White label Google Ads pricing and margins: how UK agencies actually make money reselling PPC

White label Google Ads pricing comes down to two numbers: the wholesale fee you pay a delivery partner per account, and the retail fee you charge your client. Published provider research puts human-delivered wholesale fees between about $230 and $700 per account per month, and most providers will not publish theirs at all. In the UK, agencies charge end clients roughly £750 to £3,000+ a month as a flat fee, or 10 to 20 per cent of ad spend. Your margin is the spread between those two numbers, minus the hours you retain. Optimus delivers white label Google Ads from £550 per month per account for a defined Google Search scope, or from £850 per month for the full MomentumX system including landing pages and lead follow-up. Both exclude media spend, which is always paid directly to the platforms. The rest of this article shows the margin maths in GBP, with worked examples you can redo on your own numbers, so you can judge what reselling PPC actually pays before you ever talk to a partner.

Key takeaways

• Providers price white label delivery three ways: a flat per-account fee, a percentage of ad spend, or hourly and hybrid rates. Only a minority publish prices: one 2026 survey found just six of sixteen providers do.
• Published wholesale bands are mostly USD: roughly $230 to $700 per account per month across surveyed providers, with bulk, mid-tier and boutique bands from about $200 to $1,500.
• UK client-facing rates run about £750 to £3,000+ per month flat, or 10 to 20 per cent of spend. That is the retail range your margin sits inside.
• Illustrative maths: a £1,250 client fee against £550 wholesale delivery leaves £700 gross, about 56 per cent, and roughly £550 after three hours of your retained time.
• Published margin estimates cluster between 30 and 65 per cent depending on source and whether owner time is counted. Treat them as a spread, never a promise.
• Hidden costs eat real margin: tracking rebuilds, landing pages, creative, tool licences and rework from weak briefs. For the staffing side of the decision, see white label vs in-house costs.

How we know this

Optimus Agency delivers white label Google Ads for UK agencies. We run agreed Google Search campaigns, conversion tracking, landing page and conversion path support, and reporting under the partner agency’s brand. The agency stays client-facing and keeps the client relationship and the margin. We currently work this way with a UK consulting partner, focused on service businesses and lead generation accounts. We publish our own anchors below because UK agencies comparing partners deserve at least one real number to price against. Every third-party figure in this article is linked and dated, and the worked examples are clearly labelled illustrations, not client data. You can see the delivery model behind our pricing on our Google Ads agency page and the fuller system scope on our lead generation package page.

White label Google Ads pricing: the three models

Flat per-account monthly fee

The provider charges a fixed wholesale fee per account per month for a defined scope. This is the Optimus model: from £550 per month per account for defined Google Search delivery, and from £850 per month for the full MomentumX system, which adds landing pages and lead follow-up systems. Media spend is always separate and paid to the platforms. A one-off setup fee applies and is scoped per project. The full delivery scope behind these anchors is set out in our guide to white label Google Ads management.

It is also the most common model among providers that publish at all. A Ryze AI survey updated 8 November 2026 found that of sixteen white label PPC providers checked, only six publish prices, and all six charge per client account, from about $230 to $700 a month plus setup. Flat fees make your margin predictable: the wholesale cost does not move when a client has a quiet month.

Percentage of ad spend

The provider charges a slice of the monthly media budget. A KeyGrow guide published 22 July 2026 reports wholesale rates around 10 to 15 per cent of spend, with flat alternatives from $500 to $1,800 a month, against the 18 to 25 per cent that agencies typically charge clients. The model has two failure modes. At low spend the percentage is too small to fund real work, so providers add minimum fees. At high spend the fee grows without the work growing, which pays the provider for your client’s budget rather than for performance.

Hourly and hybrid rates

Common among freelancers and some agencies: an hourly rate, or a base retainer plus a percentage above a spend threshold. UK freelance PPC rates run about £40 to £120 an hour per a June 2026 JWC Performance survey. Hourly pricing breaks at scale for a reseller, because your cost rises with activity while your client fee stays fixed, and every optimisation round quietly shrinks your margin. It suits audits, rebuilds and cover, not a recurring white label service.

