Look for a Google Ads agency in Australia and you get two completely different lists. We ran both checks on 12 September 2026. The Google top 20 gave us one set of names. ChatGPT gave us another. Not one name appeared in both.
That matters, because most buyers only check one. Google it and you get the agencies that are good at ranking. Ask ChatGPT and you get agencies with strong Google Business Profiles in capital cities. This list is built from both, plus a visit to every agency’s own website. Where an agency does not publish a price, we say so.
How we built this list
Everything here comes from checks we ran on 12 September 2026.
- A live Google search in Australia for “google ads agency australia” and “google ads companies”, 20 results deep.
- A ChatGPT test asking “best Google Ads agency in Australia for a small business”, with web search on.
- A second ChatGPT test on how Australian agencies charge.
- A visit to each agency’s site to confirm city, services and any published fee or partner badge.
- A keyword data pull for Australia.
We only write what an agency publishes about itself. We do not rate anyone’s quality or results, because we cannot see inside their accounts and neither can you until you are a client. Agencies are grouped by city, and inside each city the ones that appeared in the Google top 20 come before the ones that only appeared in ChatGPT. That is the only signal we can measure from outside, and it says nothing about results.
When Australians look for a Google Ads agency
Our search data pull shows “google ads agency australia” at about 140 searches a month in Australia, “google ads companies” at 110 with a $78.73 cost per click, and “google ads management company” at 110.
The monthly shape matters more than the average. Across the national term and the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane versions, volume peaks in September and again in March, then collapses in December. For “google ads agency melbourne” the swing was 1,300 searches in September 2025 down to 210 in December. You are shopping at the same time as everyone else, so good agencies are busy right now.
12 Google Ads agencies in Australia
Sydney
SOUP Agency ranked third in the Google top 20 today. Its Google Ads page covers Search, Shopping, Performance Max and YouTube, plus SEO, social and email. It is the most open agency here on the two things buyers usually have to ask for. On fees: “Our Google Ads management starts from $2,500 per month.” On ownership, its FAQ says you own the accounts and keep your data and conversion history throughout. It calls itself a badged Google Partner, not a Premier Partner.
NetStripes is in Pyrmont, Sydney, listing Google Ads, SEO, Meta Ads, web design and development. It publishes a paid first step rather than a monthly rate: a Growth Diagnostic at $5,500 plus GST, credited toward your first month if you continue. Monthly management is customised and ad spend is separate.
AdVisible was the first name ChatGPT gave us today. It is on Sussex Street in the Sydney CBD, lists Google Ads, SEO, social and web design, and displays a Premier Google Partner badge. No pricing published.
Direct Clicks is on Clarence Street, Sydney CBD, and was second in our ChatGPT test. It lists SEO, SEM, web design and social, and states Google Premier Partner status. No pricing published.
Melbourne
First Page ranked second today. Its main office is in Richmond, Melbourne, with a second in Sydney, covering Search, Display, Shopping, YouTube, remarketing and Performance Max, plus SEO and paid social. It is the only agency we checked that publishes both fee models side by side on its Google Ads page: a fixed fee of $800 to $2,000 a month for smaller budgets, or 12 to 20 per cent of the ad budget for larger accounts. It states Premier Partner status and advertises a results guarantee for existing profitable accounts. Read the conditions on any guarantee closely.
Impressive Digital ranked fourth today. It is Melbourne based and also lists six other cities. It runs Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube and Performance Max, plus paid social, SEO and analytics, and states Premier Partner status. Its page says fees are “performance-based and tied to a target we agree on together”, and that it works best with businesses investing $5,000 or more a month.
Uprise Digital. Yes, this is us, and we will be straight about where we landed. We are in Cremorne, Melbourne, and work Australia wide across Search, Shopping and Performance Max, plus SEO, AI search and web design. We did not appear in the Google top 20 for either national term today, and ChatGPT did not name us as an agency. What it did do was use our Sydney Google Ads agency list as a source for its shortlist, citing it twice. That is a result for the blog, not the same as being recommended. We publish city lists for Melbourne and Brisbane too, and we do not publish a rate card, so by our own test we sit in the “not published” column as well.
Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast
Google Ads Pro ranked ninth for “google ads companies” today. Its homepage says it is “based in Brisbane and working with service businesses across Australia”, and lists Google Ads, SEO, local SEO, Google Business Profile suspension recovery and Meta Ads. It publishes the lowest fee we found anywhere: “Our Google Ads management starts from $165 per month.” It also states clients pay Google directly for ad spend, no lock in contracts, and certified Google Partner status. At that fee you are buying a few hours from one experienced person, not a team. For a single location service business that can be right. For a multi location or ecommerce account it will not be.
Digital Nomads HQ is based at Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast and ranked in the top 20 for both terms today, on its own Google Ads companies article. It lists SEO and AI SEO, Google Ads, social, web design and content. Its site says Google Ads management starts from $1,000 per month and full service from $3,000, month to month. It displays a Google Ads Partner badge.
Adelaide
CLIQ Marketing Content held the top organic position today for “google ads agency australia”. It is Adelaide based and works nationally, listing Google Ads management and audits, YouTube Ads, SEO and lead generation. Its page says: “Flat Fee Pricing: We generally charge a flat fee monthly retainer for our management”, with more for larger campaigns. The dollar figure is not published, and it states Google Partner status.
Loudachris Digital Marketing was the fourth name ChatGPT gave us, with a quirk worth noting: ChatGPT listed a Sydney CBD address from its Google Business Profile, while the agency’s own website describes it as Adelaide based. We have gone with what the agency says about itself. It lists SEO, Google Ads and web design, and publishes a fee in dollars: Google Ads management “from $800+GST/month plus ad spend”. No Partner status is mentioned. It stresses that you work directly with the founder rather than an account manager.
Perth
Dilate Digital ranked fifth today. It is in Fremantle, Western Australia, and works Australia wide across Search, Display, Video, Shopping and retargeting, plus Facebook Ads and SEO. It states Premier Partner status and no lock in contracts, and does not publish pricing.
Comparison table
“Published fee model” means what the agency states on its own website. “Not published” is not a criticism. Most agencies price on complexity and prefer to quote. It only tells you how much you know before your first call.
| Agency | City | What they focus on | Published fee model | In Google top 20 today | Named by ChatGPT today |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOUP Agency | Sydney | Google Ads, SEO, social, email | Flat fee from $2,500/month | Yes | No |
| NetStripes | Sydney | Google Ads, SEO, Meta, web | Paid diagnostic $5,500 + GST, then custom | Yes | No |
| AdVisible | Sydney | Google Ads, SEO, social, web | Not published | No | Yes |
| Direct Clicks | Sydney | SEO, SEM, web, social | Not published | No | Yes |
| First Page | Melbourne | Full Google Ads suite, SEO, social | Fixed $800 to $2,000/month, or 12 to 20% of spend | Yes | No |
| Impressive Digital | Melbourne | Google Ads, social, SEO, analytics | Performance based against an agreed target | Yes | No |
| Uprise Digital (this is us) | Melbourne | Google Ads, SEO, AI search, web | Not published | No | No, but our Sydney list was cited |
| Google Ads Pro | Brisbane | Google Ads, SEO, local SEO | Flat fee from $165/month | Yes | No |
| Digital Nomads HQ | Mooloolaba, QLD | SEO, Google Ads, social, web | Flat fee from $1,000/month | Yes | No |
| CLIQ Marketing Content | Adelaide | Google Ads, YouTube Ads, SEO | Flat retainer, amount not published | Yes | No |
| Loudachris Digital Marketing | Adelaide | Google Ads, SEO, web design | Flat from $800 + GST/month plus ad spend | No | Yes |
| Dilate Digital | Fremantle, WA | Google Ads, Facebook Ads, SEO, web | Not published | Yes | No |
ChatGPT also named Sydney Digital Marketing, Australian Internet Advertising, Onmove Digital, Greater Leads, GOAT Digital, PPC Land and Click Click Media. We left some out to keep a spread across the country.
What a good Google Ads agency does month to month
Here is what should be happening between invoices.
