Most Australian agencies charge $800 to $5,000 a month, or 10% to 20% of your ad spend. Setup runs $750 to $2,000. We charge $750 a month flat with a $650 setup, and this page shows you where that sits against everyone else, with the sources.
Figures published July 2026. Australian dollars, excluding GST unless a source says otherwise. Reviewed March 2027.
Almost nobody in this industry publishes their rates, so we went and collected them. Every figure below traces to a named, dated source at the bottom of this page.
| What | The going rate | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Flat monthly management, agency | $800 to $5,000+ a month | Marketix Digital; Grove Foundry |
| By tier | Basic monitoring $400 to $600. Standard small business $800 to $1,500. Professional $1,500 to $2,500. Enterprise $3,000 to $5,000+ | Grove Foundry |
| Flat monthly, freelancer | $800 to $2,500 | Grove Foundry |
| Percentage of ad spend | 10% to 20%, often tiered: 20% on small budgets falling toward 10% as spend grows | Marketix Digital; Grove Foundry |
| A worked example | At a published 20% plus GST: $2,500 of spend is a $500 fee, $5,000 is $1,000, $10,000 is $2,000 | Marketix Digital's own table |
| Setup, once | $750 to $2,000 agency, $500 to $1,500 freelancer | Grove Foundry |
| Hourly | $60 to $250 an hour | Grove Foundry; Marketix |
| Contracts | The market has "shifted strongly toward no lock-in contracts", but some agencies still ask for three months to start | Grove Foundry |
| Minimum ad spend | $1,000 to $2,000 a month for most small businesses. Below $500 the data accumulates too slowly to optimise against | Grove Foundry |
| Click prices | Up 31% January to May 2026, up 21% year on year | Australian market data, 2026 |
We publish our price because a flat fee you can see is easier to trust than a quote you have to sit through a call to get. Here it is against the ranges above.
| What you are comparing | Hartwell Digital | The market |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly management | $750, flat | $800 to $5,000, or 10% to 20% of spend |
| Setup, once | $650 | $750 to $2,000 |
| When your spend grows | The fee stays where it is | On a 20% fee, $5,000 of spend costs $1,000 a month to manage |
| Hourly | $95 | $60 to $250 |
| Contract | None, month to month | Often three months to start |
| Who owns the ad account | You do, and you keep it | Sometimes the agency, and you can be locked out |
| Who your ad spend goes to | Google, on your own card | Often paid through the agency |
The honest reading: we are cheap for an agency and normal for a good freelancer. We are not the cheapest option in Australia and we are not trying to be. What the flat fee is worth is predictability as you grow. At $5,000 of monthly spend a 20% fee is $1,000 a month against our $750, and at $10,000 it is $2,000 against $750.
And to be fair about it: a percentage fee is a normal model, not a scam. At larger spends it usually does buy more people and more testing. It just means the agency earns more when you spend more, and you should know that is how it works before you sign.
See what that buys on the Google Ads page, or the work we have done with the numbers attached.
Australian agencies generally charge $800 to $5,000 a month as a flat management fee, or 10% to 20% of your ad spend. By tier: basic monitoring runs $400 to $600 a month, standard small business management $800 to $1,500, professional $1,500 to $2,500, and enterprise $3,000 to $5,000 or more. Freelancers sit at $800 to $2,500. Hartwell Digital charges a flat $750 a month with a one-off $650 setup.
A flat fee costs less as your spend grows and a percentage fee costs more. On a 20% fee, $2,500 of monthly ad spend costs $500 to manage, $5,000 costs $1,000 and $10,000 costs $2,000. A flat $750 stays $750 at all three. Percentage pricing is a normal model and at large spends it does buy more work, but it means the agency earns more when you spend more, which is a conflict a flat fee does not have.
Most Australian small businesses need $1,000 to $2,000 a month in ad spend for Google Ads to work properly, and $1,500 to $3,000 is a comfortable range. Below about $500 a month the data accumulates too slowly to optimise against. Australian click prices rose about 31% between January and May 2026 and about 21% year on year, so budgets that worked in 2024 do not stretch as far now.
Australian agencies typically charge $750 to $2,000 as a one-off setup or onboarding fee, and freelancers $500 to $1,500. We charge $650 once. A setup fee covers keyword research, campaign structure, ad writing and conversion tracking, which is work that happens before a single ad runs.
You do not have to. The Australian market has shifted strongly toward no lock-in contracts, though some agencies still ask for three months to start. A minimum term is defensible for the first 60 to 90 days, because that is genuinely how long a new campaign takes to gather data, but it should be explained rather than buried. We work month to month with no minimum.
You should. The Google Ads, Analytics, Tag Manager and call tracking accounts should all be in your business's name, with the agency holding access rather than ownership. An agency that owns the account can lock you out of it, and you lose the campaign history and audience data that make advertising cheaper over time. Ask before you sign, not after.
Not necessarily, but price does buy something. A $400 a month fee usually means monitoring rather than active management, and a $3,000 fee usually means a team, more testing and more reporting. The question is not the number but what the number buys, and how much of your budget the fee represents. A $750 fee on $1,500 of spend is a third of your total cost, which is worth thinking about.
Send us your website and roughly what you spend. Within two working days you get an email naming the three things costing you the most. No call, no pitch, no cost.
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