What is the cost of Google advertising?

So you want to try Google advertising? This is an exciting step that can accelerate your business growth, but there are some important things to keep in mind.

Who is running your ads?

While it is certainly possible manage Google Ad campaigns on your own, many companies choose to hire a professional ad agency to create and manage their campaigns. If you choose this approach, you will typically pay them both a one-time a set-up fee and an ongoing management fee.

Of course, if you set up and manage the ad campaigns on your own, then you won't have to pay these costs. The big question here is, do you know what you're doing? Honestly, Google is betting that you don't know what you are doing. It's a little like all those games at the casino or the ponies at the horse track. The odds are against you, and most people don't win.

Ad management costs

One-time set up cost

The one-time setup fees for Google Ads are in the $3,500 - $7,500 range, depending on the degree of research, ad design, video production, and number of campaigns needed. We recommend you have the budget and marketing stamina to test and adapt your Google ad campaigns for at least six months. It will take time to collect good data, learn from experience, and improve results.

Ongoing management cost

In addition to a one-time setup fee, you will pay a monthly management fee for tracking, optimizing, and reporting on ad results. Many agencies charge a percentage of the ad spend for their management fee (25-40%). At USDP, we don't like this approach because the agency is incentivized to spend more of your money to increase its fees. That seems like a scam to us. They are not operating as a broker like a real estate agent.

Once again, depending on the number and complexity of campaigns across the Google platform, this fee could be in the $1,850 - $7,500 per month range. All performance data is aggregated into an advertising dashboard that is used for monitoring and improving results.

Ad spend costs

The second cost is the charge you pay for the actual ads on the Google Ad platform (pay-per-click, pay-per-impression, pay-per-view). Google sells ad space on search results, shopping results, YouTube, Gmail, and display ads in apps and on websites around the world. Depending on your products and services and your target audience, one or more of these ad approaches could be fruitful.

The cost you pay Google for the ads is determined by setting a daily budget. Let's say our budget is $200 per day, or roughly $6,000 per month. All of this cost is paid directly to Google with a company credit card. You won't pay this exact amount each month because Google stops showing your ads once the daily budget is reached. Your cost might be $182 one day and $205 the next.

As a general rule, we don't recommend spending less than $2,500-$3,000 per month for standard prospecting campaigns on Google Ads. Our experience has shown that spending less than this doesn't typically generate measurable results and often leaves clients with the impression that Google stole their money.

Working closely together, we will determine what's working and what's not, and make the right moves to spend your advertising dollars as prudently as possible.

Thanks again for reading our thoughts on the cost of Google Advertising. The best way to find out if we are the best partner is to discuss your needs. We look forward to learning more about you!