Google Ads and Meta Ads management fees in India (2026): flat fee, percentage of spend, or both?

Search for what an agency charges to run Google Ads or Meta Ads in India and you'll find confident ranges, from ₹3,000 a month to ₹6 lakh, or anywhere from 8% to 25% of spend. Those ranges come from agency-written articles estimating what others charge, not from anyone's own price list.

So we did it the slow way. On 13 October 2026 we opened the pricing pages of Indian agencies and freelancers that publish their own fees and noted exactly what each one says, including whether GST is extra. This guide covers the management fee only. For what the ads themselves cost, see our guides to Google Ads cost in India and Instagram and Facebook ads cost in India.

The three ways agencies charge for ads management

• Flat monthly fee. You pay a set fee each month. Some plans cover spend only up to a cap and step up to a higher tier once you pass it: OneCity Technologies, for example, charges ₹15,000 a month for spend up to ₹50,000 and ₹40,000 for spend up to ₹5,00,000. Others, like Kabir Digital Media's Meta plan, stay the same "regardless of your ad budget size".
• Percentage of ad spend. The fee is a share of what you spend on ads each month, so it rises and falls with your budget.
• Hybrid. A flat fee and a percentage combined. Some agencies, like VGraple, charge a flat fee that covers spend up to a threshold and a percentage only on the spend above it. Others, like Thanksweb and Dhaval Kamdar, switch to a percentage of total spend once spend passes a set level. A third version charges a flat fee or a percentage of total spend, whichever is higher: upGrowth describes it in its pricing guide and our Growth plans use it, though none of the other Indian pricing pages we opened publishes it.

One less common model turned up too: a Mumbai agency that buys the ads itself and bills you for the ad budget plus a service charge. None of the pricing pages we opened offered a per-lead fee or a fee paid only on results.

What each model costs at different budgets

Read down the columns. A flat fee is among the costliest models at a small budget and the cheapest at a large one, and several flat-fee plans in the table below step up to a higher tier as spend grows. A percentage fee grows with your budget whether or not your results do. For a "whichever is higher" fee, divide the flat fee by the percentage to find where the percentage takes over: ₹15,000 ÷ 10% = ₹1.5 lakh of spend.

What Indian agencies publish

These are the fees as each provider publishes them on its own pricing page. Plans differ in what they include, so a lower price often means fewer campaigns, fewer campaign types or less reporting.

Four more pages we opened give no fee: Anirup, EZ Rankings and Aarav Infotech describe their plans and quote on request, and Wildnet Technologies says fees are agreed before work begins. Some agencies also set a minimum ad budget: Noir & Blanco says the minimum Meta spend it works with is ₹1 lakh a month, and Dhaval Kamdar asks for ₹4,000 to ₹6,000 a day.

Freelance marketplaces show different numbers, and they aren't like for like. On Freelancer.in on 13 October 2026, about two dozen of the 50 projects on the first page of Google Adwords jobs were fixed-price Google or Meta ads projects, with average bids from ₹3,808 to ₹38,656. Those are one-off project bids from clients around the world, not monthly retainers. On IndiaMART, the 23 listings priced per month on the first page of its Google Adwords category ranged from ₹1,000 to ₹2,50,000, with a median of ₹8,000, but sellers enter those figures without saying what's included.

Why online estimates disagree

Agency-written pricing guides give ranges that don't line up with each other or with published prices:

• Noir & Blanco puts Google Ads management at ₹20,000 to ₹3,00,000+ a month, or 10 to 20% of spend, and calls Meta packages under ₹10,000 a month a red flag.
• upGrowth puts flat retainers at ₹1.5 lakh to ₹6 lakh a month and percentage fees at 10 to 15%, for brands spending larger budgets.
• Codingclave puts junior freelancers at ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 a month and large performance agencies at 20 to 25% of spend, with a ₹75,000 monthly minimum.
• VGraple's blog puts freelancers at ₹3,000 to ₹8,000 a month and says VGraple charges ₹5,000. Its own pricing page starts at ₹15,000.

Published prices start lower than most of these estimates: 24Siteshop at ₹1,999 and Webadis at ₹3,999. They also show fewer percentage fees than the articles suggest. We found no Indian survey with a stated method on how many agencies use each model. The nearest is Credo's pricing survey of 507 agencies and consultants, about 62% of them in the US. In its Facebook ads chapter, last updated in June 2022, 51.8% of agencies offered a flat fee, 23.93% a flat fee plus a percentage of spend, 26% a flat fee or a percentage, and 11.8% a percentage of spend. The shares add up to more than 100%, so some agencies offer more than one.

What the fee usually includes, and what's extra

Two plans at the same price can cover very different work. These are the main differences we saw on the pages in the table:

• Number of campaigns. Entry plans commonly allow one or two: 24Siteshop allows one active campaign, and VGraple's Google Launch plan up to two Search campaigns.
• Campaign types. Entry Google plans are often Search only. VGraple's Launch plan leaves out Display, remarketing, Performance Max and Shopping, and RankON keeps Shopping for its top plan.
• Conversion tracking. Some entry plans include it, such as OneCity's and VGraple's Google plans. On VGraple's Meta plans, the Conversions API starts from the second tier. Without conversion tracking, Google and Meta can't optimise towards enquiries, because they can't see them.
• Creatives. Mediaverse includes 4 new creatives a month on its entry plan. VGraple offers creative production as an add-on, and Digital Cure says full creative production can be added. Mediaverse lists video shoots as extra.
• Landing pages. Often extra: Syncsoft quotes them separately, Thanksweb marks them chargeable and Mediaverse quotes them as a separate project. OneCity includes a dedicated landing page per campaign on its ₹40,000 plan.
• Reporting. Usually monthly on entry plans, with weekly or fortnightly reports and review calls on higher tiers. King of Digital Marketing lists a weekly report.
• Minimum term. OneCity, VGraple and Dhaval Kamdar ask for three months, and Global Advertising Media for six. Webadis, Digital Cure, Kabir, King of Digital Marketing, Mediaverse and 24Siteshop say month to month or no lock-in.

