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PPC Management in Singapore: What It Includes, What It Costs, and How to Judge It

By Gordon Hwa, Founder, Khepri Digital
Updated · First published 6 October 2023 · 7 min read

What does PPC management include in 2026?

PPC management covers the setup and the weekly running of pay-per-click ads, mostly Google Search, Performance Max and Shopping, plus Microsoft Ads where it pays. The work is tracking, campaign structure, keywords and negative keywords, ads and assets, landing pages, budgets, and a report that ties spend to leads or sales. What changed is who adjusts the bids: Google does.

Smart Bidding sets a bid for each auction based on the conversion data it receives. Performance Max decides where your ads appear across Google's channels. AI Max for Search reads your landing pages and assets to expand the searches you match and to tailor the ad text.

That leaves the PPC manager four jobs that matter more than any bid change:

  1. Tracking that counts the right thing. Conversions recorded once, with values, and outcomes from your CRM sent back.
  2. Inputs the AI learns from. Ads, images and a landing page for each search theme.
  3. Guardrails. Negative keywords, brand controls and URL exclusions, set before money is wasted, not after.
  4. Judgement. Deciding what to test, what to stop and where the next dollar goes.

Why is conversion tracking the first thing to check?

Because Google buys exactly what you tell it to. If the conversion is "form viewed" or "thank-you page loaded", Smart Bidding finds more people who view forms. If it is a qualified lead or a booking, with a value, it finds more people who buy. Most underperforming accounts we audit count too shallow or count the same lead twice.

The fixes are documented by Google, and they are not optional any more:

For Red Crowns Senior Living we tracked five enquiry routes, two forms, calls, SMS and WhatsApp, before changing anything else. Across Q1 2021 to Q4 2022 the account averaged S$4.74 a lead over 2,380 leads.

What should a PPC manager do every week?

A good week has a fixed rhythm: read the search terms report and add negative keywords, check that conversions are still firing, review lead quality with your team, and act on one test. Bid tinkering is no longer the job.

When What gets done What you should see
Weekly Search terms and negatives, tracking check, lead-quality review, one test change A short note: what changed and why
Monthly Budget by campaign against leads or sales, new ads and pages, test results Cost per qualified lead or return on ad spend, with the period
Quarterly Structure, bidding targets, landing page plan, competitor check What to keep, what to stop, where to add budget

How much does PPC management cost in Singapore?

Two models are common. A percentage of ad spend, often with a minimum fee, or a fixed monthly fee set by how much spend is managed. Ad spend itself is billed by Google to you, separately. Ask which model you are on, and what is included: landing pages, tracking and creative are often extra.

We charge a fixed fee for Google Ads management, as part of Performance Advertising. It starts at S$2,000 a month (Essentials: one platform, ad spend from S$3,000 to S$10,000 a month); Starter is S$4,000 for ad spend up to S$20,000 on two platforms. It is never a percentage of spend. The full tiers are on our pricing page. Below about S$3,000 a month in ad spend, an account rarely gets enough conversions for Google's bidding to learn well, so we suggest starting with creative or landing page work instead.

How do you judge whoever runs your Google Ads?

Use six checks. Each one can be answered from your own account in an hour, and none needs you to trust the agency's report.

  1. Ownership. Is the Google Ads account, the Google tag and Analytics in your company's name, with your login as admin?
  2. Tracking. Which conversion is primary, is it counted once, and does it have a value?
  3. Search terms. Open the last 30 days. How many terms have nothing to do with what you sell?
  4. Landing pages. Does each campaign send traffic to a page that matches the search, or all of it to the homepage?
  5. Spend against results by campaign. Which campaigns produced leads or sales, and which only spent?
  6. Reporting. Are results stated with a period and a source, and compared with a baseline?

The fifth check is where money usually hides. At The Legian Seminyak, brand search and Performance Max produced the bookings between February and October 2026, while generic search, retargeting and display spent IDR 13M with no tracked bookings. Moving that budget is a decision a person makes, not the bidding algorithm.

Should you manage PPC in-house or hire an agency?

In-house works when you have someone who can own tracking, write ads and build landing pages, and enough spend to justify their time. An agency makes sense when those skills are spread across people you don't have, or when changes need to ship faster than your team can manage. Either way, keep the accounts in your name.

A useful middle ground is to keep the account management in-house and buy the parts that are hard to staff: creative, landing page tests, or a quarterly audit.

Frequently asked questions

What is PPC management?

PPC management is setting up and running pay-per-click ads, mainly on Google and Microsoft, so that each dollar of ad spend produces leads or sales. It covers tracking, campaign structure, keywords, ads, landing pages, budgets and reporting.

How much does PPC management cost in Singapore?

Agencies usually charge either a percentage of ad spend or a fixed monthly fee, and ad spend is paid to Google separately. Khepri Digital's Performance Advertising starts at S$2,000 a month as a fixed fee, never a percentage of spend.

Is PPC still worth it with AI Max and Performance Max?

Yes, but the work has changed. Google now adjusts bids and matching automatically, so results depend on what it learns from: accurate conversion tracking, conversion values, landing pages and negative keywords. An account with poor inputs spends faster, not better.

How long before PPC shows results?

Search ads can bring leads in the first week. Smart Bidding needs conversion data to settle, so judge strategy changes over weeks, not days, and compare like-for-like periods.

What should a PPC report include?

Spend, leads or sales, and cost per qualified lead or return on ad spend, by campaign, with the period stated and compared with a baseline. It should also say what changed that month and what is being tested next.

Sources

Rewritten in October 2026. The first version of this article was published in October 2023.

This guide supports our Google Ads & SEM service.

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