How do PPC agencies price their work? In our day to day, we speak with a lot of companies looking to hire a firm to help with their PPC campaigns and we get this question:
“Well, how much do PPC firms charge?”
There is a quick answer and a longer answer. You will receive both on this page.
The short answer is this:
Most PPC firms and consultants price their work as a base management fee up to a certain spend, then a percentage of spend. For most, their minimum management fee is $1,500 per month and then 15% of spend above $10,000 in spend. This also varies based on number of channels (and pricing can occur per channel managed).
The longer answer is much more complicated. To help with that, we will lean on the data from the survey.
First let’s look at the average rates of PPC firms worldwide.
Here are the PPC firm worldwide hourly rates, for all company sizes:
The raw data:
Hourly Rate | Count of Average hourly rate | All firms offering PPC |
Under $50 | 14 | 9.21% |
$51-$100 | 36 | 23.68% |
$101-$150 | 44 | 28.95% |
$151-$200 | 37 | 24.34% |
$201-$300 | 17 | 11.18% |
$301-$500 | 2 | 1.32% |
$501+ | 1 | 0.66% |
N/A | 1 | 0.66% |
Here are the project minimums that the PPC firms across the world reported that they take:
The raw data:
Project minimum | Count of Single project minimum | Percentage of total |
Under $1,000 | 39 | 25.66% |
$1,000-$1,999 | 43 | 28.29% |
$2,000-$2,999 | 24 | 15.79% |
$3,000-$3,999 | 8 | 5.26% |
$4,000-$4,999 | 4 | 2.63% |
$5,000+ | 24 | 15.79% |
Do not accept one-time projects | 3 | 1.97% |
No minimum | 7 | 4.61% |
Here are the single project minimums for PPC firms worldwide, based on company size:
That chart is a bit busy, so here is the raw data:
Project minimum | 1 (solo practice) | 2-5 | 5-10 | 11-20 | 21-50 | 51+ |
Under $1,000 | 35.00% | 43.24% | 23.08% | 7.14% | 11.54% | 9.09% |
$1,000-$1,999 | 30.00% | 32.43% | 46.15% | 28.57% | 26.92% | 9.09% |
$2,000-$2,999 | 15.00% | 5.41% | 15.38% | 28.57% | 26.92% | 13.64% |
$3,000-$3,999 | 2.50% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 14.29% | 7.69% | 13.64% |
$4,000-$4,999 | 2.50% | 2.70% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 3.85% | 4.55% |
$5,000+ | 7.50% | 5.41% | 15.38% | 14.29% | 15.38% | 50.00% |
Do not accept one-time projects | 0.00% | 5.41% | 0.00% | 7.14% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
No minimum | 7.50% | 5.41% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 7.69% | 0.00% |
The interesting takeaways in this section are:
Here are the PPC firm worldwide monthly retainer rates as reported by our 152 respondents:
The raw data:
PPC firm worldwide monthly retainer minimum | ||
Row Labels | Count of Monthly minimum budget | PPC firm worldwide monthly retainer minimum |
Under $1,000 | 45 | 29.61% |
$1000-1,999 | 38 | 25.00% |
$2000-2,999 | 26 | 17.11% |
$3000-3,999 | 16 | 10.53% |
$4000-4,999 | 4 | 2.63% |
$5,000+ | 12 | 7.89% |
No minimum | 11 | 7.24% |
Interesting takeaways include:
Here are the average rates for US and UK PPC firms.
The raw data:
Hourly Rate | Count | PPC firm US |
Under $50 | 2 | 2.25% |
$51-$100 | 12 | 13.48% |
$101-$150 | 31 | 34.83% |
$151-$200 | 29 | 32.58% |
$201-$300 | 12 | 13.48% |
$301-$500 | 2 | 2.25% |
$501+ | 0 | 0.00% |
Here are the average hourly rates for UK PPC firms:
The raw data:
Hourly Rate | Count | PPC firm UK |
Under $50 | 2 | 7.69% |
$51-$100 | 15 | 57.69% |
$101-$150 | 5 | 19.23% |
$151-$200 | 3 | 11.54% |
$201-$300 | 1 | 3.85% |
$301-$500 | 0 | 0.00% |
$501+ | 0 | 0.00% |
UK PPC firms need to charge more!
Now let’s look at average PPC agency rates.
