Media spend
The amount billed by Google when someone clicks. It changes with the service, the town, how many businesses bid, and how closely the ad and the page match the search. Google explains cost-per-click.
Published prices, before VAT
What local businesses pay for Google Ads in the UK
You pay Google for the clicks and you pay separately to have the account run. On our published prices, £500 of media on Starter is £649 a month before VAT.
A comparable Google Ads quote shows four things separately: media paid to Google, the monthly management fee, any one-off setup, and extras such as call recording or a new page. Add VAT only after you know which lines include it.
The lines on a quote
Management
The fee for building, checking search terms, writing ads, adjusting bids and reporting. Ours starts at £149 a month before VAT. You pay Google yourself, from your own account.
Setup and extras
A one-off build is separate from the monthly fee. Call recording, reminder ads and a new landing page are optional and priced on their own. See the extra prices.
Worked totals from our published prices
These rows are the examples on our pricing page. Media plus management, and setup where that plan has one. All figures are before VAT. Starter can be stopped any month. Managed and Managed Plus start with three months, then run month to month.
| Plan | Media in the example | Management | Setup | First month | Every month after | Ad budget up to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | £500 | £149 | £0 | £649 | £649 | £750 |
| Managed | £1,000 | £299 | £249 | £1,548 | £1,299 | £1,500 |
| Managed Plus | £2,500 | £399 | £249 | £3,148 | £2,899 | £3,000 |
Optional extras, before VAT
| Extra | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Call recording | £45 a month | A number that records calls from the ads, so you can listen back. |
| Reminder ads | £119 once, then £29 a month | Ads for people who visited the site and did not get in touch. |
| Maps and YouTube | £179 once, then £59 a month | An extra set of ads on Maps, YouTube and other Google sites. |
| A new page | £349 once | One page built for the ads. Hosting is quoted separately. |
Click prices are not in this table, because a roofer in a busy city and a salon in a small town pay different amounts for a click. Find yours by dividing a recent media total by the enquiries you counted, or run two assumptions in the calculator. Google’s Keyword Planner needs an Ads account and is a planning range, not a promise.
Try the Managed example in the calculator. The £25 cost per enquiry, 25% close rate and £220 gross profit are assumptions for you to replace. The Starter example is here.
Trade studies
These pages quote published UK figures with a date and a source. They do not blend conflicting averages into a new number.
How to compare two Google Ads quotes
- Write down media, management, setup and extras for each quote, before VAT.
- Add the first-month total and the ongoing monthly total.
- Ask which account, tracking and pages you will own.
- Divide the ongoing total by the paid jobs you expect, using the same job definition for each quote.
- Put the ongoing figures into the budget calculator.
Tick these on screen while you read a quote. Nothing is saved or sent. Print this page if you want the list on paper.
Check the Google invoice as well as the agency invoice. GOV.UK explains VAT for businesses. Add VAT where an invoice shows it, and keep that treatment the same across every quote.
Questions about Google Ads costs
How much do Google Ads cost for a small UK business?
You pay Google for clicks, and you pay separately for management. On our published prices, before VAT, Starter with £500 of media is £649 a month. Managed with £1,000 of media is £1,548 in the first month and £1,299 after that. Managed Plus with £2,500 of media is £3,148 in the first month and £2,899 after that. Click prices depend on the service, the town and the searches you bid on.
What is the difference between media spend and a management fee?
Media spend is paid to Google when people click your ads. The management fee pays for building, running and reporting on the account. A quote that mixes the two is hard to compare.
Why do two Google Ads quotes with the same monthly fee cover different work?
One fee may include setup, call recording and a landing page. Another may charge those separately. Tick off media, management, setup, VAT, tracking, ownership and what counts as an enquiry before you compare.
Does a higher Google Ads budget produce more jobs?
A higher budget can buy more clicks. It produces more paid jobs when those clicks are from people you can serve, someone answers them, and the cost per job still leaves a profit. The sample report shows that split.