The essentials
- Media budget: €800 to €3,000 a month for an SME in France, with a minimum threshold of €500 to €800 below which the data supports no decision.
- Cost per click in 2026: €0.50 to €2 in retail, €2 to €5 in business services, €5 to €15 in legal, insurance and building work.
- Management: 10 to 20% of the media budget with a minimum of €300 to €600 a month at a provider; handling it in-house costs time, not nothing.
- The method: start from the number of customers targeted and work back through the conversion rates and the cost per click to get the budget needed.
The question of the Google Ads budget comes up on every project, and the answer “it depends” is true but useless. Three items make up the real cost: the media paid to Google, the management (internal or external) and the tools. This article gives the 2026 benchmarks for a French SME and the method for calculating the budget a business really needs, from its objectives rather than from its means. How the platform works is presented in Google Ads: definition and how it works.
The cost per click by sector
| Sector | Average CPC in 2026 | Typical conversion rate | Indicative cost per lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail and e-commerce | €0.50 to €2 | 1 to 3% | €20 to €100 |
| Restaurants, leisure, tourism | €0.40 to €1.50 | 2 to 5% | €10 to €60 |
| Trades and building work | €3 to €10 | 3 to 8% | €50 to €200 |
| Business services | €2 to €5 | 2 to 5% | €80 to €250 |
| Software and IT | €3 to €8 | 1 to 4% | €100 to €400 |
| Health and wellbeing | €1 to €4 | 3 to 6% | €30 to €120 |
| Legal, insurance, finance | €5 to €15 | 2 to 5% | €150 to €600 |
| Training | €2 to €6 | 2 to 5% | €60 to €250 |
These ranges vary with the geographic area, the season and local competition. Queries on the company name almost always cost less than €0.50 and must be counted separately, otherwise they flatter the average. The concept is detailed in CPC: definition.
The minimum viable budget
A budget that is too small does not produce small results: it produces results that cannot be interpreted. To decide anything at all, you need at least around thirty conversions a month, or failing that several hundred clicks. With a cost per click of €3 and a conversion rate of 3%, thirty conversions means a thousand clicks, so €3,000 a month. Few SMEs can commit that much from the start; the solution is not to cut the budget but to cut the scope: fewer keywords, a restricted geographic area, a single offer. A budget of €800 concentrated on ten highly targeted queries produces readable results, where the same amount spread over two hundred keywords produces nothing. Below €500 a month of media, Google Ads is rarely the right first spend.
The cost of management
| Mode | 2026 cost | What you should know |
|---|---|---|
| Agency or freelancer | 10 to 20% of media, minimum €300 to €600 a month | Check that the minimum does not exceed the media budget itself |
| Monthly retainer | €400 to €1,500 a month | Suited to small media budgets, provided the scope is set |
| One-off set-up work | €1,000 to €3,000 | Initial structure, then in-house management |
| In-house | 2 to 5 hours a week | Real cost often underestimated, training required |
| Tools | €0 to €150 a month | Call tracking, dashboard, scripts |
The full cost is what counts for judging profitability: an account with €1,000 of media and €400 of management costs €1,400, and that is the amount to divide by the results obtained. The criteria for choosing a provider are set out in managing and choosing an SEA provider.
Calculating the budget you need
- Start from the number of customers targeted: for example 5 new customers a month.
- Work back through the closing rate: with 25% closing, you need 20 qualified leads.
- Work back through qualification: if 60% of the forms are usable, you need 33 conversions.
- Work back through the site conversion rate: at 3%, you need around 1,100 clicks.
- Multiply by the cost per click: at €3, the media budget needed is €3,300 a month.
- Compare with the margin: if 5 customers bring in €8,000 of margin, the spend is justified; if not, you should improve one of the rates rather than increase the budget.
This calculation often shows that a conversion gain costs less than an extra budget: going from a 3% to a 4% conversion rate cuts the budget needed by 25%. The approach is described in CRO, and the trade-off between channels in steering your marketing budget with KPIs.
What makes the bill vary
- Quality Score: a relevant ad and page bring the cost per click down by 20 to 40% at equal position; see the Quality Score.
- Keywords not excluded: 15 to 40% of the budget goes to off-target queries in an account that has not been cleaned up.
- The brand share: cheap and easy, it improves the averages without bringing anything new.
- The season: bids rise by 20 to 50% at sector peaks.
- The area: a wide radius on a large city costs several times the price of precise targeting.
How GreenRed helps
Rather than juggling several tools, GreenRed's Google Ads module brings these metrics together in a single dashboard, compares them over time and tells you which actions come first. You can try it free, with no card, from the Pricing.
Frequently asked questions
What Google Ads budget for an SME?
From €800 to €3,000 a month of media in France depending on the sector, with a minimum of €500 to €800 below which the data supports no decision. The solution for a small budget is not to dilute it, but to restrict the scope to a few queries close to purchase.
What does a click on Google Ads cost in 2026?
From €0.50 to €2 in retail, €2 to €5 in business services, €3 to €10 in trades and building work, €5 to €15 in legal, insurance and finance. Queries on the company name cost less than €0.50 and must be counted separately.
What does managing a Google Ads account cost?
From 10 to 20% of the media budget at an agency or a freelancer, with a monthly minimum of €300 to €600, or a retainer of €400 to €1,500 a month. In-house, allow 2 to 5 hours a week plus initial training. This cost goes into the profitability calculation.
How do I calculate the budget I need?
Backwards: the number of customers targeted, divided by the closing rate, then by the lead qualification rate, then by the site conversion rate, multiplied by the sector cost per click. The result is then compared with the margin those customers generate.