How Much Do Pay Per Click Advertising Services Cost?
Last Updated: April 26, 2023
CostOwl.com note: Need an online marketing service at an affordable price? Fill out the 30 second questionnaire below and our online marketing partners will send you free price quotes.
On This Page
Pay per click advertising is an efficient, measurable, and cost effective way to drive traffic to your website. Just as the name suggests, you're billed only when someone clicks on your advertisement.
The greatest advantage to pay per click advertising is that it provides targeted marketing. Your ad will only show up when someone searches for products or services similar to yours. Pay per click advertising also can instantly generate traffic, and the results can be fully tracked.
About Pay Per Click Advertising #
You're probably familiar with PPC advertising because it pops up every time you use a search engine. When you enter a search term, advertisements about related products and services pop up on the top of the screen or along the side.
Most PPC advertising is bid-based, meaning advertisers compete over the top spots for certain keywords by bidding their maximum price per click. The company with the highest bid gets the top spot. Occasionally, PPC is also billed on a flat-rate basis, in which the advertiser and the publisher agree on a fixed price for each click.
Pay per click advertising companies offer full-service management of your PPC campaign, including automated bid management, analysis and reporting. They will also help set your monthly budget.
Pay Per Click Advertising Average Costs #
Pay per click advertising campaign because fees vary considerably from term to term. The most common keywords or search terms will sell for a much higher price per click than terms that are searched less frequently.
Very generally, you can expect to pay several thousand per month for a complete PPC advertising campaign that includes bid management, conversion checking, reporting and 24/7 support.
- A small business can expect to pay about $1,000 to $2,000 for an effective PPC campaign.
- Mid-sized firms should budget in the $7,500 to $10,000 range.
- Large companies can expect to pay anywhere from $10,000 per month to upwards of $50,000 per month.
A large chunk of your total expense will cover the cost per click. You'll be billed a certain amount, based upon your initial bid, each time a potential customer clicks on your ad. Cost per click begins at around $.05 to $.10 for rarely searched keywords and ranges up to $150 or more per click for commonly-searched terms. The average cost typically falls in the $1 to $4 range, however.
Benefits of Hiring a PPC Advertising Company #
The alternatives to hiring a PPC advertising company include purchasing bid management software to handle your PPC campaign or launching a self-managed PPC campaign. But chances are, you won't get the same results with those options.
Software to manage your PPC bids usually costs anywhere from $100 to $1,000, depending on the number of keywords you need to manage. However, you also have to factor in the cost of employee time to operate the program.
Self-managed campaigns are inexpensive, but they're often not very effective. If you're going after the wrong keywords, your ad may not show up at all. A professional service will help you choose the best keywords for optimal results.