Before you hire a PPC advisor, price the real cost: the ad budget you hand over, plus the hours you spend briefing, reviewing and second-guessing. One number sets the stakes. Advertisers pay up to $23.26 for a single top-of-page click on terms in this space. If your account buys even a few dozen clicks a week at that level, the advisor's judgment about which clicks to buy matters more than the advisor's fee.
Where the money actually goes
There are three cost lines. The first is the media budget, paid to Google or Meta. The second is the advisor's fee, whether flat, hourly or a percentage of spend. The third is your time: a kickoff call, access setup, weekly questions, and monthly reviews. Owners tend to count only the second line and then feel surprised by the other two.
| Cost line | What it looks like | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | Clicks bought at auction | You set the cap, the advisor allocates it |
| Advisor fee | Flat, hourly or percent of spend | Agreed in writing up front |
| Your hours | Briefing, approvals, reading reports | You, by being clear about scope |
A tiny search with a pricey auction
Searches for this phrase are few: 30 a month across 2 related queries. The range over the last year ran from 10 a month in November 2025 to 30 in September 2025. That tells you something useful. People looking for this kind of help are rare, so do not expect a flood of comparison shopping. Expect to find an advisor through a referral, a peer group or a short list you build yourself.
Questions to settle before you talk to anyone
Write down what one new customer is worth to you, how many you can serve, and what you would pay to win one. Without those three answers, no advisor can tell you whether ads make sense. With them, the conversation gets short and honest.
Next, confirm you can count results. Check that calls, form fills and purchases are recorded and tied to the ad that caused them. If they are not, fixing that comes first, and it is often a smaller job than owners fear.
What a good advisor shows you in the first month
Look for a plain list of what is being changed and why. You should see search terms you are paying for, the ones that were blocked, and how results are measured. Be wary of reports that lead with impressions or clicks and never mention customers.
Ask who owns the ad account. It should be yours, with the advisor added as a user. If you ever part ways, you keep the history.
Doing it yourself for a month first
If the budget is small, run a single campaign on your own for a month with a firm spending cap. Note your hours as well as your dollars. At the end you will know what you are buying when you hire, and you will be a sharper client.
When paying for expertise is reasonable
Outside help earns its cost when spend is rising, results are unclear, or you cannot tell whether tracking is correct. A one-time account review is a cheap way to test the waters before committing to monthly management. An agency like ours does both, but a review from any qualified person will answer the same question: is this account worth more money or less?
What to do this week
Work out your value per customer, check that your results are tracked, and cap any test spend. Then decide whether you need an ongoing advisor or just an audit and a clear plan.