Monthly Google Ads management: what you should actually be paying for

"Monthly Google Ads management" is one of those terms everyone uses and nobody defines. Two agencies can both charge £1,500 a month and do wildly different amounts of work. Some are actively managing the account — changing bids, testing creative, refining structure, reporting genuinely. Some log in twice a quarter and run the Recommendations tab. The invoice looks the same.

If you're comparing providers or reviewing an existing retainer, here's what monthly management should actually cover — and what the tell-tale signs are that you're paying for something less.

The monthly floor: what every retainer should include

These are the activities that should happen on every account, every month, regardless of size or sector. If any of them isn't happening, you're paying for "access to a Google Ads manager" rather than for the work.

[Search-terms review](/blog/wasting-money-on-google-ads). Every month, every campaign. Queries added as negatives, high-performing queries added as their own keywords. This is the highest-leverage recurring work in Google Ads and the most often neglected.

Bid strategy check. Smart-bidding campaigns need at least 30 conversions/month per campaign to settle into a stable state. If a campaign has dropped below that, the strategy needs reconsidering. Monthly check, not quarterly.

Ad copy rotation and new creative tests. At least one new responsive search ad test per ad group per quarter, which means roughly a third of the account's ad groups get a new test every month. RSAs can learn — but only if they have something to compare against.

Performance review against target. CAC, ROAS, CPL — whichever metric matches the business. Measured against the target, not against last month. Drift is a 60-day problem, not a 30-day one, so the review needs to be on the trajectory.

Negative-keyword list maintenance. Account-level negative list should be updated at least monthly from search-terms data. If the account has shared negative lists across campaigns (which it should), the whole account benefits from one weekly pass.

Reporting that matches the business question. A monthly report should answer: what did we do, what happened, what are we going to do next. Not: here are 80 numbers. If the report comes as a data dump without narrative, the manager isn't doing the thinking they're being paid for.

The quarterly work that should be built in

Some activities don't need to happen monthly but absolutely need to happen. A good retainer has them scheduled, not optional.

• Structural review. Every quarter, are the campaigns still set up to match the business's current priorities? Business changes, campaigns don't move with it unless someone actively rethinks the structure.
• Landing page audit. Ads don't convert; landing pages do. At least quarterly, revisit the top landing pages for load speed, clarity, form friction, mobile experience. Flag page problems to the web team so they can be fixed.
• Conversion tracking audit. Does the account still measure the right things? Are Enhanced Conversions still firing? Is offline import still running? Is anything double-counting? Tracking drift is silent and expensive.
• Attribution review. Every few months, what's the attribution model doing to our spend allocation? Are there campaigns that look underperforming on current attribution that would look different on data-driven? Worth reviewing, not just accepting.
• Competitive review. Has the auction landscape changed? New entrants, big-brand push, price moves? Auction Insights and Impression Share trends, tied to observation of what competitors are actually doing in ads and on landing pages.

What the retainer should NOT include (but often charges for)

Watch for line items that sound impressive but don't move the account.

• Weekly reporting dashboards. You don't need a weekly report. You need a monthly report that's actually read. The weekly dashboard is theatre; the monthly narrative is the substance.
• "Account hygiene" as a line item. That's just work. It should be included. If it's being billed separately, you're being charged twice for something that's table-stakes.
• "Strategy calls" held to the minimum cadence. Quarterly reviews are right. Monthly mandatory calls usually become status updates that could have been emails.
• Vast keyword lists. Padding an ad group with 80 keywords doesn't make it better. 10 keywords tightly matched to intent will outperform 80 loosely matched every single time. If the retainer describes work in keyword count, that's a sign.
• "Landing page optimisation" from someone who doesn't touch landing pages. A Google Ads manager can flag landing page issues. They generally shouldn't be rebuilding pages. If the retainer bundles "landing page optimisation" but nobody on the team actually writes code or copy, that line item is fiction.

The question that settles it

There's one question that exposes the difference between substantive and theatrical monthly management, and you can ask it of any existing or prospective provider:

"Walk me through the last three changes you made to my account and why."

If the answer is specific, substantive, and about a decision that actually changed something — great.

If the answer is "we reviewed the recommendations tab and updated a few negatives" — you're paying for maintenance, not management.

If the answer is evasive or generic — you're paying for the illusion of attention.

Run it monthly as a sanity check. It only takes a minute and tells you everything.

Price points and what they should buy

Rough market ranges for 2026, UK:

• £500–£800/month. Maintenance tier. Realistic for accounts under £3k/month spend. Expect monthly search-terms review, negative additions, a report. Don't expect strategy.
• £800–£1,500/month. Working management for accounts £3k–£10k spend. Floor activities plus quarterly structural review. Active bid strategy management. Reporting with narrative.
• £1,500–£3,000/month. Strategic management for accounts £10k+ spend. Everything above plus landing page audits, conversion tracking maintenance, attribution review, competitive analysis. Named senior strategist, not just an account manager.
• £3,000+/month or % of spend. Spend management for £25k+/month budgets. Typically a team, not an individual. Should include dedicated analyst time, integration with your first-party data stack, and quarterly business reviews at the CMO level.

Below £500/month, you're paying for access and not much else. Above £3,000/month, the fee should come with specific senior-person time commitments and KPIs.

If you're unsure what you're paying for

We see a lot of accounts where the retainer has drifted — the fee didn't change, but the work did. An external review looks at the account and tells you, specifically, whether the monthly work being invoiced matches what's happening on the account.

Free Google Ads audit includes a plain-English read of what's been happening on your account in the last 90 days — the kind of "walk me through it" conversation above, but with the data to back it up. No sales call before the audit, no pressure after it.