Calculate total Google Ads costs: an annual planning worksheet

The real annual cost of Google Ads consists of media costs and operating costs. A robust calculation keeps the two blocks separate, shows every variable openly and does not pre-fill any market assumption. You record the figures in your own sheet; this page calculates nothing automatically.

Which eight cost blocks belong in the annual calculation?

Each block is a line of its own in your sheet, with its own unit and its own source in your company:

• M media budget: the money that goes to Google, planned or actually billed;
• S setup, onboarding and migration, one-off;
• G ongoing management or account management fee;
• C creative work, tracking implementation and landing pages;
• T tools, licences and data costs;
• I internal effort at the fully loaded cost rate;
• X handover, switching and exit costs, in the year they occur;
• V applicable taxes and levies, unless they are already included in another block.

total annual cost = M + S + G + C + T + I + X + V

When comparing an agency, in-house and a managed service, the second metric is usually the more important one, because the media budget goes to the same recipient in every model:

non-media operating costs = S + G + C + T + I + X (excluding V; record taxes and levies separately so that they do not enter the calculation twice)

Anyone who compares only G is comparing quotes, not costs. Anyone who compares only M + G easily overlooks internal effort: your own time does not appear as an invoice, but it ties up resources and belongs in the calculation as a block of its own.

How do you convert monthly and annual figures correctly?

Recurring items are multiplied by the number of active months; one-off items are not. Active means the months in which the service actually runs within the period under review. Months under review are the comparison horizon – twelve months in an annual plan. Both scenarios, year one and ongoing operations, use the same horizon.

annual value = monthly value × active months

average monthly value = annual value ÷ months under review

Assume twelve months only if the period supports it; with a mid-year start, the number of active months is a line of its own in your sheet. Currency, net or gross basis and period must be consistent within a scenario. A currency conversion needs an exchange rate with a reference date recorded in your sheet; without it, you do not convert rather than mixing rates.

How do you calculate the management fee?

G follows the agreed model, not an assumption:

• Fixed: G = monthly retainer × active months
• Percentage (simple model): G = chargeable media base × rate
• Time-based: G = hours × rate
• Project-based: the sum of the agreed project prices
• Hybrid: G = base fee + variable components
• Performance-based: base fee plus a precisely defined performance payment

How to include maitiq in the comparison: G is a quote per account for a defined scope of services and does not include M as a factor. The fee is not tied to the media budget – maitiq does not earn more when your advertising spend rises. As long as the scope stays comparable, G stays constant in the comparison even when you vary M. If the scope changes, get a new quote and compare like with like instead of carrying an old fee over to a new scope.

Minimum amounts, tiers and caps belong in separate fields, not in one blended figure. A pure percentage model calculates G = base × rate; as soon as tiers, minimum amounts or caps apply, this simple form no longer holds and the rule of the chosen model applies instead. With a percentage fee, the base decides the result: gross or net, with or without third-party services, with or without test budgets. From the result you can calculate the effective fee as a percentage of media spend:

effective fee as a percentage of media spend = G ÷ M × 100

This derived figure describes only your own case, not a market value. If either M or G is missing, it cannot be calculated because data is missing; if M is zero, it is undefined because the denominator is zero. Neither case is zero or infinite.

How do you make internal time visible?

Even a fully outsourced account ties up internal time: objectives, approvals, quotes, providing data, tracking, reviews and escalations.

I = internal hours × internal fully loaded cost rate

The fully loaded cost rate comes from your company and covers salary, social contributions, workspace and overhead. Do not estimate it. Record marketing and paid search, analytics or engineering, finance and procurement, legal and data protection, and leadership separately where these roles are materially involved. For planning, hours explicitly labelled as an assumption are permitted; measured figures replace them as soon as a measurement period exists. Do not add the same labour cost a second time: if those hours are already included in another cost line, they do not count again. It remains hours × fully loaded rate; entering the rate alone must not cause the hours to be omitted.

What do empty, zero and not applicable mean?

These three states are not the same thing, and conflating them produces wrong totals. Also label the origin of every figure – measured, planned or unknown:

A provider that charges no setup fee yields an explicit zero. A provider whose setup fee you do not yet know yields an empty field – and therefore no complete total. In that case, show the missing items instead of a seemingly precise figure. Negative costs are not permitted; credits get a line of their own and are counted once within the category reconciliation – do not deduct a credit again from an amount that is already net. Do not pre-fill a market rate, customer value, CPC or expected performance; the result is a cost calculation, not a profit-and-loss statement and not a quote.

