Google Ads for Small Businesses: What It Costs and How to Start

A small business in Croatia needs €200 to €500 a month for the clicks themselves, plus €250 to €1,500 a month for management if you don’t run the campaign yourself. A click costs from €0.20 for local services in a smaller town to €7 and more in law, finance and real estate. The first enquiries can arrive the same day, and you’ll have a picture of profitability after two to four weeks.

An ad that leads to a page without a clear call to action loses money before Google even charges for it. Below I explain what Google Ads is, what a click costs, what a sensible budget looks like and how to start.

What Google Ads is and how it works

Google Ads, formerly Google AdWords, is a system where you choose the terms your ad appears for. When someone types “plumber Rijeka”, Google shows ads from businesses that chose that term above the other results.

You pay only when someone clicks. How much you pay depends on how many other businesses want the same term and on the quality of your ad and the page it leads to. A better ad pays less for the same spot.

What a click costs

There is no official data by industry for Croatia, so these figures are estimates by Croatian agencies from 2025 and 2026.

Type of industry	Indicative cost per click
Little competition (local services in a smaller town)	€0.20 to €0.80
Medium competition	€0.80 to €3
Strong competition (law, finance, real estate)	€3 to €7 and up

Only some of the people who click send an enquiry or call. That’s why the page the ad leads to matters as much as the cost per click, and it decides what one enquiry costs you.

How much budget a small business needs

For trades and smaller businesses, €200 to €500 a month for the ads themselves, or €5 to €10 a day. You pay this directly to Google. With less than that it’s hard to collect enough data to improve the campaign.

The math is simple. If a click costs €0.60 and one in twenty clicks becomes an enquiry, an enquiry costs you €12. If every third enquiry becomes a job worth €150, one job costs you about €36 in ads. If your numbers don’t add up, look at the page and the search terms first, and the budget last.

What campaign management costs

Management is paid separately from the ad budget. According to publicly listed prices of Croatian agencies, the initial setup of the account, campaigns and tracking costs about €500 as a one-off, and monthly management €250 to €1,500, depending on the number of campaigns and the budget.

For the monthly fee you get term selection, ad writing, excluding searches that don’t bring customers, call and form tracking and a report.

How to start in five steps

1. Choose one service, the one that earns you the most.
2. Limit the area to the city and towns where you actually work.
3. Prepare the page. The ad must lead to a page about that service, with a phone number and a form in plain sight.
4. Turn on tracking of calls and submitted forms, so you know what one enquiry costs.
5. Each week check what people typed and exclude terms unrelated to your service.

Who Google Ads isn’t for

If your page is slow, has no phone number in plain sight or has no text about the service you advertise, fix it first. Ads on a page like that burn money without enquiries. The same goes if you sell something nobody searches for on Google: social ads or referrals work better then.

Ads and SEO together

Ads bring enquiries as soon as the campaign launches, and the position you build with SEO stays when you turn the ads off. My recommendation for most local businesses is to start with ads for the speed and build SEO alongside. I cover how to combine them in Local SEO or Google Ads.

Google Ads at VRH Agency

I run campaigns for local businesses with every call and form tracked, so you always know what one enquiry costs. I agree the management price after a free 30 minute call. Read more on the Google Ads page, and book a call through the contact page.