Plenty of businesses pay for PPC management and get two things back: a login they never use and a monthly PDF they never read. Meanwhile the ad spend keeps leaving the account. PPC management is the ongoing work of running pay-per-click ads, where you pay each time someone clicks, on Google and other platforms. Done properly, it means someone changing things every week: search terms, bids, ads and landing pages. If nothing in your account has changed for a month, you are paying for a subscription, not management. This guide covers what the work should include, how a PPC agency charges, what it should cost and how to tell the difference.
Key takeaways
- PPC management means search terms, bids, ads and landing pages reviewed every week.
- Percentage-of-spend fees can reward spending more rather than spending better.
- Own your Google Ads account, always, with admin access in your business’s name.
- Judge PPC on cost per lead, not clicks or impressions.
- Small, simple accounts can be run in-house with the right setup.
What does PPC management include?
PPC management covers six jobs:
- a weekly review of the searches triggering your ads
- negative keywords to block wasted clicks
- bid and budget changes
- ad copy tests
- landing page improvements
- checks that conversion tracking records real leads
Each month ends with a report that ties spend to cost per lead and explains what changed.
Setting up a campaign is a project. Management is what happens every week after launch, and it is where most of the money in a Google Ads account is won or lost. It is the work our PPC management service is built around.
Search terms and negative keywords
Your keywords are not the same as the searches you pay for. Google’s search terms report shows the actual searches that triggered your ads. Reviewing it weekly is how you find irrelevant searches and add them as negative keywords, which stop your ads showing for them.
A firm bidding on “office cleaning” can easily pay for clicks from people searching “office cleaning jobs” if nobody is watching.
Bids, budgets and automated bidding
Most accounts now use Google’s automated bidding, which sets a bid for each auction based on targets you give it. Automation is useful, but it needs a person to set realistic targets, feed it accurate conversion data and step in when it chases cheap leads that never buy.
Ads and landing pages
Good management tests new ad copy regularly and looks past the click to the page it lands on. If a landing page converts twice as many visitors, your cost per lead halves without spending a penny more on clicks.
Tracking and reporting
None of this works if conversion tracking is broken. A manager should check that forms, calls and bookings are recorded correctly, then report on what each one cost.
How do PPC agencies charge?
PPC agencies in the UK usually charge in one of three ways: a percentage of your monthly ad spend, a flat monthly fee, or an hourly rate sold in packages of hours. Some combine a percentage with a minimum fee. Each model rewards different behaviour, so the structure of the fee matters as much as the price.
Percentage of spend is a long-standing model and it is not dishonest. But it ties the agency’s income to how much you spend, not to how many leads you get.
Imagine a hypothetical agency charging 15% of spend, an illustrative rate rather than a market benchmark. On £4,000 of monthly spend the fee is £600. Raise spend to £6,000 and the fee becomes £900, whether or not a single extra lead arrives.
A flat fee removes that pull, but effort can quietly shrink once the account settles. Hourly pricing pays for time, so it only works if you can see what the hours were spent on.
| Fee model | Typical structure | What it rewards | Risk to you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of ad spend | A share of monthly spend, sometimes with a minimum fee | Higher ad spend | Advice to spend more, not better |
| Flat monthly fee | The same fee every month | A stable, predictable account | Effort shrinks once things settle |
| Hourly or packaged hours | Agreed hours at a published rate | Time spent on the work | Hours drift without a clear plan |
Whichever model you are offered, ask one question: what would make this agency earn more next month? If the honest answer is “you spending more”, read every budget recommendation closely.
Not sure what your PPC fee is actually paying for? Our free audit looks at where your ad spend is working and where it is being wasted, reviewed by a senior marketer rather than a tool.
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How much does PPC management cost in the UK?
PPC management cost in the UK depends on the fee model, the size of the account and how much work it needs each week. At Lobo Digital we charge £62.50 an hour plus VAT, sold in packages of 15, 25, 40 or 65 hours a month, with a minimum three-month term. Your ad spend is paid to Google separately.
We have not quoted a market average here. We looked for a dated, independent UK benchmark for agency management fees and could not find one we would stand behind, so we have used our own published rates instead.
Our published pricing works out at £937.50, £1,562.50, £2,500 or £4,062.50 a month plus VAT, depending on the package. Project work is quoted separately. Because the fee is for hours, it does not rise when your ad spend does.
Imagine a hypothetical 20-person commercial cleaning firm in Leeds running one search campaign in one region. That account might sit comfortably in a 15-hour package at £937.50 plus VAT a month. A firm advertising several services across several regions needs more time, and should expect to pay for it.