- Search term review. Someone reads the actual searches that triggered your ads and adds negative keywords. This is the biggest source of wasted spend.
- Conversion tracking checks. If tracking breaks, every decision after it is guesswork. Our guide to GA4 conversion tracking covers what to test.
- Budget and bid moves. Money shifted toward the campaigns and locations producing enquiries.
- Ad testing. New headlines and descriptions, old ones retired on evidence rather than taste.
- Quality Score work. A better match between keyword, ad and landing page lowers what you pay per click, as we cover in Quality Score explained.
- Performance Max supervision. PMax hides a lot. A good manager pulls channel and search category reporting and checks asset groups.
- Reporting on leads, not clicks. Cost per enquiry and cost per sale. Impressions and click through rate are supporting numbers.
If the monthly report is a dashboard screenshot with no commentary, you are paying for a screenshot. Most failures we see are simple and repeatable, and we listed them in why Google Ads campaigns fail.
The fee models, and what they cost in Australia
There are three models in common use. Every figure below comes either from an agency’s published page, which we name, or from our ChatGPT test, which we label.
Percentage of ad spend
The agency takes a cut of what you spend with Google. First Page publishes 12 to 20 per cent for larger accounts, and our ChatGPT test returned 10 to 20 per cent as the usual Australian range.
The catch is simple. At $5,000 a month spend, 15 per cent is $750. At $20,000 a month the same 15 per cent is $3,000, even if the work has not tripled. The person advising you on your budget is also paid more when your budget goes up. Not automatically bad, but worth knowing.
Flat monthly fee
A set retainer regardless of spend, and the most common published model among the agencies we checked. Today’s published numbers run from $165 a month at Google Ads Pro in Brisbane, to $800 plus GST at Loudachris in Adelaide, to $1,000 at Digital Nomads HQ, to $2,500 at SOUP Agency in Sydney. First Page publishes $800 to $2,000 for smaller budgets.
That is a fifteen fold gap between cheapest and dearest, and the gap is mostly hours and seniority. A $165 fee buys a small slice of one person’s week. A $2,500 fee should buy a team, tracking work, ad production and strategy time.
Hybrid and performance based
A base fee plus a smaller percentage above a spend threshold, or fees tied to an agreed target. Impressive Digital describes its fees as performance based against a target agreed with the client. Our ChatGPT test described hybrid as a base fee plus roughly 8 to 12 per cent above a threshold. If you go performance based, get the target defined in writing, including what counts as a conversion.
What you pay Google is separate
The management fee sits on top of your ad budget, and the ad budget goes to Google. Google Ads Pro and NetStripes both state this plainly. Check it with anyone who is vague.
Australian click costs are not cheap. Our study of Google Ads costs in Australia found a median of $16.19 per click, with industry medians from $3.96 in medical up to $22.68 in trades. Single services go higher: $53.23 for personal injury lawyer terms and $49.54 for emergency plumber terms. Melbourne sat at $19.44 and Hobart at $7.26.
Run that against a fee and the picture sharpens. If trades clicks cost around $22 and you buy 100, that is roughly $2,268 to Google. A $165 fee is about 7 per cent of that. A $2,500 fee is more than the ad budget itself. Neither is wrong, they are different products. Just check that fee plus spend still leaves a profit at your average job value.
The account access and ownership trap
Your Google Ads account should be created under your own business email, owned by you, with the agency given access. Agencies manage client accounts through a manager account, which Google calls an MCC. Google’s help page on manager accounts describes it as an umbrella account with individual accounts linked to it, says a manager account cannot change a client account’s sign in information, and says the account user can end the link themselves. That is the arrangement you want.
What you do not want is an agency creating the account under its own details and handing you a login or a report. If you leave, you can lose the whole history: years of conversion data, the learning Smart Bidding is built on, and your ad copy. You start from zero while competitors keep compounding.
So before the first invoice, ask three things. Will the account be created under my business email with admin access held by me? If we part ways, do I keep the account, the conversion history and the tracking setup? And who owns the Google Analytics property, the Tag Manager container, the Merchant Centre account and any landing pages you build?