What drives the wholesale price

Two accounts with the same media budget can carry very different wholesale fees. The main drivers:

• Scope breadth. Campaign management only, or campaigns plus conversion tracking, landing pages and follow-up systems. The Optimus gap between £550 and £850 is exactly this: the second anchor includes landing pages and lead follow-up.
• Channel count. Google Search only costs less to run than Search plus Shopping, Performance Max, Meta and LinkedIn.
• Ad spend under management. Bigger budgets mean more campaigns, more search terms and tighter optimisation, so percentage models scale and flat models step up in bands.
• Reporting cadence and branding. White-labelled monthly reporting with review calls costs more to produce than a raw dashboard export.
• Team seniority and geography. An Improtics guide updated 31 October 2026 sorts the market into three bands: bulk offshore delivery at $200 to $400 per account, mid-tier at $500 to $1,200, and boutique senior teams at $800 to $1,500. The cheapest band is cheapest for a reason: expect template work and slow escalation.
• Setup work. Rebuilds of untracked, messy accounts cost more upfront than clean builds.

If you are still working out what the model itself involves, start with what is white label PPC before comparing prices.

Setup fees and one-off costs

Expect a setup fee from most serious providers. Industry-wide it covers the first build: account or campaign construction, conversion tracking implementation, keyword and negative research, initial ad copy, and the audit of whatever ran before you arrived. Some providers publish it as an hour block, some as a flat project fee, and some fold it into a higher first-month charge. As a rare published example, US provider Third Marble’s fee card lists a $500 monthly agency fee for partners with fewer than five accounts alongside itemised onboarding costs.

Optimus applies a one-off setup fee that is scoped per project. We do not publish a standard figure, because it depends on the state of the account, the tracking history and the landing page work needed. What we do commit to is that the scope and the price are agreed in writing before anything goes live.

The margin maths in GBP: worked examples

These are illustrations, not client data. The retail side uses the published UK ranges above: flat management fees of about £750 to £3,000+ per month, per TLC Ads’ 2026 UK pricing guide, JW Digital’s 2026 fee survey and Veritas Digital’s UK fee guide. Your time is valued at £50 an hour. Media spend is excluded everywhere: the client pays the platforms directly.

Illustration A: Google-Ads-only delivery. Your client pays your agency £1,250 a month for a lead generation campaign. You pay £550 wholesale.

Line	Amount
Client fee to you	£1,250
Wholesale delivery	£550
Gross margin	£700 (56%)
Your retained time, 3 hours at £50	£150
Net margin	£550 (44%)

Illustration B: full MomentumX system. Your client pays £1,800 a month for campaigns plus landing pages plus lead follow-up. You pay £850 wholesale.

Line	Amount
Client fee to you	£1,800
Wholesale delivery	£850
Gross margin	£950 (53%)
Your retained time, 3 hours at £50	£150
Net margin	£800 (44%)

Scale it: five accounts of type A net about £2,750 a month, five of type B about £4,000, before any setup fees and before the retained hours of selling the work in the first place.

The percentage-of-spend variant. On a client spending £4,000 a month, KeyGrow’s published ranges imply a wholesale cost of about £400 to £600 and a client-facing fee of about £720 to £1,000. Your margin swings with the budget: a strong month pays more, a quiet month can pay nothing. That volatility is why we price flat per account.

How do these illustrations compare with published industry estimates? Hustle Marketers quotes 30 to 50 per cent in its FAQ, and a companion margin article describes headline margins of 50 to 65 per cent before the agency owner’s time is counted. Improtics and Clicks Geek both cite a realistic 40 to 60 per cent. The spread across sources is 30 to 65 per cent, and the single biggest variable is whether you count your own hours. The margin you quote yourself is not the margin you keep until your time is in the calculation.

