Google Ads has no fixed cost and no minimum budget: you only pay when someone clicks your ad, and you decide how much to spend each day. For a small local business, a sensible starting budget is between €300 and €1,000 a month, plus whatever it costs to have someone manage the campaigns. How much to spend really comes from a simple calculation, shown below, together with what pushes up the price of a click.
How does Google Ads pricing work?
Google Ads is an auction. Every time someone searches for, say, “plumber Manchester”, Google picks which ads to show and in what order. What you’re willing to pay per click matters, but so does the quality of the ad and of the page it leads to: a relevant ad with a good page can rank above a competitor who bids more.
- Cost per click (CPC): what you pay for each click. It depends on competition for the keyword.
- Daily budget: the spending cap you set. On some days Google can spend up to twice that, but over a month it won’t go beyond the daily budget times 30.4.
- No setup fee: opening the account is free.
How much does a click cost on Google Ads?
It varies hugely by industry. As a rough guide, for many local businesses a click costs around €0.30 to €3; in industries where a customer is worth a lot, such as legal, insurance or lending, it can cost much more. The exact figure for your keywords comes from Google Ads’ free Keyword Planner, before you spend anything.
How to work out your monthly budget
The right budget starts from how many leads you want, not from a random figure. You need three numbers:
- How many leads you need each month, for example 10 quote requests.
- How many visitors out of 100 get in touch from the ad’s page. For a good dedicated page, often between 3 and 8.
- The average cost per click for your keywords.
| Example | |
|---|---|
| Leads wanted per month | 10 |
| Visitors who get in touch | 5 in 100 |
| Clicks needed | 10 ÷ 5% = 200 |
| Average cost per click | €1.20 |
| Monthly ad budget | 200 × €1.20 = €240 |
If a customer is worth €500 to you on average and you win 2 out of every 10 leads, that €240 turns into about €1,000 of work: the campaign pays off. If the numbers don’t add up, it’s the page or the keyword choice that needs fixing, not the budget that needs raising.
How much does campaign management cost?
On top of the budget paid to Google there’s the work of whoever sets up and runs the campaigns. The most common arrangements are a fixed monthly fee, typically €150 to €500 for a small business, or a percentage of ad spend, often 10 to 20%. There’s usually a setup cost at the start too: keyword research, account structure, ads and conversion tracking.
You can run campaigns yourself, but mistakes are expensive: keywords that are too broad, ads shown across the whole country instead of your area, no tracking of the enquiries you get.
The page matters as much as the ad
What most often makes the difference isn’t in the campaign, it’s on the page people land on after clicking. Sending traffic to your homepage scatters visitors; a dedicated landing page, with a clear offer and a simple form, turns more clicks into leads and lowers the cost of each enquiry. That’s what I build with the landing page service, from €400 to €800.
Google Ads or SEO?
They’re not alternatives. Google Ads brings visits from day one and stops when you stop paying; SEO brings visits that grow over time and stay. For a small business they often work together: Google Ads to get leads now and learn which searches bring customers, SEO and GEO to build visibility that doesn’t depend on budget.
For a local business: what changes
The most important thing is to limit your ads to the area you serve: a town, a county or a radius around your premises. Alongside the ads, look after your free Google Business Profile, which shows up on Google Maps and in local searches: being in both the ads and the map raises your chances of being chosen.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Ads free?
Opening the account and creating campaigns is free; you pay for clicks on your ads. Google Business Profile, which appears on Maps, is free and separate from Google Ads.
What’s the minimum budget to start?
Google sets no minimum. To get useful data in a month, though, you need at least a few hundred clicks: at €1 a click, that means starting from €200–300.
Google Ads or Facebook Ads?
Google Ads reaches people already searching for what you offer; Facebook and Instagram reach people by interests and location, even when they aren’t searching. For services people look for when they need them, like a plumber or an accountant, you usually start with Google.
Is there free credit for new advertisers?
Google sometimes offers promotional credit to new accounts that spend a certain amount. The amount and conditions change over time and are shown inside Google Ads.
If you want a website that turns more visits into enquiries, whether they come from Google Ads or from search, read how much a WooCommerce store costs or get in touch.
