Two separate costs: clicks and management
Running search ads involves two different costs, and it helps to keep them apart when you compare offers.
Ad spend is what Google or Microsoft charges for clicks. It goes on your own card or invoice inside your own account, and you set the ceiling.
The management fee pays for the work: building or restructuring campaigns, keyword and negative keyword lists, ad copy, conversion setup, routine checks and a written summary of what changed. The provider quotes it directly.
What moves the fee is usually the number of campaigns and services, whether you run one platform or both, how much tracking needs fixing at the start, and how often you want changes and reports. A quote that bundles spend and fee into one figure makes it hard to see either.
Setup first, then upkeep
Search work falls into two phases, and quotes often price them differently.
Setup happens once. It covers account structure, campaigns grouped by service, keyword lists with match types chosen deliberately, a starting negative list, ads and assets, location and network settings, and conversion actions wired to your form and tested end to end. If an account already exists, setup starts with an audit and often a partial rebuild.
Upkeep is the recurring part. Someone reads search terms, adds negatives, adjusts bids or targets, refreshes ads, watches budgets against the calendar and checks that tracking still works after any site change. It also includes a regular summary for you.
Ask which phase a quote covers. Some providers include setup in the first month; others bill it separately.
What to ask about tracking and reports
Tracking decides what the account learns from, so it deserves a few direct questions.
Ask which events will be counted as conversions and which will be recorded but left out of bidding. Ask how they will test that a form submission shows up in Google Ads, and how they will notice if it stops. If you use a CRM such as HubSpot or Salesforce, ask whether they plan to import offline conversions or use enhanced conversions for leads, and what they need from you to do it.
For reports, ask to see a sample. A useful one says what changed, why, and what is being watched next. Columns of figures with no notes are harder to act on. Also ask whether you can open the account's change history yourself.
Questions about search ads management
Who decides the ad budget?
You do. A provider can explain how daily campaign budgets work, how search volume and click prices affect spend, and how to split money between services. Ad spend is billed by Google or Microsoft to you, and you can lower or pause it in the account.
Should Google's automatic recommendations be switched on?
Many managers turn off auto-apply and look at each recommendation by hand. Some are useful, such as fixing a missing asset. Others widen targeting or raise budgets. Ask your provider how they handle them, and check the change history now and then to see what was applied.
Can you take over an account someone else built?
Yes. The work usually starts with an audit of the existing structure, keywords, negatives, conversion actions, bid strategy and settings such as search partners and location targeting. From there the partner suggests what to keep and what to rebuild. Existing history is worth keeping where it is sound.
Tell us what you sell and which channels you want to run. A service partner will reply with a scope and a quote.
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Paid social campaigns
Meta and LinkedIn ads with defined audiences, rotating creative, lead forms and tracking, all in ad accounts you own.
Page builds
Copy, layout, form setup and tracking for new landing pages, or fixes to pages you already send paid traffic to.
Follow-up setup
Alerts, tasks and simple follow-up sequences in your CRM, so new inquiries are answered by the right person.