Here are the worldwide PPC agency average hourly rates:
Raw data:
Hourly Rate | Count | PPC agency hourly |
Under $50 | 11 | 9.82% |
$51-$100 | 19 | 16.96% |
$101-$150 | 38 | 33.93% |
$151-$200 | 29 | 25.89% |
$201-$300 | 12 | 10.71% |
$301-$500 | 1 | 0.89% |
$501+ | 1 | 0.89% |
Here are the reported project minimums for the PPC agencies in our dataset, of which there are 112:
The raw data:
Row Labels | Count of Single project minimum | PPC agency worldwide project minimum |
Under $1,000 | 25 | 22.32% |
$1,000-$1,999 | 31 | 27.68% |
$2,000-$2,999 | 18 | 16.07% |
$3,000-$3,999 | 7 | 6.25% |
$4,000-$4,999 | 3 | 2.68% |
$5,000+ | 21 | 18.75% |
Do not accept one-time projects | 3 | 2.68% |
No minimum | 4 | 3.57% |
Here are the US PPC agency project minimums from our dataset:
The raw data:
Row Labels | Count of Single project minimum | PPC agency project minimum |
Under $1,000 | 12 | 17.39% |
$1,000-$1,999 | 18 | 26.09% |
$2,000-$2,999 | 14 | 20.29% |
$3,000-$3,999 | 4 | 5.80% |
$4,000-$4,999 | 1 | 1.45% |
$5,000+ | 15 | 21.74% |
Do not accept one-time projects | 3 | 4.35% |
No minimum | 2 | 2.90% |
Interesting takeaways from this section are:
Here are the worldwide PPC agency retainer minimums from our 112 respondents:
The raw data:
PPC agency worldwide monthly retainer minimum | ||
Row Labels | Count of Monthly minimum budget | PPC agency worldwide monthly retainer minimum |
Under $1,000 | 32 | 28.57% |
$1000-1,999 | 28 | 25.00% |
$2000-2,999 | 19 | 16.96% |
$3000-3,999 | 13 | 11.61% |
$4000-4,999 | 4 | 3.57% |
$5,000+ | 11 | 9.82% |
No minimum | 5 | 4.46% |
Here are the US PPC agency monthly retainer minimums as reported by our 69 respondents:
The raw data:
Retainer minimum | Count of Monthly minimum budget | US PPC agency monthly retainer minimum |
Under $1,000 | 15 | 21.74% |
$1000-1,999 | 18 | 26.09% |
$2000-2,999 | 13 | 18.84% |
$3000-3,999 | 9 | 13.04% |
$4000-4,999 | 3 | 4.35% |
$5,000+ | 9 | 13.04% |
No minimum | 2 | 2.90% |
Interesting takeaways include:
US PPC agencies are, from our data, more expensive than the worldwide averages.
Now let’s look at PPC consultant rates worldwide and US specific.
Here are the PPC consultant worldwide hourly rates from our dataset containing 40 PPC consultants:
The raw data:
Hourly Rate | Count | PPC consultant hourly rates |
Under $50 | 3 | 7.50% |
$51-$100 | 17 | 42.50% |
$101-$150 | 6 | 15.00% |
$151-$200 | 8 | 20.00% |
$201-$300 | 5 | 12.50% |
$301-$500 | 1 | 2.50% |
$501+ | 0 | 0.00% |
Here are the PPC consultant worldwide project minimums, of which there were 40 respondents:
The raw data:
PPC consultant worldwide single project minimum | ||
Row Labels | Count of Single project minimum | PPC consultant worldwide |
Under $1,000 | 14 | 35.00% |
$1,000-$1,999 | 12 | 30.00% |
$2,000-$2,999 | 6 | 15.00% |
$3,000-$3,999 | 1 | 2.50% |
$4,000-$4,999 | 1 | 2.50% |
$5,000+ | 3 | 7.50% |
No minimum | 3 | 7.50% |
Here are the US PPC consultant projects minimums from our dataset, in which there were 20 respondents. Thus, we are showing the raw numbers here instead of percentages:
The raw data:
US PPC consultant project minimums | |
Single project minimum | Count |
Under $1,000 | 4 |
$1,000-$1,999 | 7 |
$2,000-$2,999 | 4 |
$3,000-$3,999 | 1 |
$4,000-$4,999 | 1 |
$5,000+ | 1 |
No minimum | 2 |
Here are the PPC consultant worldwide monthly retainer minimums from the 40 respondents in our dataset:
The raw data:
PPC consultant worldwide monthly minimum | ||
Monthly retainer minimum | Count of Monthly minimum budget | PPC consultant worldwide monthly minimum |
Under $1,000 | 13 | 32.50% |
$1000-1,999 | 10 | 25.00% |
$2000-2,999 | 7 | 17.50% |
$3000-3,999 | 3 | 7.50% |
$5,000+ | 1 | 2.50% |
No minimum | 6 | 15.00% |
We also ran the numbers on how PPC firms charge for their work.
Here is a visualization:
Here are the raw data numbers:
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