Transparent Pricing for Every Budget

At Below Zero Media, Google Ads management starts at $500/month (plus a $750 one-time setup fee for the Flexibility plan, waived on the Commitment plan). This is a flat fee — we never charge a percentage of your ad spend. The industry average for full-service PPC management at a mid-size agency is $1,500–$4,000/month plus 10–15% of spend. At $500 flat, we're positioned to deliver the same expertise at a fraction of the cost because we run lean and cap our client count to protect quality.

Both plans include: campaign architecture and build, ongoing keyword management (adding terms, expanding negatives), ad copywriting and creative testing, bid strategy optimization, conversion tracking via Google Tag Manager, GA4 integration and goal configuration, and monthly reporting with plain-language interpretation of what the numbers mean for your business. The Commitment plan adds bi-weekly calls, competitor monitoring, and landing page CRO recommendations. What's never included: your actual ad spend (paid directly to Google or Meta), design fees for custom creative beyond basic ad assets, or any work outside the agreed scope.

Never. A percentage-of-spend model creates a conflict of interest: the agency earns more when you spend more, regardless of whether additional spend is generating a return. Our flat fee means our incentive is your result — not your budget size. For context, a client spending $20,000/month on ads with a 15% agency fee is paying $3,000/month in management on top of their media spend. We charge $500/month regardless of whether you're spending $3,000 or $50,000.

For Google Search campaigns on properly built accounts, you'll see measurable cost-per-lead data within 30 days and meaningful optimization (lower CPL, higher ROAS) by day 60–90. The algorithm needs conversion data to optimize toward — this is why the first 30 days focus heavily on tracking setup and data quality. For Meta campaigns, the learning phase typically resolves within 14–21 days and full-funnel performance is visible by day 45. We set realistic expectations in our audit: if the numbers don't support a profitable paid media investment for your specific vertical and market, we'll tell you that before you hire us.

The Flexibility plan is month-to-month after the first month, cancellable with 30 days notice. The Commitment plan is a 6-month agreement — which is where the eliminated setup fee comes from. We believe paid media deserves at least 60–90 days to prove itself, and the Commitment plan is priced to reward clients who give it that runway. Neither plan ever auto-renews into a 12-month contract. If we're not delivering results, you should be able to leave — and we should have to earn your business every month.

The defining difference is who manages your account. At large agencies, a junior coordinator — often six months out of college — follows a process checklist for your account, supervised by an account manager who handles 30–50 clients simultaneously. At Below Zero Media, the senior specialist who built your campaign manages it every week. We also cap our client count deliberately. More clients means less time per account — we've seen how that math destroys performance at scale. You also have full access to your own advertising accounts at all times. Some agencies restrict this as a retention tactic. We never do.

Yes — this is exactly what the Flexibility plan is designed for. Start at $500/month, see measurable results, then expand to additional channels, higher budgets, or broader service scope as confidence and ROI justify it. Several of our current Commitment plan clients started on Flexibility, saw performance in the first 60 days, and upgraded. The only prerequisite: your ad spend budget should be at least $1,500–$2,000/month for Google Search to give the algorithm enough data to optimize. Below that threshold, paid search is too limited to generate meaningful learning — we'll tell you this honestly if it applies to your situation.