WHAT THINGS COST
How much does Google and Meta ads management cost?
The management fee, the percentage, and which one is hiding from you.
Short answer · updated
Meta and Google campaign management costs $600 a month plus 15% of the advertising spend. The spend itself is paid by you, directly to the platforms, and never passes through us. Both numbers are stated up front, so neither appears for the first time on an invoice.
Three pricing models, and what each one hides
A flat fee is predictable and stops matching the work as an account grows, so a studio on a flat fee quietly deprioritises the accounts that got bigger. A pure percentage is honest about scale but rewards spending more of your money rather than spending it better. A fee plus a percentage, which is what this is, tries to match both, and ask any provider you compare us with which of the two halves its quote leaves out.
The question worth asking is not which model, it is whether both numbers were said out loud before you signed.
What gets managed
Campaign structure and conversion tracking that actually fires, checked rather than assumed, because a campaign optimising against a conversion event that has stopped firing is spending in the dark. Then targeting, budgets and creative variations tested against each other, and weekly optimisation moving spend toward what works.
Reporting is cost per result, month over month, next to what changed. Impressions and reach are not results, and a report built on them is a report designed not to be checked.
Fix the destination first
Advertising to a page that does not convert is an expensive way to learn that the page does not convert. If the destination is weak, a landing page at $1,200 will do more for the cost per result than any amount of bid tuning, and we will say so before taking the management fee.
If that is your situation, we will say so before you pay for management.
Minimum spend, and who pays whom
There is no contractual minimum, but below a few hundred dollars a month the platforms cannot gather enough data to learn and neither can we. We will tell you if your budget is too small rather than take it and produce noise.
Platform fees and ad spend go to Meta and Google on your own accounts and are not refundable by us. Where a platform refunds us something, we pass it on in full.
Worked example
| Monthly ad spend | Management fee | 15% of the spend | Paid to the studio each month |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | $600 | $150 | $750 |
| $5,000 | $600 | $750 | $1,350 |
| $20,000 | $600 | $3,000 | $3,600 |
The ad spend itself is paid by you, directly to the platforms, and never passes through the studio, so it is not in the last column.
Included and not included
What each package lists as included, and what its page lists as not included.
| Package | Included | Not included |
|---|---|---|
| Ads Management$600/mo + 15% of ad spend |
|
|
| Landing Page$1,200 |
|
|
| Visual & Video Pack$450 |
|
|
What moves the number
- Pushes it up
- More spend, more platforms, more creative variations, more markets
- Pushes it down
- Fewer campaigns doing more, so a small budget is not spread too thin
- Never ours to charge for
- The advertising spend itself. It is paid to the platforms by you
Frequently asked questions
Is the 15% on top of the $600?
Yes. $600 is the management fee and 15% is calculated on the spend you put through the platforms. Both are stated up front, so neither appears for the first time on an invoice.
Who pays Meta and Google?
You do, with your own card on your own accounts. Platform fees and ad spend are not refundable by us, and where a platform refunds us we pass it on in full.
When do I pay?
Fixed-price work is paid in full before it starts. Monthly work is paid monthly in advance and can be stopped at the end of any paid month. Prices are in US dollars.
Can I stop a monthly package, and is the month refunded?
Stop any time. The month already paid runs to its end and is not refunded; nothing further is charged. There is no notice period and no cancellation fee.
Do you guarantee rankings, traffic, followers or revenue?
We do not guarantee search rankings, traffic, conversion rates, follower counts or revenue. These depend on factors outside a studio's control. We do publish what we measured on past work and we measure yours the same way.
The packages behind these numbers
Each one lists its full scope, what it excludes and how the work runs.
- Ads Management Meta and Google campaigns managed against cost per result, not impressions. $600/mo + 15% of ad spend
- Landing Page One page built to convert, designed and coded from scratch. $1,200
- Visual & Video Pack A batch of production-ready visuals and short video cuts. $450
The studio behind them: Ads, brand & media, Web design & development.