Quick answer
Google Ads management in Melbourne costs from $590/month with us plus your ad spend, which you pay directly to Google. Most small business campaigns need at least $1,000–$1,500/month in spend to gather enough data to optimise. You own the ad account, and there's no lock-in.
Google Ads can generate leads within days of launch, or it can quietly burn through a monthly budget with nothing to show for it. The difference almost always comes down to setup — how the campaign is structured, what it excludes, and where the traffic actually lands. Here's exactly how we manage Google Ads for Melbourne businesses, and what we charge to do it.
- Traffic sent to a homepage instead of a dedicated landing page built for that exact search
- No negative keywords, so the account pays for searches with zero purchase intent
- No conversion tracking, so nobody actually knows which clicks turned into a lead
- Broad match keywords with no oversight, quietly draining budget on irrelevant terms
- Bidding on generic terms with high competition instead of the specific terms your actual customers use
- An account left on autopilot for months with no one reviewing search term reports
- Campaign structure — split sensibly by service, location or intent, not one messy catch-all campaign
- Keyword research based on what Melbourne customers actually search, not guesswork
- Ad copy written and tested against competitors, not a single unchanged ad running for a year
- Bid strategy managed and adjusted as the account gathers data
- Negative keyword lists built and maintained so you stop paying for irrelevant clicks
- Conversion tracking wired up properly — calls, form fills and, where relevant, online sales
Most agencies manage the ads and leave you to sort out where the traffic lands. We don't. Paid traffic converts far better on a dedicated landing page — one built for that specific search, stating the offer or price clearly, with a single obvious next step — than it does on a homepage trying to be everything to everyone. Building the landing page in-house alongside the campaign means the message on the ad matches the message on the page, which is where most Google Ads accounts quietly lose money without anyone noticing.
For plumbers, electricians and other trades, two things matter more than anything else in the account: the local map pack ad placements and call extensions that let a customer ring you straight from the search result. Someone with a burst pipe isn't reading three paragraphs — they're tapping the first number they see. We set campaigns up around that reality. See our broader approach for builders and tradies.
Without conversion tracking, Google Ads is a black box — you can see spend, but not whether it produced a single lead. We set up conversion tracking for form submissions and calls, and where it's useful, dedicated call tracking numbers so you can hear which keywords are actually generating phone enquiries, not just clicks.
Reports are monthly and written in plain English: what we spent, how many leads it produced, what the cost per lead was, and what we changed and why. No screenshots of dashboards full of metrics that don't mean anything to you.
Google Ads produces leads immediately but stops the moment you stop paying. SEO takes longer to build but keeps producing enquiries without an ongoing spend on every click. Most Melbourne businesses that do well long-term run both — Ads for immediate volume while SEO builds in the background, then leaning more on organic rankings once they land.
| What you pay | |
|---|---|
| Management fee | From $590/month |
| Ad spend | Paid directly to Google, not through us |
| Contract | Month to month, no lock-in |
| Account ownership | Yours from day one |
- Ad spend paid to the agency rather than directly to Google, with no visibility on where it actually goes
- No conversion tracking set up, so results are reported in clicks and impressions instead of leads
- A locked-in twelve-month contract you can't exit if the campaign underperforms
- Traffic sent straight to your homepage with no dedicated landing page
- Reports full of vanity metrics — impressions, reach — and no cost per lead
- An account you don't have admin access to and can't take with you
- No negative keyword strategy, so irrelevant searches keep draining the budget
Our management fee starts from $590/month. On top of that you pay Google directly for your ad spend — that money never passes through us. Most small business campaigns need at least $1,000–$1,500/month in spend before there's enough data to optimise properly.
There's no hard minimum, but under roughly $1,000/month the algorithm struggles to gather enough clicks and conversions to learn who to target. Below that, you're often better off with a smaller test campaign or focusing on SEO first.
Traffic can start the day a campaign goes live. Reliable conversion data usually takes two to four weeks, and real optimisation gains — lower cost per lead, better quality traffic — show up over eight to twelve weeks as the account learns.
Yes. The account is created under your business, in your name, with your billing details. If you ever leave us, the account and its history go with you. We manage it; we don't own it.
Negative keywords tell Google which searches to exclude — for example, a plumber excluding "plumbing course" or "DIY" searches. Without them, you pay for clicks from people who were never going to hire you. Most under-managed accounts bleed budget here.
A homepage tries to serve everyone and converts no one. A dedicated landing page matches the exact search, states the price or offer, and has one clear action. Swapping a homepage link for a matched landing page is often the single biggest lever on cost per lead.
Google Ads targets people actively searching for what you sell — high intent, generally higher cost per click. Meta targets people who weren't searching but match your audience — lower intent, generally cheaper. Service businesses with clear demand usually start with Google.
Monthly, in plain English — spend, leads, cost per lead, and what we changed and why. No jargon-filled dashboard dump you need a marketing degree to read.
No. Campaigns are billed month to month. If it's not working, you can leave, and because you own the account, you can take the data and history with you.
Yes. We research your competitors' ads, write copy that highlights what makes you different, and test multiple versions against each other to see which converts best.
Ready to start?
Book a free thirty-minute call. We'll look at your current site and top competitors, tell you which package actually fits, and send a fixed-price quote within two business days.