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What it costs

What does Google Ads management actually cost?

Four pricing models, each of which quietly rewards a different behaviour. The model matters more than the number.

Before anything else

Why nobody will give you a straight number

Because the honest answer depends on your spend, your account’s current state and how much of the work is rebuild versus maintenance. Anyone quoting a figure before seeing an account is quoting their average client, not you. What you can compare before that conversation is the pricing *model*, which is what this page is for.

Side by side

The models, and what each one rewards

Pricing models compared
ModelWhat it isWhat it rewards
Percentage of spendTypically 10–20% of media spend. Simple, and scales with the account.Rewards spending more, not spending better. A cost-per-result improvement that lets you cut budget cuts their fee.
Flat monthly retainerA fixed sum regardless of spend. Predictable, and neutral on budget decisions.Can drift into maintenance once the interesting work is done. Needs a defined scope to stay honest.
HourlyTransparent on effort. Suits advisory work and short engagements.Rewards hours, not outcomes, and makes an efficient specialist earn less than a slow one.
Milestone projectA fixed scope with a fixed price, approved and paid in stages.Requires the scope to be written properly up front — which is the work most people skip.

The first month is not the ongoing cost

Almost every account needs work before management even means anything: conversion tracking that reports the right events, a structure that separates what should be separated, and a baseline recorded so later claims have something to be measured against.

Budget for that as a project, separately from the ongoing management fee. Rolling it into month one of a retainer is how a retainer starts looking expensive.

  • Tracking and attribution audit, then fixes
  • Account structure and campaign rebuild
  • Baseline recorded before any change ships
  • Creative and landing-page testing plan

What to check before you sign

Four questions that separate a specialist from a spender.

  • What is your cost-per-result on a comparable account, with the baseline and period behind it?
  • Who owns the ad account and the data if we stop working together?
  • What happens to your fee if we cut spend and results improve?
  • What exactly is in scope in month one, versus month three?

How this works here

Specialists on AdSTARS Connect propose against your brief in milestones, so the tracking fix, the rebuild and the ongoing management are separately scoped, separately funded and separately approved. You pay the milestone amount in the contract; the platform’s commission comes out of the specialist’s release, not off your budget.

The free AI marketing audit will usually tell you which of the four models you actually need before you brief anyone.

Have questions?

The things people ask next

Is a percentage of spend ever the right model?
On a large, stable account where the work genuinely scales with budget, yes. On a small or broken account it is usually the worst of the four, because the fee is smallest exactly when the work is hardest.
What is a realistic minimum for meaningful management?
Below roughly £1,000–£1,500 a month in media spend, most management fees consume a share of the budget that the optimisation cannot recover. Under that, a one-off project to get the account right usually beats an ongoing retainer.
Does the platform charge me anything on top?
No. You fund the milestone amount agreed in the contract. The 12% commission is deducted from the specialist as the milestone releases, not added to your side.
Full FAQ

Find out where you actually stand

The free AI marketing audit scores your tracking, acquisition, conversion and creative and tells you what to fix first — usually before you need to hire anyone at all.

  • Free, and available before you write a brief
  • No card, no account, no obligation to hire
  • Escrow on every milestone if you do

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You will get the launch email either way — that is what this list is. Ticking the box adds occasional product news and nothing else. We never sell or share your address.

Keep comparing

AdSTARS Connect vs Upwork, for marketing workTwo marketplaces with the same shape and different priorities. This is where each one wins, written by the smaller of the two.AdSTARS Connect vs Fiverr, for marketing workThese two are solving different problems. One sells a deliverable; the other contracts an outcome.Marketing agency or freelance specialist?We run both an agency and a marketplace, which makes this the one comparison we have no incentive to rig in either direction.

AdSTARS Connect introduces businesses to independent marketing specialists and is not a party to the resulting contract. Comparisons describe the other platforms' publicly documented terms at the date of writing and are not endorsed by them.

  1. 1Third-party product names and marks belong to their respective owners. Nothing here implies affiliation with or endorsement by them.
  2. 2Fees, escrow terms and the verification policy apply. The platform commission is deducted from the specialist as a milestone releases; clients pay the agreed milestone amount with no additional platform fee.
  3. 3Cost ranges quoted are indicative market figures for orientation, not quotes, and not professional advice.
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