If you’re wondering how much Google Ads cost, you’re not alone. And while the cost of your Google Ad depends on several factors, there are some factors that can affect how much you’ll pay.
Fortunately, given our experience and the information available from Google, we understand that Ad cost factors include the competitiveness of your industry, the keywords you’re targeting, your target audience, and the quality of your ads and website.
With the cost per click (CPC) on a Google Ad starting as little as 20p, it can increase massively. Find out more about the cost of Google Ads and what influences the prices in our blog today.
What Are Google Ads?
Google Ad campaigns operate on a pay-per-click model (PPC) where you’re charged each time a person clicks on your ad, which is why it’s super important to ensure the right people are clicking.
Google Ads give businesses and individuals the opportunity to promote their products, services, and content across the entire Google network. Types of ads include:
- Search Ads: Text-based ads that appear at the top or bottom of Google search results, shown with a ‘sponsored’ tag.
- Display Ads: Visual ads like images, banners, and videos that are shown across websites and YouTube through the Google Display Network.
- Video Ads: Video ads that play before, during, or after YouTube videos.
- Shopping Ads: Product-based ads with images, prices, links, and reviews that appear in Google Search results and Shopping results.
- App Promotion Ads: Usually text-based ads with the app icon, used to encourage app installs and engagement across Google Play Store and other Google platforms.
The actual CPC can range from a few pence to several pounds. Google Ads allow you to set a daily budget, so you can control how much you’re willing to spend each day on your ad campaigns. We’ve found that the average CPC can range from anywhere between £0.20 to £5.00, though we have seen considerably higher depending on the niche.
What Factors Affect the Cost of Google Ads?
As mentioned, the cost of running a Google Ads campaign can vary massively depending on the competitiveness of the keywords targeted, the industry sector, and your ad budget. For example, we’d typically see ads for insurance and healthcare cost more than ads for hospitality or small retail businesses.
So, what are the exact factors that influence the cost of Google Ads?
Keyword Choice
Popular keywords tend to have a higher CPC due to increased competition in that space. Long-tail keywords (keywords with around three or more words) may be cheaper, but could also have a lower search volume. It’s important to research and adjust keywords being targeted in your Google Ads campaign to ensure the best return on investment.
Quality Score
Google has an algorithm that assesses the quality and relevance of your ads and landing pages, with a higher Quality Score leading to lower costs and better ad positions. You can also improve your ad Quality Score by writing compelling copy with strong calls-to-action (CTA). You should avoid putting any unrelated keywords in the ad and make sure you tailor the ad to the keyword intent.
Ad Relevance
The relevance of your ad to the search query can also affect its performance and cost. Irrelevant ads may have higher costs and lower click-through-rates (CTR), so it’s essential to continuously assess your ads for relevance. For example, if someone is looking for “running shirts for women” but your ad simply promotes “womens sportswear”, users will be less inclined to click, which can lower your CTR and increase your CPC.
Ad Format & Extensions
How your ad is displayed plays a significant role in how often it’s clicked and what you pay per click. As you can opt for a range of ad types, it’s important to choose the right one depending on your goals. You can also opt to enhance your ad with extensions, which are extra pieces of content that can increase your ads visibility and relevance. Some of the most common extensions include:
- Sitelinks
- Callouts
- Structured Snippets
- Call Extensions
- Location Extensions
For example, an ad for a local renovation company may include sitelinks to the services and booking page. These extras can make your ad more relevant and clickable than a plain ad, and it doesn’t cost any extra.
Ad Placement
Ads that are shown at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) usually have higher costs than ads that appear on the bottom of the SERP or on other Google properties. A good rule of thumb is that the closer to the top of the search results the ad is, the more clicks it’ll achieve, however the cost will be higher.
Bid Strategy
Google Ads typically work on a bidding system, and your bidding strategy can determine how Google spends your ad budget. You can set the bid strategy manually, where you control each keyword’s bid, or automated, where Google adjusts the bids in real-time based on your campaign goals.
Manual Bidding allows you to set the maximum CPC yourself, which although gives you more control, requires consistent monitoring to ensure the best return on investment.
Automatic Bidding allows Google to use their own machine-learned system to optimise your ads automatically based on your specific ad outcomes, like increasing clicks, conversions, or return on ad spend.
For example, an e-commerce store may opt to maximise sales by using a bidding strategy that uses the best return on ad spend, while a local engineer who wants to achieve more phone calls may choose to maximise conversions as their bidding strategy.
It’s important to opt for the right strategy and one that increases your visibility and gives you smarter results.
Targeting Options
With Google Ads, you have the opportunity to tweak the location, device, and audience to which your ads are displayed. Highly specific targeting may result in higher costs as these are more likely to be effective on your campaign. For example, a regional retail business with multiple stores around the country may opt to target users in England, whereas a local lawyer firm may wish to target adults in a specific geographical area.
Level of Competition
The competitiveness of your industry and the number of advertisers bidding for the same or similar keywords can significantly impact your ad cost. For example, accounting and finance terms are highly competitive and would therefore have a high CPC.
Historical Ad Performance
Historical performance metrics such as CTR, conversion rate, and ad engagement can influence future costs. Strong historical ad campaigns can signal to Google that your ads are relevant and engaging to the audiences they appear before, which can lower your costs and improve ad visibility.
For example, if your previous ads led to actions like successful sales or sign-ups, Google will reward that. This can also be beneficial if two advertisers are bidding on the same keyword, as the advertiser with a strong history will more likely be shown in a higher position than their competitor.
Ad Budget
Your daily budget and overall campaign budget can affect how often your ads are shown and can directly impact your overall costs. It’s important to repeatedly assess how your ads are performing and how much is being spent on clicks.
Prior to setting your Google Ads live, you should set a clear ad budget to ensure you don’t end up spending over budget. While your ad is live, you should monitor and (if necessary) readjust keywords if they’re not doing as well as you hoped.
What Is The Average Cost of Google Ads?
While it’s challenging to provide an exact average cost of a Google Ad Campaign due to the many variables involved, businesses can use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to estimate costs for specific keywords and industries before launching their campaigns.
Continuously monitoring and optimising Google Ad campaigns can help businesses achieve the best possible return on investment from their Google Ads spending.
Help With PPC and Google Ads Management
Investing in PPC can completely change your business performance and help set you apart from the competition. At Maxweb Solutions, we offer paid search audits to identify what has previously worked well or poorly in any previous advertising campaigns you have conducted.
We have a team of experienced paid ad experts who can create a tailored strategy to help transform your business performance, consistently analysing and adjusting the ads to ensure that you get the best return on investment possible.
We have years of experience conducting successful Google Ad campaigns and work with our clients to get the best results possible. We utilise your ads budgets as you wish, and are one of the few digital marketing agencies in the UK with a Google Partner Status.
If you are interested in Google Ads or want much information about how much Google Ads costs for your sector, get in touch with our team today.
Posted on Monday, September 15th, 2025 in Latest News.
