PPC agency pricing: a guide for Irish SMEs

PPC agency pricing in Ireland normally takes one of five shapes: a flat monthly retainer, a percentage of ad spend, a performance-linked fee, a one-off setup charge, or a hybrid of two or more of them. On typical Irish market estimates, management fees run at €400 to €800 a month for a small account, €800 to €1,500 for a medium one, and €1,500 to €3,000 or more for a complex one, while percentage-of-spend deals usually sit at 10% to 20% of monthly ad spend. Ad spend itself is generally paid to Google or Meta on top of the fee unless a written proposal says the two are bundled.

The five pricing models behind most PPC quotes#

Flat monthly retainer. A fixed fee for a defined scope: a set number of campaigns, one or two platforms, agreed reporting and an agreed volume of changes each month. It is the easiest model to budget for and to compare across proposals, because the scope either covers what the business needs or it does not.

Percentage of ad spend. The fee is a share of the monthly media budget, so it moves with spend rather than with workload. It suits larger budgets and simple structures, and fits small accounts poorly, where a low spend produces a fee that cannot cover the work.

Performance-linked fees. Part or all of the fee depends on an agreed outcome, such as a target cost per enquiry or a target return on ad spend. These arrangements only work when conversion tracking is trustworthy and the definition of a conversion is fixed in writing before the campaign starts.

One-off setup or rebuild. Charged once at the beginning for account structure, keyword and audience research, conversion tracking, feed work and initial creative. Some agencies fold it into the first months of a retainer; others invoice it separately.

Hybrid models. A reduced retainer plus a smaller share of spend, or a retainer plus a separate fee for feed management or landing pages, are both common, and they tend to appear when more than one channel is involved.

Watch out: A percentage-of-spend fee rises automatically as the ad budget rises, so it is worth asking what extra work the higher fee pays for before that model is agreed.

Typical Irish market estimates for PPC management#

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Typical Irish market estimate, October 2026, excluding VAT and excluding ad spend.

What moves a quote within those tiers is mostly the work behind the scenes: the number of platforms and accounts, whether an ecommerce feed or a multi-location list needs managing, how much conversion tracking has to be built or repaired, whether landing page changes are included, how often creative is refreshed, and how deep the reporting goes. A proposal that looks cheap is often one that leaves tracking, creative or reporting to the business.

Minimum terms of three to six months are quoted often in the Irish market, mainly to cover the build and the first round of testing. That is commercial practice rather than a rule set by Google or by Irish law, so it is open to negotiation, and a business with seasonal peaks should raise that before signing.

Management fees and ad spend are billed separately#

The media budget is the money that buys clicks and impressions, and it is paid to the advertising platform rather than to the agency for its time. Most proposals therefore show two numbers: the management fee and the ad spend, with the spend either paid directly by the business or advanced by the agency from a prepayment. Where a single bundled figure is quoted instead, it is worth asking how the media portion is calculated, what happens if spend is paused, and whether media and management appear as separate lines on the invoice.

How Google Ads billing works in practice#

Google Ads charges on a cost-per-click basis rather than as a subscription, and the advertiser sets an average daily budget; over a month, Google Ads Help states that a campaign will not be charged more than that daily budget multiplied by 30.4 on average, which is why a daily budget behaves like a monthly budget spread across the month rather than a hard daily cap. In the auction itself, Google Ads Help explains that the advertiser pays only the minimum needed to clear the ad rank thresholds and beat the competitor immediately below, so the amount billed for a click is usually lower than the maximum bid set.

Note: Charges are per click and measured against a monthly cap, so a daily budget sets the pace across the month rather than being used up in the first few days.

Manager accounts, invoicing and who holds the account#

A manager account allows an agency to view and manage several Google Ads accounts from one place, and Google Ads Help notes that a manager account is required for accounts using monthly invoicing, that users can be given different access levels, and that a manager account can be given ownership of a client account. That last option is the reason ownership deserves a decision before the paperwork is signed: the strongest arrangement for a business is one where the business owns the Google Ads account and grants the agency access, so campaigns, conversion history and billing records remain in place if the agency changes.

An account budget is a fixed amount to spend over a set period, and Google Ads Help states that once total campaign costs reach the account budget before the end date, all ads in the account stop running. On a monthly invoicing arrangement the account budget is the safety net, so it should be reviewed whenever the media budget changes.

How to compare PPC proposals on value, not fee alone#

Five items separate a fair fee from a cheap one:

1. Reporting. A monthly report showing spend, conversions, cost per conversion and what changed during the month, not just a dashboard screenshot.
2. Conversion tracking. Who builds it, who tests it and who fixes it when a form or checkout breaks.
3. Landing page input. Whether the agency will recommend page changes or only send traffic to whatever already exists.
4. Creative and testing. How many ad variants, audiences and offers are tested each month, and what happens to the ones that lose.
5. Account ownership and exit terms. Who owns the account, the conversion data and the creative files, and how much notice is needed to move.

Certification is worth checking, but it does not settle the price question. Google Ads Help describes Google Partners as online marketing professionals, agencies and SEMs certified by Google to manage Google Ads accounts, which speaks to platform familiarity rather than to how much a monthly fee should be.

Tip: Request a sample monthly report and a one-page conversion tracking plan before signing, so two proposals can be compared on what is delivered rather than on the headline fee.

When practical paid ads help is worth paying for#

Paid ads earn their keep when there is a clear commercial goal, a website that can convert, and either a new account that needs building correctly or an existing one that is leaking money through weak tracking, overlapping targeting or unattended budgets. They are poor value while the product, the price or the landing page is still changing every month, because neither the account nor the agency can build on a moving target. Where conversion tracking has never worked, a rebuild is usually the sensible first step rather than another month of optimisation, and that scope is set out on the paid ads service page. Baikou helps Irish businesses with paid search and paid social campaigns, and the starting point is its home page.

FAQ#