, never through us
- We calculate a realistic cost per lead before you pay anything
- No percentage of spend, so nobody profits from inflating budgets
On the call we use real click prices from your niche rather than averages from a blog.
Google Ads Nov 2025 - Sep 2026
Hosting provider, UK
£21.76lowest monthly cost per conversion
£47.11average for the period
2,381conversions
Cost per conversion, £
Nov 25Jan 26MarMayJulSep
The four costs nobody separates out for you
| Cost | Who gets paid | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Ad budget | whatever you set, paid per click | |
| Management fee | agency or freelancer | flat fee, or 10 to 20 per cent of spend |
| Landing page | agency or developer | one-off, from $400 with us |
| Tracking setup | agency | included with us, often billed separately elsewhere |
With a percentage fee, your agency earns more the more you spend. A flat fee removes that conflict.
What drives the cost of a click
Every search triggers an auction. Your bid is multiplied by a Quality Score, which reflects how well the ad matches the search, how often people click it and whether the landing page delivers what the ad promised.
This is why two advertisers can pay very different prices for the same position. A tight account with relevant pages buys traffic more cheaply than a competitor who bids higher and sends clicks to a generic page.
How much budget you need to start
Think in leads rather than budget. Take the average click price in your niche, assume a realistic conversion rate for the page and you get a cost per lead. Multiply that by the number of leads you need and you have a budget.
As a rule of thumb, a budget that buys fewer than a hundred clicks a month produces no usable data. At that level advertising turns into a coin flip.
Where the budget quietly disappears
Broad match without negatives, ads pointing at the homepage instead of a relevant page, conversion tracking that counts page views as leads, and Performance Max switched on before there is any conversion data to learn from.
Each of these looks fine in a report full of clicks and impressions. The damage only shows up in the sales pipeline, usually a month later.
Average cost per click by industry
There is no useful single average. Legal and medical services sit at the top, where a click can cost more than ten dollars. In retail a click often costs a few cents, because the products are cheap and the margins are thin.
Even inside one niche the range is wide. A 3D printer store we run in Spain pays €0.96 per click on Google and €0.41 on Microsoft Ads. Same products, same searches, two auctions with different competition.
Factors that influence your cost per click
Competition comes first. The more advertisers bid on the same keyword in the same location, the higher the price. Then comes Quality Score, which Google calculates from expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. A low score means paying more for a worse position.
Location, time of day and device move the price as well. A click from a capital city at 10 am on a weekday costs more than the same search at midnight in a small town. Long-tail keywords of three or four words usually cost less and convert better, because the person already knows what they want.
Search, Shopping, Display and YouTube are priced differently
Search costs the most per click and is usually the cheapest per lead, because the person is already looking. Shopping clicks for online stores are often cheaper than search clicks for the same products. Display and YouTube buy reach for less money, but most of those people were not searching for you, so the cost per lead is higher.
Performance Max mixes all of them in one campaign. It can work well once the account sends it real conversion data. Before that it chases the cheapest traffic it can find.
Cost per click, cost per lead and return on ad spend
Cost per click is the number Google shows first and the one that matters least. A $6 click that converts one time in ten gives you a $60 lead. A $2 click that converts one time in a hundred gives you a $200 lead.
For lead generation we track cost per lead and, where the client shares sales data, cost per sale. For online stores the main number is return on ad spend, the revenue that comes back for every dollar spent on ads.
Manual bidding or Smart Bidding
Smart Bidding strategies such as Maximise conversions and Target CPA let Google set the bid for each auction. They work when the account has a steady flow of tracked conversions. Without it the algorithm has nothing to learn from.
New accounts often start with tighter control and move to Smart Bidding once the data is there. We decide account by account and explain the choice in the monthly report.
Our clients' results in Google Ads
White label for a UK agency
We run Google Ads for another agency's clients under their name.
2,381 conversions11 months£112,176 spend
Law firm, Kraków
Landing page plus Google Business Profile. They paused the ads because the pipeline got too full.
939 conversions14 monthsPLN 65,101 spend
Hosting and GPU servers
Introserv, entering new markets with English-language campaigns.
134 conversions7 months$13,389 spend
Your audit is done by the founder, not a sales rep
Our founder, Daniel Norets, spent three years inside Google Ads technical support and saw first-hand why ads get disapproved, why accounts get suspended and where budgets disappear. Since 2017 the agency has put that experience to work on the advertiser's side.
At the start, our founder personally reviews your account and shows you what is holding results back.
What we charge
Account audit
$0
Read-only access, a full review and a call where we show you what is broken.
- 20-minute call
- List of fixes
- Your decision after that
Management
from $400/mo
A flat fee independent of ad spend. The exact price depends on the number of campaigns.
- Search, Shopping, remarketing
- Conversion tracking
- Monthly report
Landing page
from $400
A page built for the campaign, with analytics from day one.
- Copy written by us
- Mobile-first
- GA4 and conversions
Cost questions we answer every week
Is a flat fee cheaper than a percentage of spend?
Below roughly $4,000 of monthly spend, a percentage often looks cheaper on paper. Above that a flat fee wins, and it never gives the agency a reason to push your budget up.
Do you charge a setup fee?
Building an account from scratch is a one-off fee starting at $400. Taking over an existing account has no setup fee.
How much does Google Ads cost for a small business?
Most small businesses we work with spend between $500 and $2,000 a month on clicks, plus the flat management fee. We work out the figure on the call.
Does the ad budget go through you?
No. You pay Google directly, by card or by invoice, so you always see exactly what was spent.
Can I pause for a month?
Yes. The agreement is month-to-month, so you pause the fee when you pause the ads.
What is a good cost per click on Google Ads?
One that still leaves you a profit after the lead turns into a sale. A $15 click is cheap for a law firm and ruinous for a shop selling $20 products, so we judge the click price against your margin.
Do I pay when my ad is only shown?
On Search and Shopping you pay only when someone clicks. Some Display and YouTube campaigns can bill per thousand impressions instead, which is why we agree the bidding model before launch.
How can I lower my cost per click without losing leads?
Cut irrelevant search terms, raise Quality Score with ads and pages that match the search, and stop bidding where and when leads never come. Those three usually move the numbers more than any bid change.
Why did my costs go up when I changed nothing?
A competitor joined the auction, the season changed or an automated setting was switched on. We check auction insights and the change history before touching your bids.
Let us show you where your budget is being wasted, free of charge
Leave your details. We reply within 15 minutes during working hours and book 20 minutes to walk you through your account.
No spam. One call and a specific list of fixes, then the decision is yours.