Cost guide

How much does PPC management cost in 2026?

Monthly PPC management runs $350–$3K per month at the direct rate, and the fee pays for the work alone: media spend is billed to you by Google and Meta and is never part of it. A standalone account audit and ad creative by the set are priced on their own below, and every figure becomes a written proposal within 48 hours.

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Direct rate, in ₹ or $ · Itemised proposal in 48 hrs

The range

What it costs,
at the direct rate.

Priced as a monthly management fee with media spend always billed to you by the platform, plus a standalone audit and per-set ad creative for buyers who run their own accounts.

One-offAccount and tracking audit$300–$1.5Kone-time
RetainerMonthly management$350–$3Kper month, fee only
Per unitAd creative, per set$300–$900per set

Indicative: every figure is refined into an itemised proposal within 48 hours.INR figures shown excl. GST.

Every option includes a Prism workspace for requests, approvals, tasks and the weekly review.

What moves the price

Why the range
is a range.

How many platforms, and which ones

PPC is pay-per-click advertising: Google Search, Shopping and Performance Max (Google's automated campaign type), and Meta prospecting with remarketing on both. Each platform gets a named specialist. The fee tracks the hours a clean account needs, not a share of what you spend. One Search account is the bottom of the range. Search, Shopping and Meta together is the top.

Biggest lever

Whether your tracking can be trusted

Tracking is fixed before any budget scales. Server-side means conversions are recorded by your site, not by a browser that may block them. Consent-aware means the setup respects what each visitor agreed to. An account whose conversions already verify against real orders starts on optimisation. An account whose numbers cannot be trusted starts on measurement, and that work sits in the first month's fee.

Hidden lever

Account sprawl and inherited structure

Campaigns layered by previous agencies, broad match bidding on junk terms and remarketing that chases people who already bought all have to be unpicked first. A clean structure needs a short fix list. An account that has passed through several hands needs the audit before the retainer. The rebuild is then priced as a line you can see, not absorbed quietly into the fee.

Structure lever

How much creative the account eats

Search runs on copy and a negative list. Meta runs on a creative pipeline that has to be fed every week, which is why Meta-led accounts sit mid to top of the range. Management includes the weekly test variants; beyond that, creative is bought by the set. Whether you already hold footage and product imagery decides whether a set is a cut or a shoot.

Production lever

Markets and languages

Each country is its own account, its own search-term report and its own auction. Each language is its own copy and its own negatives. One market in one language is the base. A multi-market account running Shopping and Performance Max is a different audit and a different month. The proposal shows each market as its own lines.

Scope lever

The page and the feed

The click is half the job. Landing pages are built and tested with the CRO (conversion rate optimisation) team inside the fee. The product feed is the exception. For Shopping and Performance Max the feed is the campaign, and feed engineering is quoted on its own, because the work depends on your product data.

Often forgotten

The options

Which option
fits your case.

Each option below is one way to buy PPC and paid media. Read what it is and who it fits, then request the one that matches your case; the proposal itemises it.

One-off

Account and tracking audit

$300–$1.5Kone-time

What it is

The paid website review of your Google and Meta accounts and measurement. Search terms, structure and audiences are reviewed with wasted spend itemised, conversion tracking is tested against real orders or leads, and a rebuilt structure and measurement plan are handed over. The free website review is the short recorded version; this one ends in a document any team can implement.

Who it fits

Buyers who run their own accounts, in-house teams that will implement the changes themselves, and anyone about to change agencies who wants a second reading. It does not fit an account with no spend history, because there is nothing to tear down yet.

Included

Search-term, structure and audience review with wasted spend itemised
Conversion tracking tested against real orders or leads, with every gap listed
A rebuilt account structure and negative-list plan
A measurement plan: consent handling and server-side tagging
One walkthrough call with the specialist who wrote it

Not included, quoted separately

Implementing the changes
Landing page builds
Creative production

Turnaround: 1 to 2 weeks
Moves the number: Account sprawl: one Search account and a four-market account running Shopping, Performance Max and Meta are different audits.

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Retainer

Monthly management

$350–$3Kper month, fee only

What it is

The monthly programme: tracking verified before spend scales, a named specialist per platform under one strategist, search-term hygiene and creative tests every week, landing pages built with the CRO team, and budget rebalanced monthly and reported weekly against revenue. Accounts stay in your name. The platforms bill your media spend to you.

Who it fits

Businesses already spending, or ready to, with a margin that can carry an auction and a product people search for or can be shown. It does not fit a budget where the fee would outweigh the spend it manages; there, the audit or a creative set does more, and the proposal says so.

Included

A named specialist per platform, coordinated by one strategist
Server-side, consent-aware tracking set up and verified before spend scales
Weekly search-term hygiene and weekly creative tests
Landing pages built and tested with the CRO team for each campaign
Monthly rebalance and weekly revenue-tied reporting; accounts stay in your name

Not included, quoted separately

Media spend: billed to you by each ad platform, never part of the fee
Ad creative beyond the included test variants
Product feed and catalogue engineering

Turnaround: Monthly, 3-month minimum; waste cut and tracking live inside 14 days
Moves the number: Platform count and the hours a clean account needs; the fee tracks the work, not a percentage of your budget.

