How much does Google Ads cost for a local business?

Google Ads has no fixed price. You set an average daily budget, you pay when someone clicks your ad, and the price of each click is set by an auction that changes by trade, town and time of day. For a local service business, we suggest at least R5 000 a month in ad spend, paid to Google directly, plus management if someone runs it for you. Ours is R2 500 a month, whatever your ad spend.

That's the honest answer. Nobody can tell you what a click will cost in your trade without looking at the searches you want to show up for. What follows is how Google charges, how to find out what clicks cost in your area, and what management should cost on top. The full detail of what we do is on our Google Ads management page.

How does Google charge for ads?

For search ads, the usual model is cost per click. Google's help page on cost-per-click bidding puts it simply: "you pay for each click on your ads." You set a maximum you're willing to pay for a click, and Google says you'll often be charged less than that maximum.

The price comes from an auction that runs every time someone searches. Google's explanation of the auction says your position depends on your bid and on the quality of your ad and the page it sends people to. A business with a relevant ad and a clear landing page can "win a higher position at a lower price" than a competitor who simply bids more.

Two things follow from that:

• A better page makes clicks cheaper. If your ad for "geyser repairs Durban" lands on a page about geyser repairs in Durban, you're competing well. If it lands on your homepage, you're paying more for the same click.
• Clicks cost more where competitors bid hard. Trades where a single job is worth a lot of money tend to attract more bidders. That pushes the price up.

Can Google spend more than my daily budget?

On a given day, yes. Over a month, no. Google's help page on average daily budgets says the daily spending limit is "two times your average daily budget for most campaigns", and the monthly limit is "30.4 times your average daily budget".

In plain terms: if you set R200 a day, Google may spend up to R400 on a busy Tuesday and less on a quiet Sunday. Across the month, it won't charge more than R6 080 (R200 × 30.4). That's worth knowing before the first invoice surprises you.

What does a click cost in South Africa?

It varies too much to give one number, and we won't make one up. A click on a search for emergency plumbing in Umhlanga is unlikely to cost the same as a click on a search for a hair salon in Pietermaritzburg, and both can change during the year.

You can check the figures for your own searches for free. Google's Keyword Planner sits inside a Google Ads account and shows, in Google's words, "the average cost for your ad to show on searches for a keyword". Type in the searches your customers would use, set the location to your town, and you'll see estimates for your trade.

Then do this sum:

1. Monthly budget divided by the cost per click gives you roughly how many clicks you'll buy.
2. Clicks multiplied by the share who get in touch gives you roughly how many enquiries.

The second number is the one that matters, and you only learn it once the ads are running and tracked. That's why tracking comes first in everything we set up.

What does Google Ads management cost?

Management is separate from ad spend. Ad spend goes to Google, billed to your card. Management pays someone to run the account. Ours is R2 500 a month, whatever your ad spend.

Monthly ad spend (paid to Google)	Our fee	Total a month
R5 000	R2 500	R7 500
R10 000	R2 500	R12 500
R20 000	R2 500	R22 500
R40 000	R2 500	R42 500

The fee stays the same as the account grows, so it becomes a smaller share of the total the more you spend.

What the fee covers: setting up tracking so you can see which ads bring enquiries and calls, weekly checks on what people actually searched before they clicked, blocking the searches that don't fit your business, and a monthly report with the cost of each enquiry.

Why do we suggest at least R5 000 a month?

Two reasons. The first is data. Google's automated bidding learns from which clicks turn into enquiries. With a very small budget, there are too few enquiries each month for anyone, person or machine, to tell a good ad from a bad one.

The second is the fee. Paying R2 500 to manage R1 000 of ads doesn't make sense. At R5 000 of spend, management is still a large share of the total, which is why we're upfront about it. Below that, SEO usually earns more per rand for a local business. Our article on what SEO costs covers that side.

Whose account is it?

It should always be yours. With us, the account stays in your name, and your card pays Google. If we part ways, you keep the account, its history and the tracking.

Be careful with any agency that runs ads from its own account and sends you one bill for "ads and management". You can't see what Google actually charged, and if you leave, you start again from nothing.

When are Google Ads a bad idea?

• Your website can't turn a visitor into an enquiry. If the page is slow, unclear or hard to use on a phone, you're paying for clicks that leave. Fix the page first. Our website cost guide explains what a site with proper enquiry tracking costs.
• You can't answer quickly. Someone who clicks an ad may well be phoning your competitors too. If your phone goes to voicemail all day, you've paid for someone else's customer.
• You can't afford to test for a few months. The early months are about learning which searches bring work. If the budget has to pay for itself from week one, wait until it doesn't.
• Nobody searches for what you sell. If Keyword Planner shows almost no searches in your area, ads on Google Search won't find people who aren't looking.

What should you get each month from whoever runs your ads?

Whether it's us or someone else, you should see:

• a list of the searches that triggered your ads, and the ones that were blocked
• the number of enquiries, calls and WhatsApp messages the ads brought in
• what each enquiry cost
• what changed in the account this month and why

If your report shows clicks and impressions (how often the ad was shown) but no enquiries, the account is being judged on the wrong thing. Clicks cost money. Enquiries are what you're paying for.

We can't promise a number of enquiries or a cost per enquiry before we start, and you should be wary of anyone who does. We can promise that you'll see every rand of spend and what it brought in.

What's the next step?

If you already run ads, we'll read the account and the search terms before we quote. If you don't, we'll look at the searches for your trade in your area and tell you whether R5 000 a month is likely to be enough to learn anything.

Ask for an estimate at /price or WhatsApp us on +27 73 453 8352. We reply within one working day. The details of how we run accounts are on the Google Ads management page.