What PPC management costs in Perth: the three fee models with A$ ranges, the media spend that makes it worthwhile, and how to judge the first 90 days.
Ask three Perth agencies what they'd charge to manage your Google Ads and the quotes will land anywhere from A$500 to A$5,000 a month, often for what sounds like the same service. The gap isn't random. It comes down to which fee model the agency uses, how much media spend they're working with, and how much senior time goes on the account each month.
The useful question is rarely which quote is cheapest. It's what a month of management should contain at your level of spend, and whether the number you'll both be judged on is cost per enquiry or clicks. Get those two things clear and most Perth quotes become easy to compare.
This piece sets out the three fee models you'll meet in Perth with A$ ranges, where Clear Click's paid search management sits, the media spend at which management starts to pay for itself, what a first 90 days should contain, and how to tell a good month from a busy one.
What to take from this
- Perth PPC management runs about A$1,000 to A$5,000 a month. Flat fees suit most accounts, a percentage of spend at 10% to 15% suits larger ones, and performance models only work when both sides trust the conversion data.
- Below about A$2,500 a month in media, a Perth account rarely produces enough conversions to learn from, so a management fee adds to the cost of every lead without improving them.
- Clear Click manages paid media from around A$3,000 a month plus GST, with senior people on the ground in Perth, and reports on cost per enquiry and pipeline rather than clicks.
How much does PPC management cost in Perth?
There are three ways a Perth agency will price the work, and each one changes what you're buying.
A flat monthly fee. The most common model for small and mid-size accounts. For a business spending A$3,000 to A$10,000 a month on media, expect A$1,000 to A$2,500. Accounts with several campaigns, landing page work and a CRM connection run A$2,500 to A$5,000 and beyond. In plain terms, you know the cost before the month starts and the agency's income doesn't rise when your spend does, which keeps the advice about budget neutral.
A percentage of spend. Usually 10% to 20%, most often 12% to 15%, with a minimum fee of A$800 to A$1,500 attached. The maths explains the minimum: at A$5,000 a month, 15% is A$750, which won't fund the hours. It also stops making sense at the top. At A$25,000 a month, 15% is A$3,750, and the account may not need that much attention. If you're above about A$15,000 in spend, ask for a falling scale or a flat fee.
Performance-based. A fee per lead, or a base fee plus a bonus tied to cost per enquiry. It reads well in a proposal, and it works when the conversion tracking is set up so that both sides trust what counts as a lead. Where it goes wrong is when "lead" means a form fill and half the forms are recruiters and students. Most agencies that offer it, ourselves included, run it as a hybrid rather than pure pay per lead.
On top of any of the three, build or set-up fees of A$1,000 to A$3,500 are normal for a new account, and are often waived on a 12-month term.
Clear Click sits at the upper end. Paid media management starts from around A$3,000 a month plus GST on a flat fee, and the people who scope the account are the people who run it. That puts us above a good part of the Perth market, and it isn't the right fee for every account. If your media spend is under about A$3,000 a month, a good freelancer at A$800 to A$1,500 will usually serve you better, and we'd say so on the first call.
For comparison, our UK floor is £1,500 a month plus VAT, close to the same money once converted, and the fee models are the same in both markets. Our guide to what PPC agencies charge in the UK covers that market, and our piece on Google Ads management fees in Perth works through a A$6,000 a month account line by line.
What media spend makes management worthwhile?
The way we see it, a management fee earns its place when the account produces enough conversions each month for the person running it to learn something and act on it. Below about A$2,500 a month in media, most Perth accounts don't get there.
Here's the arithmetic for a Perth services business. At the A$3.50 to A$6 a click that most local service terms cost, A$2,500 buys roughly 400 to 700 clicks. At a 5% enquiry rate, that's 20 to 35 enquiries. Enough to see which campaigns and suburbs are working and to move budget between them. Below that, the account is reading tea leaves, and any change made in month two can't be judged until month four.
At the other end of the CPC range the threshold moves up. Legal terms and some trades in Perth cost A$15 to A$40 a click, so the same A$2,500 buys 60 to 160 clicks and a handful of enquiries a month. For those sectors, A$4,000 to A$10,000 in media is where management changes the result, and one new client usually covers the quarter.
Mining services, engineering and industrial B2B are a different case again. The search volumes are tiny, often 10 to 50 searches a month on a given term across the whole of WA, and there is usually a national supplier bidding on them. Management here is mostly about not wasting money: tight match types, excluding searchers in Sydney and Brisbane, and a landing page written for a procurement manager rather than a homeowner. A percentage fee can't fund that work on a small account, so a flat fee or a quarterly project usually fits better.
A rough rule we apply to our own proposals: if the management fee would be more than about half the media spend, either the spend needs to rise or the model needs to change. Our piece on choosing between a Perth Google Ads agency, a freelancer and in-house goes further into where each option fits by budget.
What does a PPC agency actually do each month?
This is the question the price lists don't answer, and it decides whether A$2,000 a month is good value. A good month on a mid-size Perth account looks like twenty to forty small decisions, each one logged, rather than a dashboard that refreshes itself.
Weekly, someone should be reading the search terms report and adding negatives, because that is where most of the waste in a Perth account lives. Budgets and bids get adjusted against the cost per enquiry target, not against clicks. Ad copy tests run two variants at a time, with a winner called when the data supports it. Conversion tracking gets checked, because forms break and phone tracking numbers expire more often than anyone expects.
