If your ad budget is $5,000 a month, a full-time paid ads manager can cost more per year than the ads they manage. Here is the math, the places ad budgets leak, and when a hire still makes sense.
Average PPC manager pay in the US
ZipRecruiter, October 2026Average PPC manager salary in the US
Salary.com, October 2026A year of ads at $5,000 a month, less than either salary
Example budgetBusySeed is a certified partner of both
BusySeed About pageAd spend is separate on both sides. This is about the cost of the people and tools managing it.
| Hiring in-house | BusySeed | |
|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | One person managing every platform | BusySeed's senior in-house team, where every member holds the required Google Ads and Meta certifications |
| Platforms | Usually strongest on Google or Meta, rarely all of them | Google, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok and Pinterest work appears across our case studies |
| Yearly cost | $99,235 to $180,403 in year one, before ad spend | From $35,988 a year ($2,999 a month), before ad spend |
| Payroll taxes and benefits | About 30% on top of salary, often more | None. You pay one monthly fee. |
| Hiring | A median of 39 days to fill the role, then onboarding before they hit full speed | No search, no interviews. The team is already hired. |
| Software | You pay for their stack, about $4,343 a year | Our proprietary Seed suite (SeedGEO, SeedLanding, LeadChaser and more) is included in every engagement |
| Landing pages | Often depends on a separate designer or developer | Web design and CRO are on the same team, with SeedLanding |
| If someone leaves | The work pauses and the search starts over | You work with BusySeed's senior in-house team, the team that has grown 550+ businesses since 2013 |
Two salary sites that disagree a lot, the same add-ons for both, and BusySeed at its starting price. None of it includes ad spend.
Year one. Every line is sourced below.
| Cost | Lower | Typical |
|---|---|---|
| SalaryZipRecruiter and Salary.com averages | $72,071 | $134,508 |
| Payroll taxes and benefits30% of salary | $21,621 | $40,352 |
| RecruitingSHRM median cost per hire | $1,200 | $1,200 |
| Software stackOptmyzr, Semrush Pro, Canva Pro | $4,343 | $4,343 |
| Total | $99,235 | $180,403 |
Salary sites disagree widely on this title, from $72,071 to $134,508. Senior PPC leads in big markets often earn more.
Year one. One monthly fee.
| Line | Monthly | Yearly |
|---|---|---|
| Starting pricePaid ads comparison | $2,999 | $35,988 |
| Payroll taxes, benefits, recruiting | $0 | $0 |
| Seed suiteIncluded in every engagement | $0 | $0 |
| Total | $2,999 | $35,988 |
Your exact price depends on your goals and channels. See your price in about a minute.
Left out of both sides on purpose: ad spend, which goes to Google, Meta and the other platforms whoever runs it, and the time you spend managing a hire or a partner.
The click is half the job. The landing page, the tracking and the follow-up decide whether it turns into a lead.
Every service in the BusySeed column is one we list on our services page.
Whoever runs your ads, check these first.
If conversions are not tracked, nobody can tell a bad month from a broken funnel.
Paying for clicks that land on a page built for something else.
The same ads running for months while results slowly drop.
Bids, budgets and audiences that nobody has touched in weeks.
Before March 2025, Wound Care Professionals had no paid acquisition, no landing page built to convert and no system to turn a click into a contact the team could follow up. BusySeed built the program from there.
Some ad accounts need a person on payroll. Here is when.
When spend is big enough that small daily changes move real money, a dedicated person can pay for themselves.
If your data team already builds attribution, an embedded PPC manager can use it every day.
Big catalogs, marketplaces and retail media networks can keep one person busy full time.
If you want every account, test and decision run by your own staff, hire for it.
Checked October 30, 2026.
The two salary sites disagree by more than $60,000 on this title, so we show both rather than pick one.
Book a free 15-minute strategy session with founder Omar Jenblat. He'll look at your funnel live and show you exactly where the revenue is hiding. No deck, no fluff, no obligation.