The fees nobody mentions

Ask providers what is included, because these costs quietly reduce your margin:

• Creative production. Display and video assets are usually billed separately from campaign management.
• Landing pages. Often excluded from Google-Ads-only scopes. This is precisely the gap between our two anchors: the £850 MomentumX tier includes landing page and follow-up work that the £550 tier does not.
• Tracking rebuilds. When a client’s website changes, conversion tracking breaks. Someone has to fix it, and “someone” has a price.
• Tool licences. Call tracking, tag management and reporting tools cost money even when the provider’s fee does not move.
• Your call and email time. The two to four retained hours per client per month are real cost. Count them at what your time is worth, not at zero.
• Rework from weak briefs. Vague instructions produce campaigns that miss, and fixing them costs hours nobody invoices for.
• Churn. When a client leaves, the whole margin line leaves with them. Month-to-month terms cut both ways.

Fees quoted in this market are also normally exclusive of VAT, so add it where relevant when you compare like with like.

How to price your client-facing offer

You set your own retail price. Providers should not set it for you, and Optimus does not publish suggested retail figures. Three principles from what the UK market actually charges:

1. Frame on value, not cost-plus. The client is buying leads and revenue, not hours. A monthly management fee is easy to justify against even one extra retained customer for most service businesses, and the published UK band of £750 to £3,000+ gives you the market reference for where to sit.
2. Prefer a flat retainer for lead generation accounts. It aligns incentives: you are paid for the outcome scope, not for spending the client’s budget. Reserve percentage pricing for large media budgets where the work genuinely scales with spend, and set a minimum fee if you do.
3. Keep media spend separate. The client pays Google directly. An agency that invoices ad spend through itself gains a hidden incentive to inflate budgets, a point JW Digital makes for the UK market and one we follow as policy.

Write the scope of your retail offer down too: what the fee covers, what costs extra, and what happens when the client wants a new channel. Underscoped retainers are where agency margins go to die.

Pricing red flags when choosing a provider

• No scope in writing. If a provider cannot tell you exactly what the monthly fee includes and excludes, the price is not comparable and the relationship is not safe.
• Percentage of spend with no cap or floor at low budgets. On a £2,000 monthly budget, 12 per cent is £240. No real optimisation happens for £240 a month.
• Refusal to sign an NDA, or any hint they will contact your clients directly.
• No exit terms. If you cannot leave on reasonable notice, the price is not the real price.
• Prices far below the published bands with no stated reason. Under $200-equivalent per account, you are buying unreviewed template work delivered at volume. Ask what the cheap price removes before you celebrate it.
• Media spend invoiced through the provider rather than paid directly to the platforms.

Our recommendation

For UK agencies reselling PPC, the cleanest economics are a flat wholesale fee per account on your side and a flat retail retainer on the client’s side, with media spend always separate and every scope in writing. On published UK retail ranges of £750 to £3,000+ per month, a defined-scope wholesale fee of £550 to £850 leaves room for a real margin after your retained hours, as the illustrations above show. Do the maths on your own client mix before you commit, count your own time, and treat any margin figure anyone publishes, including ours, as a starting point for your spreadsheet rather than a promise.

Optimus engagements begin with a paid three-month period, then run month to month with one month’s notice, so the risk of testing the maths is bounded.

Frequently asked questions

What margin can an agency make on white label Google Ads?

Published estimates span 30 to 65 per cent: Hustle Marketers quotes 30 to 50 per cent, Improtics and Clicks Geek cite 40 to 60 per cent, and headline figures of 50 to 65 per cent appear before owner time is counted. In our labelled illustration, a £1,250 client fee against £550 wholesale delivery returns 56 per cent gross and about 44 per cent net of three retained hours. Your margin depends on your retail price, the scope you buy and whether you count your own time.

How do white label Google Ads providers charge: flat fee, per account or percentage of spend?

