How Much Does PPC Management Cost in the UK? Average Agency Fees for 2026

Every PPC quote has two parts, and agencies do not always make the split clear:

• Ad spend. The money paid to Google, Microsoft or LinkedIn for clicks. It goes to the platform, not the agency.
• Management fee. What you pay the agency to build, run and improve the campaigns.

Keep the two numbers separate when you compare quotes. An agency that bundles them into one “package price” can make a small fee look like a big budget, and you never see how much reached Google.

Freelancers usually charge less per month, but you get one person’s hours and one person’s holidays. An agency costs more because you are paying for a team, cover and process, not a single pair of hands.

UK agencies and freelancers price PPC management in one of five ways:

Business size	Monthly ad spend	Monthly management fee	Typical account
Small or local	Up to £3,000	£500 to £1,500	One service or location, usually Google Ads only
Growing or mid market	£3,000 to £10,000+	£1,500 to £4,000	Several services or regions, more than one platform
Enterprise or complex	£20,000+	£4,000 to £10,000+	Multiple locations, national campaigns, advanced tracking

Sources: MB Web, 2026 and Andrew Gorton Digital, 2026.

What you pay also depends on who manages the account (MB Web, 2026):

• Freelancers and consultants: £300 to £1,200 a month
• Small agencies: £500 to £1,500 a month
• Mid market agencies: £1,500 to £4,000 a month
• Enterprise agencies: £4,000 to £10,000+ a month

Most SMEs pay £800 to £1,500 a month. All figures exclude VAT and ad spend.

What should a PPC management package include?

Whatever the price, a PPC management package should cover:

• Keyword research and campaign structure built around high intent searches
• Conversion tracking for forms and calls, set up and tested before launch
• Ad copy written and tested by an experienced account manager
• Weekly search term reviews and negative keyword management
• Bid and budget management against cost per lead, not cost per click
• A monthly report and review call

Higher tiers should add more platforms, more campaigns, landing page recommendations, offline conversion imports and more frequent contact.

UK agencies that charge a percentage typically take 10% to 20% of monthly ad spend (Andrew Gorton Digital, 2026). On a £5,000 monthly budget at 15%, that is a £750 management fee.

Here is what that range means at different budgets:

Pricing model	Typical UK cost	Best suited to	Watch out for
Flat monthly retainer	£300 to £4,000+ a month, depending on account size	Businesses with stable monthly budgets	Check exactly which deliverables are included
Percentage of ad spend	10% to 20% of monthly ad spend, usually with a minimum fee	Growing businesses scaling their campaigns	Rewards the agency for raising your spend, not lowering your cost per lead
Tiered packages	Flat fees mapped to spend brackets, for example £350 a month for budgets under £3,000	Small businesses and local services	Scope is tightly fixed, and extra work costs extra
Hybrid	A base fee plus a smaller percentage on spend above a set threshold	Larger accounts with changing budgets	Two moving parts make quotes harder to compare
Performance based	A fee per lead or sale	Businesses with clear, trackable sales	Lead quality often suffers, and few agencies offer it in regulated sectors

Small budgets are where percentage pricing breaks down. At £3,000 a month, a 10% fee is £300. That is below the £500 floor most agencies charge for a small account, because a £3,000 account needs the same tracking, keyword research and weekly search term reviews as a £10,000 one. It is why most agencies set a minimum monthly fee, and why the cheapest pay per click packages buy very few hours of real work.

Seven things move the price:

1. Ad spend. Bigger budgets mean more campaigns, more keywords and more data to manage.
2. Number of platforms. Each platform needs its own build, tracking and reporting. Microsoft Ads adds less work than LinkedIn because Google Ads campaigns can be imported.
3. Campaign count. A law firm with nine practice areas needs nine campaigns, each with its own budget, keywords and landing page.
4. Sector. Regulated sectors such as legal and financial services need compliant ad copy and landing pages. That takes senior time.
5. Tracking. Call tracking, CRM integration and offline conversion imports add setup work but make every pound accountable.
6. Reporting and contact. Weekly calls and custom dashboards cost more than a monthly report.
7. Landing pages. Building or rewriting pages is usually priced separately from management.

Many do. Standard setup builds commonly cost £250 to £1,500, with complex accounts costing more (MB Web, 2026).

Setup should cover the tracking audit, account structure, keyword research, ad copy, negative keyword lists and a landing page review. It is where most accounts are won or lost. If tracking is wrong at launch, every decision after it is made on bad data.

Ask for the setup scope in writing. A fee that covers “campaign creation” but not conversion tracking is a warning sign.

We recommend a minimum of £2,000 a month in ad spend for small businesses. Below that, most accounts cannot buy enough clicks to produce reliable data within 90 days.

Your sector changes the number. Across the legal campaigns we manage, average CPCs run from £14.64 for property disputes to £98.67 for work accident claims. At a 20% landing page conversion rate, that is £73 to £493 per lead.

A £2,000 budget buys around 136 property dispute clicks. The same budget buys around 20 work accident clicks. Same spend, very different volume.

The simplest way to set a budget is to work back from leads. If you need 20 enquiries a month and each lead costs £100, your media budget is £2,000, plus management.

A £200 package is not the same service as a £1,500 one. Before you sign, ask:

• How many hours a month go into my account?
• Who manages it day to day, and how senior are they?
• Do I own the Google Ads account and all of its data?
• Is ad spend billed directly by Google, or through the agency with a markup?
• What is the minimum term, and what is the notice period?
• Will you report on cost per lead and cost per client, or just clicks and impressions?

If an agency cannot answer clearly, the low fee will cost you more in wasted spend than it saves.