How Much Does a PPC Consultant Cost?

The three ways PPC consultants charge

• Flat monthly retainer. A fixed fee each month for managing the account. Predictable, and it doesn’t reward the consultant for pushing you to spend more. The most common model for small and mid-sized advertisers.
• Percentage of ad spend. Typically around 10–20% of what you spend. Simple, but watch the incentive — it quietly rewards more spend, not better results, and gets expensive as budgets grow.
• Project or hourly fee. A one-off cost for a specific piece of work — a setup, a rebuild, or an audit. Best when you need a defined outcome rather than ongoing management.

What actually drives the price

Two consultants can quote very differently for the same account. It usually comes down to:

• Ad spend and account size. A £500/month account and a £50,000/month one are not the same job.
• Scope. Search only, or Shopping, Performance Max, and multiple platforms? More surface area, more work.
• Setup work. If conversion tracking is broken or the account needs a rebuild, that’s real work before management even starts.
• Reporting and contact. A monthly summary is cheaper than weekly calls and bespoke dashboards.
• Who actually does it. A senior consultant running your account directly costs differently to a junior at a big agency — and often gets you a better result for the money.

Cheap vs expensive: what you're really paying for

The cheapest option is rarely the best value in PPC, because a badly run account wastes far more in ad spend than you ever save on the fee. What you’re really buying is judgement — someone senior who spots the wasted spend, fixes the tracking, and puts the budget where it earns. The right question isn’t “what’s the fee?” but “will this person make or save me more than they cost?”

What I charge

I keep it straightforward. Management starts from £300 a month, scoped to your account rather than a percentage of your spend, so my incentive is your results and not your budget. Audits come in two levels: a free health check to see if anything’s obviously wrong, and a paid in-depth audit with a written report and roadmap when you want the full picture. You get me — fourteen years and over £3 million in managed ad spend, a Google Partner and Microsoft Advertising certified — not a junior with your account as training.