Most business owners who hire a PPC agency can tell you what they pay each month. Far fewer can tell you what they get for it. That gap is why we built our Phoenix PPC management around flat-fee PPC management: one published price, one defined scope, and no guessing about where your money goes.
Below, we walk through exactly what happens inside a Google Ads account we manage, from the first audit to the monthly report in your inbox. If you are comparing agencies, use it as a checklist for what any partner should be doing for you.
Why We Charge a Flat Fee Instead of a Percentage of Spend
Many agencies bill a percentage of your monthly ad spend. The problem is simple: under that model, your agency earns more when you spend more, whether or not the extra spend brings in customers.
Our Google Ads management starts at a flat $395 per month, with your tier set by your monthly ad spend. Within your tier, our fee stays the same whether we raise your budget or cut wasted spend. That means our only incentive is the one you care about: more leads and sales for every dollar.
It also makes budgeting easier. You know your management cost before the month starts, and every dollar of ad spend goes into your own Google Ads account, not through ours.
Before Day One: The Account Audit
We start every engagement by finding out what is already working and what is costing you money. Every new account starts with a free, full audit, no matter how many campaigns you run. It’s part of how we take over and manage your account, not an add-on.
The audit looks at:
- Conversion tracking: Are calls, form fills and purchases actually being recorded, or is the account optimizing blind?
- Search terms: Which real searches triggered your ads, and how much went to irrelevant ones?
- Campaign structure: Are keywords, ads and landing pages grouped so each search sees a matching message?
- Settings: Location targeting, networks, bidding strategy and budgets that quietly waste spend.
You walk away with a clear list of problems and fixes, even if you decide not to work with us. Many of the issues we find show up in our list of common PPC mistakes.
Month One: Setup and Implementation
Your first month’s fee covers implementation and the first 30 days of management. This is where most of the heavy lifting happens.
- Conversion tracking: We set up or repair tracking for the actions that matter to your business, such as calls, form submissions and purchases. Without it, Google’s bidding has nothing to learn from.
- Keyword and competitor research: We map the searches your customers actually use, focusing on high-intent terms over broad, expensive ones.
- Campaign build or restructure: Tight ad groups, relevant ad copy and landing pages that match what the searcher asked for.
- Negative keywords: A starting list that blocks job seekers, DIY searchers and other traffic that will never convert.
- Targeting: Locations, schedules and devices set to your real service area and the hours your team can answer the phone.
Every Week: Ongoing Optimization
A Google Ads account is never finished. Search behavior, competitors and costs change constantly, so we work in your account on a regular cadence, not just when something breaks.
- Search term reviews: We check what people actually typed before clicking and add new negative keywords to cut waste.
- Bid and budget adjustments: We shift spend toward the campaigns, keywords and times of day that produce leads.
- Ad testing: We test new headlines and descriptions against current ads and keep the winners.
- Pausing underperformers: Keywords and ads that spend without converting get cut, not left running.
- Landing page feedback: If clicks are not turning into leads, we tell you what to change on the page.
Every Month: A Report You Can Actually Read
Once a month, you get a report by email that shows what your ad spend produced. It focuses on the numbers that tie to revenue, not vanity metrics:
- Spend, clicks and conversions for the month
- Cost per lead or cost per acquisition
- What changed in the account and why
- What we plan to test or adjust next month
If a number moves the wrong way, the report says so, along with what we are doing about it. You should never have to log into Google Ads to figure out whether your campaigns are working.
What’s Not Included, and When the Price Changes
A flat fee only works if the scope is clear, so here is where it ends:
| Situation | How it’s priced |
|---|---|
| Google Ads, smaller accounts | Flat monthly fee, starting at $395 |
| Google Ads, mid-size accounts | Flat monthly fee, set by your spend tier |
| Google Ads, larger accounts | Custom quote |
| Microsoft Advertising (Bing) | Quoted separately |
| Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) | Quoted separately |
| Your ad spend | Paid directly to Google, never marked up |
Larger accounts need more campaigns, more testing and more hours, so your tier is based on your monthly ad spend. Either way, you will know the number before you sign.
Is Flat-Fee PPC Management Right for You?
Flat-fee management tends to be the best fit for:
- Local service businesses, such as HVAC, home services, auto repair and medical practices, that live on calls and form fills
- Businesses spending a few thousand dollars a month on Google Ads
- Owners who tried running ads themselves and are not sure what is working
- Companies that left a percentage-of-spend agency and want predictable costs
If you are interviewing agencies, our list of questions to ask before hiring a PPC agency will help you compare them on more than price.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does PPC management cost? Agency pricing varies widely. Many charge a percentage of ad spend, often with a setup fee. Our Google Ads management is a flat monthly fee starting at $395, based on your monthly ad spend.
Is my ad spend included in the management fee? No. Your ad spend is paid directly to Google from your own account. The management fee covers our work: setup, optimization and reporting.
Who owns the Google Ads account? You do. We manage your account through our agency access, so your data and history stay with your business.
How long until I see results? Most accounts see early improvements within the first 30 days, once tracking is fixed and wasted spend is cut. Steady, compounding gains usually take two to three months of testing and optimization.
Know What You’re Paying For
You should never have to wonder what your PPC agency is doing with your money. With flat-fee management, you get a published price, a defined scope and a monthly report that shows the results.
Want to see what’s working and what’s wasting budget in your current account? Contact our Mesa team to start with a free audit of your Google Ads campaigns.
