How much does Google Ads cost in Belgium? CPC, budget, fees

Google Ads costs you a media budget, which you choose yourself with no minimum ^[1], plus the management of your campaigns. In a Belgian benchmark from July 2026, a click cost a median of €1.88, from €0.92 for a dentist to €11.94 for a plumber ^[2]. Management costs nothing if you do it yourself; otherwise it is a fixed monthly fee or a percentage.

Still, the cost per click is not what counts. What counts is what one enquiry costs you, and that also depends on your landing page and your bid strategy. So work your budget back from that cost per enquiry, whether you do it yourself or with a Google Ads agency.

What does a click cost in your sector?

Read these figures as orders of magnitude. Nexuro measured 264 French-language commercial keywords through a keyword database: these are estimated click prices, not invoices ^[2]. Within one sector the price also varies by region, season and search term; a search that includes a municipality is usually cheaper than the generic word.

What's more, you don't pay your maximum bid, but what you need to beat the advertiser just below you. According to Google, you are "often charged less" than your maximum CPC, "sometimes much less", and a more relevant ad and landing page help with that ^[4]. The Quality Score from 1 to 10 itself is not a factor in the auction ^[5]; what does count is explained in improve your Quality Score in Google Ads.

What monthly budget do you need?

Belgian providers cite €500 to €1,000 in media budget per month as the minimum to collect enough data ^[6], and €500 to €1,500 for a steady flow of enquiries ^[7]. You work out your own amount in four steps:

1. Decide what an enquiry may cost. Take your gross margin per customer times the chance that an enquiry becomes a customer. A €2,000 margin and one in four quotes signed gives €500: aim well below that.
2. Estimate your cost per click with Keyword Planner in Google Ads, and set it next to the sector table.
3. Estimate your conversion rate. Start with 3% as a cautious assumption and replace it with your own figure after a month.
4. Work backwards. The number of enquiries you want, times your cost per enquiry, is your media budget. Plan at least three months before you judge.

A better conversion rate lowers your cost per enquiry just as much as a lower cost per click: going from 3 to 5% makes an enquiry 40% cheaper. And you have more control over that rate than over the auction, with a page that matches the search, loads fast on a smartphone and asks one clear question.

In the account you set an average daily budget per campaign: your monthly budget divided by 30.4 ^[1]. On a busy day Google may spend up to double, but over the month never more than 30.4 times the daily budget ^[8].

Google's lower limit. If you want Google to optimise for enquiries (Smart Bidding), Google recommends evaluating performance over a period with at least 30 conversions, such as a month or longer ^[9]. My rule of thumb from that: if you want to judge every month, your budget is about 30 times your cost per enquiry, so €1,500 at €50 per enquiry. If you are below that, judge per quarter and bid more simply, for example on clicks with a maximum CPC.

What does management cost?

Fixed monthly fee. Predictable, and your manager earns nothing extra when you spend more. Ask in writing what happens for that amount.

Percentage of your media budget, typically 10 to 20% ^[6]. It grows with your account, but the incentive is skewed: spending more earns your manager more, even when it earns you nothing.

Hourly rate or one-off setup. Freelancers charge €60 to €95 per hour ^[6]. A setup after which you follow up yourself suits small budgets.

The difference lies in the scope: the number of campaigns and campaign types, one or two languages, and whether tracking, creative and landing pages are included. So ask five questions before you sign:

• Is the account in my name, and do I pay Google myself?
• A fixed fee, or a percentage of my media budget?
• What is the term, and how do I cancel?
• What do you count as a conversion, and how do you check it?
• What falls outside the price: a second language, Shopping, creative, landing pages?

How Izoard charges for it

The entry point is the SME Machine 500: Google Ads and Meta Ads fully managed for €500 per month, with conversion tracking, a monthly report and a quarterly call. Larger accounts, with several markets, a large Shopping feed or a lot of creative, work with a fixed management fee tailored to them.

In both cases we work in your account, in your name, and you pay the media budget directly to Google, with no percentage for us. If an account is already running, it starts with a free Google Ads audit. You get the report, whatever you decide afterwards.

What else changes your bill

Your bid strategy. With a conversion strategy, Google bids higher on searchers who are likely to convert ^[12]. Your cost per click can then rise while your cost per enquiry falls, so don't look at the cost per click alone. Which actions you count as conversions is explained by my colleague Cédric in GA4 key events and conversions.

VAT. In the EU, Google Ads is supplied by Google Ireland Ltd. ^[13], so with your VAT number in your billing profile Google charges no Belgian VAT and you declare it yourself. If you cannot deduct it, or only partly, the VAT (standard rate 21% ^[14]) in practice comes on top of every click: check this with your accountant.

Your business itself. If hardly anyone searches for what you sell, your margin per customer is very small or you don't follow up enquiries quickly, you lose money, however well the campaign is set up. Which campaign to start first is covered in Google Ads for SMEs. Torn between advertising and being found organically? Read SEO or Google Ads.