As a rough guide, a management fee starts to make sense once you can spend around A$1,500 a month or more on ads. Below roughly A$1,000 a month, the fee can be a large share of the total, and a simple self-managed account or a one-off review may be the better first step.
Google has no minimum spend, but small budgets produce little data. A local service business targeting a few suburbs often needs A$1,500 to A$2,500 a month in ad spend to get enough clicks to learn what works. The right figure depends on your click costs and job value.
Our guide on how much a tradie should spend on Google Ads shows how to work out a budget from your own job value and close rate.
This is one part of a bigger picture. How to choose a Google Ads agency in Australia covers fees, ad spend, account ownership, proposals and timelines in one place.