Percentage-of-spend, flat retainers, or hourly — what peptide brands actually pay for Google Ads management in 2026, and what should be included at each price point.
"How much should I be paying?" is the question we get asked most often by peptide brands that are already working with an agency — usually because they suspect they're either overpaying for very little, or underpaying for a service that keeps getting them disapproved. Both suspicions are usually correct in different cases, which is exactly why pricing in this category needs its own explanation rather than a generic PPC agency pricing article.
A standard ecommerce Google Ads engagement is priced around campaign management: keyword research, bid optimisation, creative testing, reporting. A peptide brand engagement has to price in an entire additional layer of work that generic ecommerce accounts don't need — compliance review of every ad and landing page, ongoing policy monitoring, negative keyword architecture specific to medical and condition-based terms, and appeal handling when disapprovals happen despite precautions.
That additional layer isn't optional overhead an agency can skip to offer a cheaper price. Skip it, and you're not buying a discount — you're buying a suspension on a delay timer.
| Model | How It Works | Best For | Watch Out For |
| Percentage of ad spend | Agency fee scales as a percentage of monthly media spend, often with a minimum monthly fee | Brands with growing, variable budgets who want the agency's incentives aligned with scaling spend efficiently | Can become expensive at high spend levels without a corresponding increase in service; check for spend-based fee caps |
| Flat monthly retainer | A fixed fee regardless of spend level, scoped to a defined set of deliverables | Brands with predictable budgets who want cost certainty and a clearly scoped relationship | Scope creep — make sure compliance monitoring and landing page review are explicitly included, not billed as extras |
| Hourly / project-based | Billed for time spent or scoped as a fixed project (e.g. account audit, initial setup) | Brands wanting a one-off audit or short-term project rather than ongoing management | Not ideal as an ongoing model for a restricted category — account health monitoring needs continuity, not sporadic hours |
Pricing should scale with account complexity, not just spend. A cold-start account with no history requires a different level of hands-on setup than a mature account running standardised, proven campaigns.
| Stage | What's Typically Involved | Pricing Pattern |
| Cold start (new account, little or no ad spend history) | Full account build, compliance-first structure, landing page audit, Manual CPC cold-start sequencing | Often priced as a flat setup fee plus a base monthly retainer, since spend-based percentage pricing doesn't reflect the heavier setup workload at this stage |
| Growth stage ($10K–$50K/month spend) | Active campaign scaling, ongoing compliance monitoring, creative testing, migration to Smart Bidding | Percentage of spend or a mid-tier flat retainer, typically with month-to-month flexibility as spend grows |
| Scale stage ($50K+/month spend) | Full-funnel management across Search, Shopping, Display and PMax, dedicated compliance and reporting cadence | Higher flat retainer or percentage of spend with negotiated caps, often including dedicated account strategist time |
Regardless of which pricing model or stage applies to you, these should be included in any legitimate peptide Google Ads engagement — if they're priced as optional add-ons, that's a scope red flag, not a pricing quirk:
Agency fees only make sense in the context of what they return. A brand paying a premium retainer but achieving a 4x+ ROAS with zero policy flags is getting far better value than a brand paying a discount rate to an agency whose account gets suspended twice a year.
Some reference points from accounts we manage: a peptide brand scaled from $8K to $148K/month at a sustained 4.6x ROAS (case study); another scaled from $0 to $260K in 6 months at 4.2x ROAS with zero policy flags across the entire ramp (case study). At those return rates, the agency fee is a small fraction of the incremental revenue generated — which is the only framing that actually matters when evaluating cost.
There's no single "correct" price for Google Ads management in the peptide category — but there is a correct scope. Whatever pricing model you choose, make sure compliance work, landing page review, and account health reporting are priced into the core service, not treated as optional extras. In a category where a single scope gap can cost you the entire account, that scope matters more than the number on the invoice.
We'll walk you through exactly what's included at each pricing tier for your specific stage and spend level — no vague ranges, no pressure.
Or email directly: sveta@oney.studio
Oney Studio is a specialist Google Ads agency for peptide and research chemical brands. We build compliance-first account architecture that scales — from cold start to six-figure monthly revenue — without account-level policy flags.
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