What does paid advertising cost for a Melbourne business?

Paid advertising for Melbourne service businesses costs $500–$3,000/mo in ad spend plus management. Konquer Media bundles ad spend into its retainer at cost — no markup — so the full ad budget goes to Meta and Google. Launch tier ($2,500/mo) includes $500 ad spend; Growth ($5,000/mo) includes $1,500; Scale ($10,000/mo) includes $3,000+. A $20/day Meta awareness campaign targeting a 5km local radius reaches 3,000–8,000 new local people per week. Google Search campaigns for commercial intent queries typically cost $2–$8 per click depending on the industry.

What is the difference between Meta ads and Google ads for Melbourne businesses?

Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram) are intent-building: they put content in front of people who match a demographic or interest profile but may not be actively searching. They're best for service businesses building local awareness — restaurants, car dealerships, real estate agents, brokers — where the purchase decision is influenced by seeing the service or business before the search. Google Search ads are intent-capturing: they appear when someone actively searches for a service ('mortgage broker Melbourne', 'restaurant near me', 'car dealership Ringwood'). They convert best for high-intent commercial queries. The two channels are complementary: Meta builds the warm audience, Google captures the people who are actively searching.

What paid advertising works best for Melbourne service businesses?

For Melbourne service businesses, the paid advertising combination that produces the strongest results is Meta awareness + retargeting as the primary channel (building and converting a local audience) with Google Search at Growth/Scale tier for capturing high-intent commercial queries. Hospitality venues rely more on Meta local targeting. Real estate agents use Meta for homeowner audience building plus Google for 'sell my home' intent queries. Automotive dealerships use Meta for in-market buyer targeting plus Google for specific vehicle model searches. Finance brokers use Meta for first-home-buyer education content plus Google for 'mortgage broker Melbourne' queries.

Paid social · Melbourne

paid advertising Melbourne: Meta and Google at cost, not marked up

Most Melbourne paid advertising agencies charge a management fee plus a percentage markup on ad spend. Konquer Media bundles ad spend at cost — every dollar goes to the platform, not the agency. Here's how the campaign model works and what it produces for Melbourne service businesses.

Paid advertising for Melbourne service businesses works when the campaign structure matches the commercial objective and the creative is built for the distribution channel. Generic content boosted to broad Melbourne audiences produces reach and no revenue. Specific content in a two-layer Meta campaign — awareness to new locals, retargeting to warm viewers — produces enquiries, bookings, and test drives.

Meta ads: intent-building for Melbourne local businesses

Meta advertising (Facebook and Instagram) is the primary paid channel for Melbourne service businesses because it allows suburb-level geo-targeting combined with demographic and interest signals that identify the right local audience before they search.

The two-campaign structure that produces leads:

Awareness campaign: Runs the best-performing video content to cold local audiences within the relevant radius. Geo-targeted at suburb level with vertical-specific audience signals — automotive intent for dealerships, homeowner demographics for real estate, first-home-buyer signals for finance, dining-intent local targeting for hospitality. Budget: $15–$30/day continuously. This campaign builds the retargeting pool.

Retargeting campaign: Runs direct-response creative to the warm audience built by the awareness campaign — people who've watched 50%+ of the video or visited the page but haven't enquired yet. Budget: $10–$20/day. This is the campaign that produces most of the actual bookings, test drives, and enquiries.

The learning phase takes 7–14 days. Full compounding effect — where the retargeting pool is large enough to produce consistent leads — takes 4–6 weeks.

Google ads: intent-capturing for commercial searches

Google Search advertising captures people who are actively searching for a service. For Melbourne service businesses:

Real estate: "sell my home [suburb]," "real estate agent [suburb]," "property appraisal [suburb]" — people who are ready to list. Google Search is the highest-intent channel for vendor acquisition.

Finance: "mortgage broker Melbourne," "home loan pre-approval," "first home buyer loan Victoria" — people who are actively seeking finance. Google Search captures the bottom-of-funnel prospect.

Automotive: Specific vehicle model searches ("used Hilux Ringwood"), dealership-category searches ("used car dealer eastern Melbourne"), finance searches ("car finance Melbourne").

Hospitality: "restaurant near me," "restaurants [suburb]," "function venue Melbourne [suburb]" — intent-based venue searches that bypass Instagram.

Google Search campaigns are included from Growth tier ($5,000/mo). At Launch tier, Meta is the primary paid channel.

the no-markup model

Most Melbourne paid advertising agencies charge their retainer fee plus 15–25% of ad spend as a media markup. On $1,500/mo in ad spend, that's $225–$375/mo going to the agency rather than the platform.

Konquer Media bundles ad spend into the retainer and passes it to Meta and Google at cost. The full $500, $1,500, or $3,000+ in bundled spend goes to the platform. The retainer covers management, production, and CRM — the ad spend is a separate, transparent line that goes entirely to the platforms.

For how paid advertising fits into the full marketing system, see lead generation Melbourne. For the Meta ads strategy specifically, see Meta ads Melbourne. For Google Ads management, see Google Ads agency Melbourne. For Facebook/Meta advertising specifically, see Facebook ads agency Melbourne.

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