Monthly, the report should tie spend to enquiries, qualified enquiries and, where the CRM allows it, pipeline. It should say what changed, why, and what the plan is for next month. Quarterly, the account structure gets reviewed against what's converting, the keyword universe gets shared with whoever runs SEO so the two channels stop bidding against each other, and one new thing gets tested: a new campaign type, a new landing page, a new audience.
If a quote comes without that list or something like it, it's worth asking what the fee covers. A good answer names the person doing the work and the hours they'll spend. A less helpful answer talks about the platform's automation doing most of it.
What should the first 90 days contain?
Month one: audit and measurement. An audit of the existing account, or of the market if the account is new. Conversion tracking rebuilt so that a form, a phone call and ideally a CRM stage all count, and junk forms don't. Twelve months of search terms pulled and read. An agreed target written down, usually a cost per qualified enquiry and a number of enquiries a month.
Month two: structure. Campaigns rebuilt by intent rather than by product list. Match types tightened. Geography set properly, which in Perth means excluding the eastern states on local service terms and, for industrial accounts, including the Pilbara and the Goldfields rather than only the metro area. Ad copy and landing pages brought into line with what each campaign is for.
Month three: scaling. Budget moved towards the campaigns producing qualified enquiries. The first reliable read of cost per enquiry. A decision on what quarter two should test.
If month two feels like a lot of change and not much result, that's normal. The data the account gathers in that month is what month four is built on. First enquiries usually arrive within days of launch, a cost per enquiry you can trust takes 60 to 90 days, and a number you'd plan a hire around takes about six months.
How do you judge whether a Perth PPC agency is doing a good job?
Judge the report, not the activity. Clicks, impressions and click-through rate are inputs. The outputs are enquiries, qualified enquiries, cost per qualified enquiry and, for any B2B account, pipeline value. If the monthly report leads with the inputs, ask for it to lead with the outputs. Most agencies are glad to be asked, because it's a better conversation for them too.
Qualified is the word doing the heavy lifting there. Google Ads knows a form was submitted. It doesn't know that the form came from a student looking for work experience, or from a A$60,000 tender. Someone has to mark enquiries as qualified or not, either in the CRM or in a shared sheet, and feed that back into the account. That feedback loop is the single biggest difference between accounts that improve month on month and accounts that plateau.
32% lower cost per lead: What rebuilding an industrial B2B account around qualified enquiries rather than clicks produced for AM Phillip Trucktech, alongside 41% more qualified enquiries.
Source: Clear Click, AM Phillip Trucktech case study.
The AM Phillip Trucktech case study has the detail. The sequence was the one above: tracking first, structure second, scaling third.
Connecting the ad account to the CRM is what turns a report on enquiries into a report on pipeline. See our PPC attribution work
Two more things to check before you sign: that the Google Ads account sits in your own Google account with the agency added as a manager, so the history stays with you, and who covers the account when the person running it is on leave.
Questions we get asked
How much does PPC management cost in Perth?
For an account spending A$3,000 to A$10,000 a month on media, a flat fee of A$1,000 to A$2,500 a month is the Perth norm, with larger accounts running to A$5,000 and beyond. Percentage models sit at 10% to 15% of spend with a minimum fee attached. Clear Click starts from around A$3,000 a month plus GST.
What does a PPC agency actually do each month?
Search terms reviewed and negatives added weekly, bids and budgets adjusted against a cost per enquiry target, ad copy tests run, conversion tracking checked, and a monthly report that ties spend to enquiries and pipeline. Quarterly, the structure gets reviewed and one new thing gets tested. If a fee doesn't buy that list, it's buying monitoring.
Is Google Ads worth it for a Perth business?
Usually, if a new customer is worth several times what a qualified enquiry costs and you can spend at least A$2,500 a month on media. A Perth law firm paying A$25 a click and A$300 a qualified lead for a A$4,000 first engagement is well ahead. A A$80 product paying A$60 a lead isn't yet, and the offer or the landing page needs work before the ads do.
How long before Google Ads works?
First enquiries usually arrive within days of launch. A cost per enquiry you can plan against takes 60 to 90 days, because the account needs that long to gather enough conversions to learn from. A number you'd make a hiring decision on takes about six months. Month two often feels slow, and that's normal.
Perth agency or a national one: which is better?
Either can run the account well. What matters more is whether the person doing the work knows the Perth market: which suburbs convert, that Sydney searchers need excluding on local terms, and that mining and industrial volumes here are tiny. A national agency with a Perth account lead can do that; one managing you from a template in Melbourne often can't. Ask who, by name, will be in the account each week.
Where we fit
Clear Click runs paid search for B2B and professional services businesses that want the account judged on cost per enquiry and pipeline. Alistair Mains, our paid media director, is on the ground in Perth, and the same senior people do the work each month. Management starts from around A$3,000 a month plus GST, and we aim for 12-month partnerships with the early termination terms set out in the agreement.
For AM Phillip Trucktech, an industrial B2B client, that approach produced a 32% lower cost per lead and 41% more qualified enquiries. If you'd like a second opinion on a quote you've received, or on whether your current spend is enough to manage, get in touch and we'll give you a plain answer, including when the better option is someone else.