Hourly pricing also means we can tell you to spend less with us. We once advised a client on an SEO retainer to move part of that budget into PPC, so we could test landing pages and get leads faster. It reduced our fee. It also got the client results sooner.
As Marcus puts it, “If moving budget away from us gets you leads faster, that is the advice you are paying for.”
Should you manage Google Ads yourself?
You can manage Google Ads yourself if the account is small and simple: one or two services, one area, a modest budget and someone who can give it time every week. Bringing in help makes sense once the account grows, click costs climb, or nobody has time for the weekly search terms review.
DIY works when the setup is right before you spend. The account should be in your business’s name. Conversion tracking should record real enquiries rather than page views. Each ad should send people to a page built for that service, not your homepage.
You also need a negative keyword list from day one, blocking searches for jobs, training and free advice. And you need a fixed slot in the diary to review search terms every week.
The hidden cost of doing it yourself is time. If an hour of yours is worth more on sales or delivery, weekly PPC admin is expensive even when it never appears on an invoice.
What are the red flags in PPC management?
The biggest red flags in PPC management are an ad account you do not own, reports that lead with clicks instead of cost per lead, no visible changes in the account history, and advice that always ends in spending more. Any one of these suggests you are paying for access to an account rather than for management of it.
You do not own the account
If the agency set up the Google Ads account under its own name, your campaign history and conversion data may stay with them when you leave. Your business should hold admin access. Google’s guide to access levels in your Google Ads account explains what each level allows, so an agency can do its job while you stay in control.
The report is all vanity metrics
Vanity metrics are numbers that look busy but do not show whether the phone rang: impressions, clicks and click-through rate reported on their own. They have a place, but not at the top of the page.
Nothing changes
Google Ads keeps a change history. If it shows weeks without a new negative keyword, ad test or bid change, nobody is managing the account.
Brand searches doing the heavy lifting
If most conversions come from people searching your business name, the account may be taking credit for enquiries you would have won anyway. Ask to see results with brand campaigns separated out.
Every recommendation costs more
Sometimes more budget is the right call. If it is the answer every month, ask what the agency would cut.
What should a monthly PPC report show?
A monthly PPC report should show what you spent, how many leads it produced, what each lead cost and, where possible, how many became customers. It should also list the changes made that month, what was tested, what was learned and what happens next. Clicks and impressions belong in the appendix, not the headline.
A useful report answers four plain questions:
- What did we spend, and what did it produce?
- What did each lead cost?
- What did we change, and why?
- What are we doing next month?
Ask for lead quality too. Fifty cheap enquiries that never buy are worth less than ten that do. If your sales team can mark which enquiries became work, share that with whoever manages your ads, because it changes what they should bid on.
Frequently asked questions
How much does PPC management cost?
It depends on the fee model and how much work the account needs. Agencies charge a percentage of ad spend, a flat monthly fee or an hourly rate. Lobo Digital charges £62.50 an hour plus VAT, in packages of 15, 25, 40 or 65 hours a month, starting at £937.50 plus VAT, with a minimum three-month term. Ad spend is paid to Google separately.
What does a PPC manager do?
A PPC manager runs your paid search ads week to week. That means reviewing the searches that trigger your ads, adding negative keywords, adjusting bids and budgets, testing ad copy, improving landing pages and checking conversion tracking. Each month they report on cost per lead and explain what they changed and why.
Should I pay a percentage of ad spend?
You can, but understand the incentive. A percentage fee rises when your spend rises, whether or not your leads do, so the agency earns more by recommending bigger budgets. If you choose this model, agree cost-per-lead targets in writing and ask for advice on what to cut as well as what to add. Flat and hourly fees remove that link.
Can I manage Google Ads myself?
Yes, if the account is small and simple and someone can give it time every week. You need conversion tracking that records real enquiries, a negative keyword list, landing pages built for each service and a weekly search terms review. Once the account covers several services or regions, compare the cost of your time with a management fee.
Who should own my Google Ads account?
You should. The account should be in your business’s name, with you holding admin access, and any agency working on it should have its own access beneath that. If you part ways, you keep the campaign history, conversion data and everything learned from your spend. Agree this in writing before any work starts.
Get your Google Ads managed, not just paid for
If your PPC fee buys a login and a PDF, it is worth finding out what is really happening in the account. Our free audit shows where your ad spend is working, where it is being wasted and what to fix first.
At Lobo Digital, that fix is done by a senior marketer with 10+ years in B2B marketing, seven of them in-house. The person you brief is the person who does the work, with AI taking the production grind so your fee pays for judgement.