All three exist. The flat per-account monthly fee is the most common published model, at about $230 to $700 per account in a November 2026 survey of sixteen providers. Percentage of spend runs around 10 to 15 per cent wholesale against the 18 to 25 per cent agencies charge clients. Hourly and hybrid pricing sits mostly with freelancers. Optimus charges a flat per-account fee: from £550 per month for defined Google Search delivery, from £850 for the MomentumX full system, excluding media spend.

Should I mark up white label PPC as a percentage of ad spend or a flat retainer?

For typical service-business lead generation accounts, a flat retainer. It keeps your incentives aligned with the client’s results, it is easy to sell, and your margin does not collapse in a quiet spending month. Percentage pricing suits larger media budgets where the delivery work genuinely scales, and if you use it, set a minimum fee. UK agencies charge end clients about £750 to £3,000+ flat or 10 to 20 per cent of spend, so either model has market cover.

What wholesale price should I expect to pay per account?

Among providers that publish: roughly $230 to $700 per account per month, with bulk offshore delivery cheaper and boutique senior teams dearer, in bands of about $200 to $400, $500 to $1,200 and $800 to $1,500. Those are USD figures from published research and we have not converted them. In GBP, Optimus anchors start at £550 per month per account for defined Google Search scope and £850 for the full MomentumX system, both excluding media spend and both with a project-scoped setup fee.

How do I price white label Google Ads for my clients?

Start from the published UK retail range, about £750 to £3,000+ per month flat or 10 to 20 per cent of spend, then position inside it on your scope and your market. Charge for the outcome system, not your costs, keep media spend separate and paid to the platforms, and write down exactly what the fee includes. Make sure the spread over your wholesale cost survives the retained hours you will genuinely spend per client per month.

What hidden costs reduce white label PPC margins?

Creative production, landing pages, tracking rebuilds after website changes, tool licences, your own call and email time, rework caused by weak briefs, and client churn. Most of these are scope questions in disguise: before signing with any provider, ask in writing what happens when tracking breaks, when the client wants a new landing page, and when a campaign needs a rebuild. Our answers are part of the scope we agree before launch.

Related reading

• White label Google Ads management for UK agencies
• What is white label PPC and how does it work?
• White label PPC vs in-house vs a freelancer: the real cost
• Our Google Ads agency page and case studies

Sources

All external sources accessed 9 November 2026. USD figures are presented as published and not converted.

• Ryze AI, white label PPC services, pricing and margins (published 14 October 2026, updated 8 November 2026): https://www.get-ryze.ai/blog/white-label-ppc
• Improtics, top white label Google Ads agencies 2026 (updated 31 October 2026): https://improtics.com/blog/top-white-label-google-ads-agencies-2026
• KeyGrow, what is white label PPC (22 July 2026): https://keygrow.co/blog/what-is-white-label-ppc
• Hustle Marketers, white label PPC (FAQ margin range 30 to 50 per cent): https://hustlemarketers.com/white-label-ppc/
• Hustle Marketers, white label Google Ads margin (headline 50 to 65 per cent): https://hustlemarketers.com/white-label-google-ads-margin/
• Clicks Geek, white label PPC services (40 to 60 per cent margin claim): https://clicksgeek.com/services/white-label-ppc
• Third Marble, published white label fee card: https://www.thirdmarble.com/white-label-pricing
• TLC Ads, how much does a Google Ads agency cost in the UK, 2026 pricing guide: https://tlcads.co.uk/ppc-agency-advice/how-much-does-a-google-ads-agency-cost-in-the-uk-2026-pricing-guide
• JW Digital, UK Google Ads management fees in 2026: https://jw-digital.co.uk/blog/google-ads-management-fees-uk-2026
• Veritas Digital, what you could expect to pay for Google Ads management in the UK: https://veritas-digital.co.uk/blog/what-you-could-expect-to-pay-for-google-ads-management-in-the-uk
• Interim, UK PPC freelancer rates citing the JWC Performance June 2026 survey: https://www.interim.digital/blog/ppc/ppc-freelancer-rates-uk-2026/

All worked examples are illustrative planning numbers, not Optimus client data.