Q and A: How much should I charge to manage an AdWords campaign?

Dear Kalena...

I operate an ad agency in Seattle, mostly working with small business and specializing in media planning for print, outdoor, TV, and radio campaigns. I've recently decided to become certified in Google Adwords and offer an additional service to my clients, managing a SEM campaign. I'm wondering a competitive rate to charge my clients on a monthly basis for a SEM campaign. Can you tell me what rates you have commonly seen charged to small busineeses for this service?

Thanks,
J

Kalena's Answer:

Dear J

Unfortunately, this is another of those "how long is a piece of string?" issues. SEM fees vary widely between agencies and there really is no recommended range I can give you. It depends on so many factors, including:

• whether keyword research is required
  
• number of keywords targeted
• number of AdGroups created
  
• number of ads created
• size of client
• size of client's budget (these are two different things!)
  
• what type of ad creatives are used (text, image, video)
  
• whether landing pages are included
  
• how competitive the industry is for the client's product/service
• how often the campaign will require tweaking and who will do it
  
• whether new keywords will be added regularly
• whether the click charges will be billed to you or your client (think credit card interest)
  
• whether detailed reports and analysis are required
• what the client's daily and monthly budgets are
• what geographic targets the client wants to reach
  
• how long the campaign will run
  

See what I mean? You'll need to have many of these factors sorted out before you can quote, so no two PPC campaigns are generally costed at the same amount. My best advice is to quote an hourly rate and estimate the number of hours the campaign will take to create and manage for each client well in advance.

Whatever you do, don't underquote. PPC campaigns require a much larger time commitment than you may realize.

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