What Google requires agencies to tell you

Google has a third-party policy for anyone who buys or manages Google ads for clients. It asks them to be "honest and transparent about your company, services, associated costs, and expected results". The transparency requirements are specific:

• Fees. An agency that charges a management fee separate from Google Ads costs must tell new customers in writing before each first purchase, and disclose the fee on all customer invoices.
• Costs. When it shares Google cost data, it must report "the exact amount charged by Google, exclusive of any fees that you charge". Where its terms with Google require a monthly report, that report covers costs, clicks and impressions for the account.
• Customer ID. It must give you the customer ID of your Google Ads account when you ask, so you can contact Google directly.
• Small budgets. If 80% or more of its customers spend under USD 1,000 a month, it must share Google's advertiser guide to working with third parties with all customers who buy these services, and link it in a clearly visible place on its website.
• One account per advertiser. Google's third-party policy also requires a separate account for each advertiser an agency manages.

Google's examples of false or misleading claims double as a list of red flags: guaranteeing top placement, promising your ads will show at all times, offering unlimited clicks, claiming exclusive discounts or ad prices through Google, and implying that costs depend on the number of keywords.

A Google Partner badge tells you something, but not everything. Google's requirements ask for an optimisation score of at least 70% on the agency's manager account, USD 10,000 of ad spend across managed accounts over 90 days, and at least half of its account strategists certified in Google Ads. Claiming to be a Google Partner without authorisation is itself against the policy. We didn't check Meta's partner programme rules, because Meta shows them only after you log in.

Keep the ad accounts in your name

Whatever you pay, the accounts, the data and the conversion history should stay yours if you change agencies.

Google Ads

• Create the account yourself and keep an Admin user of your own. Google's access levels give only Admin users the power to give account access, change access levels and unlink manager accounts. Standard access lets someone run campaigns and reports without those controls.
• An agency can work through its manager account. Google's ownership page says a manager that creates an account becomes its owner, while linking an existing account gives no ownership unless you turn it on. An owner manager can add or remove users on your account and change their admin access, so Google recommends making a manager the owner only if it needs those privileges. Ownership doesn't take your data: "the client account still owns its data", and as long as you keep an Admin user you can unlink the manager at any time.

Meta

• Meta's ad account page says an ad account "can only be in one business portfolio", and one created in a portfolio "will permanently be a part of that portfolio". So create it in your own portfolio, not the agency's.
• Then share it with the agency as a partner, giving partial access for the tasks it needs. You can remove a partner later, as long as someone in your business has full control of the portfolio.

GST and TDS on fees and ad spend

• On the agency's fee. Agencies that mention tax on their pricing pages add GST to the fee, and those that give a rate say 18%. Ask whether a quote includes GST.
• On Google ad spend. Google's tax page says it charges 18% GST to most Indian advertisers: 18% IGST, or 9% CGST plus 9% SGST for billing addresses in Haryana, and 0% for SEZ advertisers.
• On Meta ad spend. Meta's GST page says ads for accounts with India as the business country are subject to GST and TDS. Our Meta ads cost guide covers the rate.
• TDS. Google and Meta both state a 2% TDS rate on advertising payments to them. TDS may also apply to what you pay the agency, depending on how the service is classified.
• When the agency buys the ads. Global Advertising Media adds 18% GST to the whole bill, ad budget and service charge together: ₹7,500 of ads plus ₹2,625 comes to ₹11,948 with GST.

As a worked example on Google: ₹1,00,000 of ad spend carries ₹18,000 of GST, and a ₹15,000 management fee carries ₹2,700, so the month costs ₹1,35,700 before any TDS. If you're registered for GST, ask your accountant how much you can claim back as input tax credit.

How to compare two quotes

1. Work out each fee at the budget you actually plan to spend, and at double that budget, so you see what scaling up would cost.
2. Ask whether the fee includes GST, setup, conversion tracking, creatives and landing pages.
3. Ask how many campaigns and which campaign types the plan covers.
4. Check the minimum term and the notice period.
5. Confirm the ad accounts, Pixel and conversion data will be in your name, and that you'll pay the ad budget directly to Google or Meta. If the agency buys the ads for you, ask for the platform's own invoice or cost report.
6. Ask what the report shows. Cost per lead and lead quality tell you more than clicks and impressions.

Veridian Code's ads management fees

We publish ours. Starter plans are a flat fee for a set amount of spend. Growth plans and the bundle charge a flat fee or a percentage of total spend, whichever is higher.

Our ad plans include basic conversion tracking: Pixel and Conversions API setup on Meta, and conversion tracking through Google Tag Manager on Google. A full measurement setup, covering GA4 key events, Google Ads conversions, Meta Conversions API with deduplication, Consent Mode v2 and a Looker Studio dashboard, is a separate one-time fee of ₹10,000. Ad spend is paid by you directly to Google and Meta from your own ad accounts, and we never mark it up. Monthly plans run month to month with 30 days' notice, though we recommend three months to start. The Google Ads and Meta Ads service pages explain how we run each platform.