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How Much To Charge For Managing Adwords Accounts

by moodyresources
12 replies
Hi Fellow Warriors,
I've got an opportunity to manage a Google Adwords Account for a new client. I'm not sure what to charge. Any suggestions would be helpful. I know there are many factors in determining how to charge, but some general guidelines would be great.

I can tell you that he's got his account set up to be charged by Google when he hits $500. He said that in December, he hit that every 3 - 4 days. So, he's spending a lot, but in looking at his site, if we did even a small amount of work, his costs should come WAY down.

One other question, any recommendations on making Google happy so far as if he's been hammered for so long for having poor quality scores, bad seo, etc. is it better to start a completely new account or to continue with the same Google account and just do the improvements on his site, keywords, etc. Will it be more of an uphill climb keeping the current account? Or, would it not make any difference to open a new account.

Thanks for the input!
Melissa
#accounts #adwords #charge #managing
  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Melissa, when I was researching this to add it to my own menu I found...

    Most of the services I looked at charged a set-up fee, primarily for keyword research and initial campaign set up.

    After that, most charge a flat percentage of the ad spend. The most common figure was 15%, the same percentage that most ad agencies charge.

    To get your set-up fee, estimate how many hours, on average, you think it will take you to properly set up an account. Then multiply that by the hourly rate you want to make. Now multiply that by 1.5 or 2 to account for Murphy's Law.

    If it takes you 2 hours to do the basic setup and find the initial keyword groups, and you want to charge $50 per hour, you get 2 x 50 x2 = $200 set up. Note these numbers came out of thin air just to make the arithmetic easy.

    If they are hitting $500 every three days, that $5,000 per month. Your fee for managing the account would be 15% of $5,000, or $750.

    As you work your magic and increase the profitability of the campaign, you'll likely increase the ad spend to take advantage of that. Your fee automatically goes up, while the workload tends to go down as you fine-tune things. So you get rewarded for your success.

    Does this help?
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    • Profile picture of the author moodyresources
      Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

      Melissa, when I was researching this to add it to my own menu I found...

      Most of the services I looked at charged a set-up fee, primarily for keyword research and initial campaign set up.

      After that, most charge a flat percentage of the ad spend. The most common figure was 15%, the same percentage that most ad agencies charge.

      To get your set-up fee, estimate how many hours, on average, you think it will take you to properly set up an account. Then multiply that by the hourly rate you want to make. Now multiply that by 1.5 or 2 to account for Murphy's Law.

      If it takes you 2 hours to do the basic setup and find the initial keyword groups, and you want to charge $50 per hour, you get 2 x 50 x2 = $200 set up. Note these numbers came out of thin air just to make the arithmetic easy.

      If they are hitting $500 every three days, that $5,000 per month. Your fee for managing the account would be 15% of $5,000, or $750.

      As you work your magic and increase the profitability of the campaign, you'll likely increase the ad spend to take advantage of that. Your fee automatically goes up, while the workload tends to go down as you fine-tune things. So you get rewarded for your success.

      Does this help?
      Okay, this helps, but, one of the big reasons I'm looking at helping him is because he's spending way too much on his advertising. The goal is to get his costs down. He's in a very tightly focused market and it is further focused geographically.

      So, I was thinking that I would charge him more of a monthly fee and not base it on his ad spend. If I can fine tune his website and ads, then his spend should go down. So, then, I would be being punished for doing a good job if I do it based on his ad spend.

      I had considered charging a % of what I saved him. But, again, I don't want to end up punishing myself for doing a good job.

      If I did charge a monthly fee, what's reasonable? I could base it on your figures and go with $600 - 750. He'd still be way ahead if we can slash his costs. Am I being unrealistic to think we can slash it when I look at his website and there's no content? I'm thinking get content on there for his keywords, ad articles for each of his keywords, work it that way. That should help cut his costs.

      Thanks for taking time with my questions!
      Melissa
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by moodyresources View Post

        Okay, this helps, but, one of the big reasons I'm looking at helping him is because he's spending way too much on his advertising. The goal is to get his costs down. He's in a very tightly focused market and it is further focused geographically.

        So, I was thinking that I would charge him more of a monthly fee and not base it on his ad spend. If I can fine tune his website and ads, then his spend should go down. So, then, I would be being punished for doing a good job if I do it based on his ad spend.

        I had considered charging a % of what I saved him. But, again, I don't want to end up punishing myself for doing a good job.

        If I did charge a monthly fee, what's reasonable? I could base it on your figures and go with $600 - 750. He'd still be way ahead if we can slash his costs. Am I being unrealistic to think we can slash it when I look at his website and there's no content? I'm thinking get content on there for his keywords, ad articles for each of his keywords, work it that way. That should help cut his costs.

        Thanks for taking time with my questions!
        Melissa
        Is he spending way too much, or not getting enough in return?

        If the niche/geography combination is that tight, you might want to start with a flat monthly fee. Yes, I would base it on about 15% of his current ad spend.

        If he has no content, he's probably getting slapped silly for quality score. Which, of course, drives up his cost per click.

        Your idea of getting him some good content is a good start. Also take a hard look at how his campaign is organized and how tight the match is between the keyword, the ad and the landing page.

        If the campaign can be tightly grouped, you could even set up multiple landing pages matched to the ad group. This will also help with the quality score.

        If you go with the articles for content, consider starting a small linking campaign. The search side of Google seems to like sites with links to interior pages.

        Finally, you could look at doing some site-targeted ads on hand-picked sites that fit the niche and/or the geography. Ads that work on the search side often convert when turned into banners and used on the content network. With some slots available at $1-$3 cpm, you could be looking at pennies per click that way.

        Once you have Adwords nailed down, you could pick up some additional fees for expanding the campaign to Yahoo and MSN...
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonl70
    I've seen anywhere from a low of 10% of the monthly ad-spend, to a high of 30%. These are companies that try to solicit my business at the car dealership I do work for.
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    -Jason

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  • Profile picture of the author famous2313
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  • Profile picture of the author Fender85
    I usually value PPC management around $1500/month, with $1000 at the low-end.
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    Internet Marketer Mindset - Demystifying SEO, PPC, and Social Media
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  • Profile picture of the author Dave777
    A good way to decide on your prices is to research people specializing in the services that you're looking to offer! A little mix of networking with people in the field, some spying and asking a variety of questions can lead you to some excellent information, business ideas and a few good business connections too...
    Google Advertising Professionals Directory | Find a Qualified Google Adwords Experts Here
    Google Adwords - Advertising Professionals and Companies whoisaGAP

    Dave
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Steinitz
    Hi,

    I reviewed a draft of Paul Hancox's new pricing ebook. I don't know the final title he chose for it nor when or where it goes on sale but it has some ninja pricing ideas that might help you -- they helped me.

    I don't think I'd be giving too much away to say that you might want to consider multiple levels of service, priced so that your customer usually chooses the one you want her to choose.

    Cheers,

    Steve
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