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Per unit

Ad creative, per set

$300–$900per set

One unit: one creative set for one platform: five ad variants across distinct hooks and formats, copy included, built from your footage and imagery and sized to placement

What it is

One creative set for one platform: a run of ad variants, each arguing a different hook in a different format, copy included, built from your footage and imagery and sized to the placements you name.

Who it fits

Teams that run their own accounts and need a standing supply of angles to test without a retainer. It does not fit a buyer with no footage or imagery, because a set is cut from what you already hold; stock, creators and shoots are quoted separately.

Included

Five variants against one brief, each a different argument
Sized and formatted for the placements you name
Headline, primary text and call to action per variant
One revision round

Not included, quoted separately

Stock footage, music and licensing
Creator fees
Original photography or a shoot

Turnaround: 5 working days per set
Moves the number: Format: five statics with copy sit at the bottom; five short video cuts from raw footage sit at the top.

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Cheaper or dearer

What moves a quote
down, or up.

The proposal itemises platforms, tracking work and creative, so each item below shows up as a line you can see move before you sign.

Brings the quote down

One platform, with search already carrying demand you can capture
Conversion tracking that already verifies against real orders
A clean structure with no campaigns inherited from a previous agency
Your own footage, product imagery and a feed in good order
One market, in one language

Pushes the quote up

Several platforms, each needing its own specialist and weekly attention
Tracking broken across consent banners, domains or a checkout that never fires
A structure that has passed through several hands and must be rebuilt first
Meta-led prospecting that needs new creative every week
Several markets, each with its own account, auction and search-term report

What you get

What the fee
actually buys.

The fee buys shipped work and a weekly account of it. No return on ad spend is promised, because auctions, competitors and seasonality sit outside anyone's control; what shipped and what it earned are reported every week.

Tracking you can audit

Server-side, consent-aware measurement set up and verified against orders or leads before spend scales, with every gap written down.

A named specialist per platform

Google and Meta each run as their own discipline, coordinated by one strategist who owns the plan and takes the monthly call.

Waste cut every week

Search-term hygiene and negative lists worked weekly, not remembered quarterly, with the spend saved itemised in the report.

Creative tested, with the readout

New angles tested every week; winners scaled, losers killed without sentiment, and each test logged so the account learns.

Landing pages that match the ad

Built and tested by the same team that runs conversion optimisation, so the ad's promise and the page's argument stay the same.

Accounts and data in your name

Ad accounts, pixels and audiences are created in your name and stay there. Leaving costs you a decision, not your history.

AgenciesAgency partners buy at the partner rates on agencies.pixelcrayons.com; volume terms are agreed under NDA.

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Questions

Frequently
asked.

Because a percentage pays the agency more for spending more, whether or not the spend earns. The fee here tracks the hours a clean account needs: the platforms run, the tracking maintained, the weekly hygiene and tests, the pages built. Cutting a wasteful budget in the first month does not cut our fee. There is no reason to argue for spend the numbers do not support.

No, and it never will. Google and Meta bill your media spend to you directly, from accounts held in your name. The fee covers the work of running them. You see both amounts separately, so the cost of the management and the cost of the auction are never blended into one figure.

The free website review is a short recorded walkthrough of what we can see from outside: the obvious leaks, ranked. The paid audit tests conversion tracking against your real orders and itemises wasted spend by search term and audience. It rebuilds the account structure on paper and writes a measurement plan covering consent and server-side tagging.

Yes, and the proposal will say so rather than take the fee. When the management fee would outweigh the spend it manages, the audit or a creative set does more. The bottom of the management range is the smallest monthly scope where weekly hygiene, tests and reporting change the result.

Landing pages are inside the fee, built and tested with the CRO team for each campaign. Sending paid traffic to a leaking page is the most expensive mistake in paid media. Creative is inside the fee up to the weekly test variants. Beyond that, creative is bought by the set. Stock footage, music licensing, creators and shoots are quoted separately, because not every account needs them.

On its own row of the rate card, because it is different work: campaigns structured per product listing, the search-term report mined weekly and advertising cost of sales checked against total sales. Amazon bills the ad spend to you, as Google and Meta do.

A platform adds a specialist's hours: its own structure, hygiene, tests and reporting line. A market adds an account, an auction and a search-term report, and often a language. Each arrives as its own lines in the proposal. You see what the addition costs beside what you already run, and can sequence it later.

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Last updated 29 September 2026

What it costs,at the direct rate.

Why the rangeis a range.

How many platforms, and which ones

Whether your tracking can be trusted

Account sprawl and inherited structure

How much creative the account eats

Markets and languages

The page and the feed

Which optionfits your case.

Account and tracking audit

Monthly management

Ad creative, per set

What moves a quotedown, or up.

What the feeactually buys.

Tracking you can audit

A named specialist per platform

Waste cut every week

Creative tested, with the readout

Landing pages that match the ad

Accounts and data in your name

Frequentlyasked.

Other cost guidesand the service itself.

What it costs,
at the direct rate.

Why the range
is a range.

Which option
fits your case.

What moves a quote
down, or up.

What the fee
actually buys.

Frequently
asked.

Other cost guides
and the service itself.