Get the answers in the agreement, not in an email. SOUP Agency is the only agency here that states this publicly, which is a fair standard for the rest of the industry to meet.
What the Google Partner badge actually means
Ten of the twelve agencies here state some form of Google Partner status on their own site. The two levels are not close.
Google’s page on how to become a Google Partner or Premier Partner sets the bar. For Partner you need a minimum optimisation score of 70 per cent, a 90 day ad spend of USD $10,000 across managed accounts, and half your strategists certified. That is reachable for a small agency with a handful of clients.
Premier Partner also requires ranking in the top 3 per cent of participating companies in your country, judged annually on client growth, retention, product mix and total annual ad spend.
So when First Page, Impressive Digital, Dilate Digital, AdVisible and Direct Clicks say Premier Partner, that lines up with what Google’s own page describes. The claim checks out. What it measures is scale across the whole agency, not how well your account will be run. A badge is a floor, not a forecast.
Questions to ask before you sign
- Who will touch my account each week, and what is their name?
- How is the fee calculated, and what happens if I double or halve my ad spend?
- What is the minimum term and the notice period?
- Will the ad account be in my name with me as admin?
- Will you set up conversion tracking and show me it firing correctly?
- Can I see a sample report from a real client, with the name removed?
- Have you run accounts in my industry and my city?
- What cost per enquiry do you expect, and what is that based on?
- What happens in month one, and what is realistic by month three?
- If this does not work, at what point do you tell me to stop?
The last one is the most revealing. An agency with a point at which it will tell you to stop is thinking about your money. Be careful with anyone who promises a position or a set number of leads. Google Ads is an auction, and nobody controls what competitors bid.
FAQ
How much does a Google Ads agency cost in Australia?
Based on fees published on agency websites we checked on 12 September 2026, management runs from $165 a month up to $2,500 and higher for larger accounts. First Page publishes $800 to $2,000 a month for smaller budgets, or 12 to 20 per cent of spend for larger ones. Our ChatGPT test gave 10 to 20 per cent of spend, or roughly $800 to $3,000 a month flat for small and medium businesses. That fee sits on top of what you pay Google.
Is a percentage of spend or a flat fee better?
For most small businesses a flat fee is easier to plan around and does not rise just because you increase your budget. A percentage suits larger accounts where the agency really is managing more complexity. If you go percentage, ask for a cap above a certain spend so the fee does not run away from the work.
Do I need a Google Premier Partner?
Not necessarily. Premier Partner means an agency ranks in the top 3 per cent of participating companies in its country on Google’s annual assessment, judged on things like total ad spend, client growth and retention. It is a genuine signal about agency size, but says nothing about who will be assigned to your account. Ask about the person, not just the badge.
Who should own my Google Ads account?
You should. The account should be created under your own business email with you as an admin, and the agency linked in through its manager account. Google’s help documentation confirms a manager account cannot change your sign in details and that you can end the link yourself. If an agency will not agree to this, pause. That conversion history is valuable and hard to rebuild.
What is a realistic starting budget in Australia?
It depends on your click cost. Our cost study found a $16.19 median cost per click, and $22.68 in trades. Buy only 30 clicks a month and you will not gather enough data to learn anything, and neither will Google’s bidding. Work backwards: decide how many enquiries you need, estimate a conversion rate, multiply by your industry click cost, and see if the number is affordable. If not, a narrower keyword set or smaller service area beats spreading a small budget thin.
How long before Google Ads starts working?
Search campaigns can produce enquiries in the first week because the demand already exists. Getting them profitable takes longer, because the first weeks go on finding which search terms convert and cutting the ones that do not. Most accounts need a full month of clean data before the picture is trustworthy and a second month to act on it. Be wary of judging week one, and of an agency that wants six months before showing you anything.
A simple next step
If you are comparing agencies, ask each one the same ten questions. The answers separate them faster than any website will, especially on account ownership and on what happens to your fee when your spend changes.
If you would like a second opinion on an account you already run, our Google Ads team in Melbourne is happy to look through it and tell you what we would change. No obligation, and we will say so if your setup is fine.
