Paid advertising has two costs and most confusion in this category comes from treating them as one. The ad spend goes to Google or Meta and buys the clicks. The management fee goes to the agency and buys the decisions about which clicks to buy.
What the fee covers in a normal month
Reading the search terms report and blocking the searches that will never buy. Moving budget toward whatever is producing inquiries. Writing and testing new ad copy. Checking that the landing page still matches the promise in the ad. Making sure conversions are being counted properly.
None of that is glamorous and all of it compounds. An account left alone for a quarter almost always costs more per lead at the end of it than at the start.
How to judge whether the fee is fair
Ask what physically happens each month and who does it. A fee that buys a monthly report and nothing else is an expensive subscription. A fee that buys weekly changes and an honest conversation about what is not working is the thing you actually wanted.
The detail sits on the PPC management page, including how we split the fee from the spend.
