Most South African small businesses spend R3,000 to R15,000 a month on Google Ads, plus a management fee if someone runs the campaigns for them. There’s no fixed price: you set your own budget, and Google charges you each time someone clicks your ad.
That flexibility is great, but it also makes Google Ads easy to waste money on. This guide explains how the pricing works, what clicks cost in South Africa, how to set a realistic budget, and how to make every rand count.
How Google Ads pricing works
Google Ads runs as an auction. Every time someone searches, Google decides which ads to show and in what order, based on how much advertisers are willing to pay per click and how relevant and useful their ads are. You only pay when someone clicks, which is why it’s called pay-per-click (PPC).
You control the total through a daily budget. Google may spend a bit more on busy days and less on quiet ones, but over a month it won’t charge more than your daily budget multiplied by the average number of days in a month.
What affects your cost per click
- Competition. The more businesses bidding on the same searches, the higher the price.
- Quality Score. Google rates how relevant your keywords, ads and landing page are. Higher quality usually means paying less per click for a better position.
- Location. Targeting central Johannesburg or Cape Town is often more competitive than smaller towns.
- Timing and device. Clicks can cost more at peak times, and you can adjust bids by time of day or device.
- Match types. Very broad keyword matching reaches more people but can waste money on irrelevant searches.
Average cost per click in South Africa
What you pay per click depends mainly on your industry and how competitive your keywords are. Recent South African estimates look roughly like this:
| Industry | Typical cost per click |
|---|---|
| E-commerce | R2 – R10 |
| B2B services | R9 – R25 |
| Consumer and home services | R12 – R20 |
| IT support and repairs | R20 – R30 |
| Health and medical | R5 – R40 |
| Legal | R15 – R60+ |
| Finance and insurance | R55 – R60+ |
Very competitive keywords can cost R200 or more per click. A well-structured campaign with good ads usually pays less per click than a poorly set-up one, because Google rewards relevance.
A realistic starting budget
For most local service businesses, R3,000 to R5,000 a month in ad spend is a sensible starting point. Below about R3,000, campaigns often collect too little data to optimise properly, so results stay unpredictable.
A worked example
Here’s how the numbers might look for a home-services business in Johannesburg:
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Monthly ad spend | R4,500 |
| Average cost per click | R15 |
| Clicks per month | About 300 |
| Website conversion rate | 5% |
| Enquiries per month | About 15 |
| Cost per enquiry | About R300 |
If one in three enquiries becomes a job worth R3,000, that’s five jobs and R15,000 in revenue from R4,500 in ad spend. Your own numbers will differ, but working through this simple sum tells you whether Google Ads makes sense for you before you spend anything.
Which campaign type should you use?
- Search campaigns show text ads to people searching on Google. They’re usually the best starting point for service businesses, because you only appear for searches you choose.
- Performance Max uses Google’s automation to show ads across Search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps and websites. It can work well once you have good conversion tracking and enough data, but it gives you less control.
- Display and YouTube are cheaper per click and good for awareness and remarketing, but rarely the best first step for generating enquiries.
Management and setup fees
If you hire someone to run your ads, expect a monthly management fee on top of ad spend. In South Africa this is typically R3,500 to R7,500 a month for one platform, or a percentage (usually 10–20%) of spend for larger budgets.
There’s often a once-off setup fee for building campaigns, researching keywords and setting up conversion tracking. Don’t skip the tracking: without it, neither you nor Google can tell which clicks turned into customers.
You can see my paid media packages and setup fees on The Menu.
How to avoid wasting money on Google Ads
- Track conversions (form submissions, calls and WhatsApp clicks) from day one, so Google optimises for enquiries, not just clicks.
- Use negative keywords to block searches like “jobs”, “free”, “course” or “salary”.
- Target the right area. Start with the suburbs or city you actually serve.
- Send people to a relevant page with a clear next step, not just your homepage.
- Schedule ads for the hours you can answer the phone, if calls are your main goal.
- Review the search terms report every week or two, and keep refining.
Signs your Google Ads aren’t working
- Lots of clicks but almost no enquiries, which usually points to the wrong keywords or a weak landing page.
- Your search terms report is full of searches that have nothing to do with your business.
- You can’t say how many enquiries came from Google Ads last month, because conversions aren’t tracked.
- Cost per enquiry keeps rising and nobody has changed anything in weeks.
- Your ads show in areas or at times you can’t actually serve customers.
What a good monthly report should show
Whether you run your own ads or pay someone to, a monthly report should answer one question: what did we get for the money? Look for:
- Ad spend, clicks and average cost per click
- Conversions (enquiries, calls, WhatsApp clicks or sales) and cost per conversion
- Which campaigns, keywords and ads performed best and worst
- What was changed this month, and what will be tested next
If a report only shows impressions and clicks, ask for conversions. Clicks don’t pay the bills; enquiries do.
Google Ads vs SEO: which is better value?
Google Ads brings results quickly but stops the moment you stop paying. SEO takes months to build but keeps bringing in visitors without paying per click. Most businesses do best with both: ads for immediate enquiries while SEO grows in the background. If you’re deciding between Google and social media advertising, read Google Ads vs Meta Ads: which should you start with?.
Frequently asked questions
Can I run Google Ads with R1,000 a month?
You can, but results will be limited and slow to optimise. It can work for very niche local services with cheap clicks; for most businesses, R3,000 or more gives much more reliable data.
How long before Google Ads brings in leads?
Ads can bring in clicks on the first day. Expect two to four weeks of learning and adjustments before cost per lead settles.
Should I pay ad spend to my agency or to Google?
Pay Google directly, through an account in your business’s name. That way you own the account and data, and you can always see where your money went.
Do Google Ads prices include VAT?
Google charges South African advertisers VAT on ad spend, so budget for 15% on top of the amount you set in your campaigns.
Want a second opinion on your Google Ads budget? Book a free coffee chat.
Keegan Jordaan is the founder of Crema Digital, a Johannesburg digital marketing studio. He has more than 10 years of hands-on experience and most recently ran the full digital marketing function for a group of 18 companies. Book a free coffee chat.