How Much Does Google Ads Cost in 2023?

How much does Google Ads cost? It’s a reasonable question

Google Ads is one of the largest advertising platforms that allow brands to reach potential customers through various ad formats, including search, shopping, video, and display. It’s a popular choice for brands looking to start advertising their business online, and many have a lot of questions about Google Ads.

In 2023, companies will spend anywhere from 000 per month onGoogle Ads (previously known as Google AdWords), which maintains an average cost-per-click (CPC) of $1 to $2 for the Google Search Network and less than $1 for the Google Display Network.

How much does Google Ads cost? It’s a reasonable question, and one we hear all the time, especially from newcomers to paid search. After all, you’ll want to know whether you can afford it. The good news is, you can. The bad nClick Hereews is, there’s no easy, one-size-fits-all answer. The clearest (and most infuriating) one we can provide is: it depends.

Factors that impact Google Ads pricing
As mentioned above (and precisely why we’ve written this guide), there is no simple or one-size-fits all answer to the question of how much Google Ads will cost your business. Business Google Ads pricing varies depending on your industry, customer lifecycle, current trends, and how well you manage your account.

Industry
The biggest influence on Google Ads pricing is industry. For example, the business services vertical (legal, accounting, real estate, etc.) is one of the more competitive verticals in Google Ads, which generally translates to higher costs per click (CPC). This is due to the nature of the professional services industry: one new client could yield upwards of $1,000 – $10,000 depending on your business, so a CPC of $50 is a small price to pay for that client in Business Google Ads.Here

Customer lifecycle
You also have to take into account the lifecycle of your customer. For bigger ticket offerings, it takes longer for potential clients to move through the decision-making process, and your business needs to stay top-of-mind throughout that journey. This may involve multiple visits to your website, a content download or two, and more—before taking that final step.

Current trends
Neither consumer trends nor online advertising platforms are ever in a state of rest. It’s important to keep up with what’s going in your industry and within your niche—sentimentally and empirically. Take COVID, for example. At the height of the pandemic, average cost per click for the apparel industry was about $1.40. It dropped down to $0.70 in April when average conversion rates went up, and then ended up at $0.89 in May.

How does Google Ads determine your cost per click?
The great part about Business Google Ads is that while it works as an auction, the winners aren’t chosen based on bid alone, and you don’t necessarily pay your maximum bid. How is this possible? Let’s take a quick run-through on how Google Ads determines the winners and what they pay per click.


Daily average budgets
When you set up a campaign in Business Google Ads, you will be asked to provide a daily word stream budget. There is a shared budget feature, but if you’re just starting out, it’s best to give each campaign its own separate budget. But the daily budget you set does not mean Google will spend that exact amount each day. You’re giving Google a rough idea of what you’d like your daily spend to average out to at the end of the month—meaning it could exceed or fall short of that amount on any given day. Which leads us to spending limits.

Spending limits
Originally, Google could spend up to 20% more than your daily average budget in this manner—until October 2017 when it announced it could spend up to 100% more of, or double, your budget—if it means more clicks or conversions. This means that if you set a daily average budget of $50, your daily spending limit is $100. You will never pay more in a day than your daily spending limit, and you will never pay more than a month than your monthly spending limit (your average daily budget x 30.4; although if you’re not paying forGoogle Ads with the invoice method, you can set a monthly spend limit at the account level).

How much do Google Ads cost based on industry?
Even though most companies spend $9000 to $30,000 per month on Google Ads, they use their ad spend in different ways. Factors like their industry, products, services, and competitors all influence their Google advertising costs.

For perspective into your industry, check out this breakdown of CPC rates on Google Ads:

INDUSTRY AVERAGE CPC (SEARCH NETWORK) AVERAGE CPC (DISPLAY NETWORK)
Advocacy $1.43 $0.62
Auto $2.46 $0.58
B2B $3.33 $0.79
Consumer Services $6.40 $0.81
Dating and Personals $2.78 $1.49
Ecommerce $1.16 $0.45
Education $2.40 $0.47
Employment Services $2.04 $0.78
Finance and Insurance $3.44 $0.86
Health and Medical $2.62 $0.63
Home Goods $2.94 $0.60
Industrial Services $2.56 $0.54
Legal $6.75 $0.72
Real Estate $2.37 $0.75
Technology $3.80 $0.51
Travel and Hospitality $1.53 $0.44
In most cases, industries with a higher CPC spend more on Google Ads.

The consumer services sector, for example, pays an average of almost $7 per click, which can move businesses in the industry to increase their monthly Google Ads spend. Companies can also have additional Google Ads costs, including:

Professional PPC management
When businesses invest in PPC, it’s not uncommon for them to partner with a PPC agency.

A PPC agency, develops, launches, and manages your paid advertising campaigns on platforms like Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising, plus helps improve yourGoogle Ads optimization score.

As a part of leading and managing your PPC campaigns, your PPC agency will charge a monthly management fee. This rate ranges from $350 to $5000 per month and does not include your monthly ad spend.

How can I set a realistic budget and bid for Google Ads?
Want the answer to your PPC budget question in a video format? Hit the play button on the video below.

Now that we’ve dug into exactly how Google Ads works, you can see why, “it depends” is a practical answer to the question, “How much does Google Ads cost?

When you advertise on Google Ads, you have (mostly) full control over your ad spend. There are certain variables you have direct control over, like your maximum CPC bid and the quality of your ads, but there are also factors you can’t really control, like your competitors’ max CPC bids and the quality of their ads.

That’s all within the Ad Auction, though. Before you even get to that point, you have to consider how competitive your niche is and how competitive individual keywords within your niche are.

This is where you can get creative to keep your Google PPC costs down.

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