An illustrative year one

The following figures are freely chosen and show only the mechanics (illustrative example, no client data). In the example, setup and switching fall in the same planning year; if a switch happens later, it belongs in the year in which it actually occurs.

subtotal without V = 500,000 + 8,000 + 50,000 + 12,000 + 6,000 + 15,000 + 4,000 = CHF 595,000

The non-media operating costs come to CHF 95,000. Because V is unknown, your calculation yields no final annual total; show a subtotal with a disclosed gap: an open item stays visible instead of quietly flowing into a final figure as zero.

Comparison value for the management fee G, as stated by maitiq for a comparable scope of services: CHF 50,000 ÷ 2 = CHF 25,000 (illustrative example, no client data). The other blocks remain unchanged; the comparison concerns only G and is an optional scenario, not a quote and not a savings forecast.

How to include maitiq in the comparison

In this calculation, maitiq affects exactly one block: the management fee G, quoted per account and not as a percentage of M.

For your calculation, this means: enter your documented current fee G_prev for a comparable scope of services; G_prev ÷ 2 is then the comparison value for the maitiq scenario – as stated by maitiq, an illustration based on your inputs, not a savings forecast, and the media budget remains unchanged. Enter the quote you have actually obtained as a separate value alongside it. Setup, tools and internal time are calculated separately. The factors that shape your quote are on the pricing page.

Why do you separate year one and ongoing operations?

Setup and migration typically fall in the first year without recurring annually. Handover and exit costs, by contrast, belong in the year in which they actually occur – not automatically in year one. Count the same migration only once, either under S or under X, never under both. That is why you should show two results:

• year one = recurring costs of the first year + one-off costs incurred in year one
• ongoing operations = recurring costs excluding items that are explicitly one-off, over the same number of active months

The second figure is not a forecast but a continuation of today's figures over the same number of active months as year one. If you want to show a steady state instead, disclose it as a separate figure annualised to twelve months. Any change to the scope of services, tools or internal time must appear as a new line. This way a one-off migration is not treated like a permanent fee – and a cheap first year is not confused with a cheap operating model.

How do you treat Google's budget mechanics separately?

These mechanics affect M. Do not apply Google's 2× and 30.4 multipliers to the management fee; for a percentage fee, only the contractual media basis applies. Google's help describes three different budget objects, not one.

Average daily budget. For most campaigns with an average daily budget, Google states a daily limit of twice that budget and a monthly limit derived from the average number of days per month:

monthly spending limit = average daily budget × 30.4

The 30.4 calculation assumes an average daily budget that stays unchanged throughout the month; record budget changes during the month with their date. Both limits apply to most campaigns with an average daily budget. If overdelivery pushes spending above the monthly spending limit, Google issues a credit.

Campaign total budget. For new Performance Max, Search, Shopping, Demand Gen and YouTube campaigns, Google documents a total budget for the duration of the campaign. There are no daily limits, and no more than the total budget is charged. The 2× and 30.4 calculations do not apply to this object.

Account budget. With monthly invoicing, a third level comes into play: an account budget sets an amount for a period and stops delivery when the amount or the end date is reached.

Three things follow for annual planning. First, record for each campaign which budget objects apply – several limits can bind at the same time, for example an account budget and a campaign total budget, and you have to check them side by side rather than assuming that a single object determines the whole limit. Second, keep the planned figure and the costs actually billed apart as two different lines, and record budget changes with their date. Third, all three objects govern media spend; they affect a percentage fee only when the contract names actual media costs as the basis.

How do you treat taxes?

Choose a consistent net or gross basis and record under V only taxes that are not already contained in another block. Whether and how a tax applies depends on the billing country and your setup; we cite the Google Help page on taxes only for that limited point. This guide gives no tax advice: it prevents double counting and mixing rather than setting out a general tax rule. The assessment belongs to your finance or tax function.

How do you read the result correctly?

A lower total does not prove better performance. Also check whether the scope of services, responsibility, response commitments, control of and access to the account and measurement definition are comparable across the scenarios at all. Two scenarios with a different currency or period are not compared silently. The calculation assesses neither provider quality nor expected performance; it makes cost categories and assumptions verifiable – and in the maitiq scenario, the read-only audit shows in advance which checks actually run and what evidence is available for the scope of services being compared.

For the logic behind fee models, see the comparison of pricing models; for the distinction between media budget and fee, the budget and fee breakdown. For the broader context, see Google Ads management in Switzerland.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and context

The four sources are Google Ads Help pages: they document the budget mechanics with the daily limit and the monthly charging limit including the overdelivery credit, the campaign total budget, the account budget with monthly invoicing, and the tax page, which we cite only for the limited point that the applicable tax treatment depends on the billing country and the setup. They prove neither a market price nor a performance claim. You can find details of how maitiq works at maitiq.com.

To compare fees and services, we also take your existing quote or invoice into account; the comparison rests on the offers and invoices you supply and on the actual audit coverage. These details are not held in the Google Ads account.

Have maitiq review your specific case.