Are Landing Page Builds Included in a PPC Retainer? What to Expect and What to Ask

Short answer: usually not by default. A standard PPC retainer pays for managing ads, and landing page builds tend to land in one of three places: a separate project fee, a capped add-on, or a limited allowance for tweaks. Whether landing page builds are included in a PPC retainer comes down to what the contract says, not what the industry assumes.

That gap causes friction on both sides. Clients hear "we'll optimize your campaigns" and expect a new page for every offer. Agencies and freelancers hear "we manage the account" and expect the client to supply pages. This article covers what retainers typically include, why page work gets split out, the common ways it is packaged, how landing pages affect ad results, and how to write the scope so nobody is surprised in month three.

What a PPC Retainer Usually Covers (and Where Landing Pages Fit)

Start with three terms that often get blurred. A retainer is a recurring fee for ongoing work. A project fee is a one-off price for a defined deliverable, like a page or an audit. Ad spend is the budget paid to Google for clicks, and it does not go to the agency unless the contract says otherwise.

A typical PPC retainer covers some mix of these:

• Account setup or an initial audit
• Campaign management and structure changes
• Bid and budget management
• Search terms review and negative keyword maintenance
• Ad copy testing
• Conversion tracking checks
• Regular reporting and a check-in call

Notice what is missing: design, development, and page copywriting. Those are not part of running an ads account.

Landing pages sit in a gray zone because they feel like PPC. They influence Quality Score and conversion rate, and a weak page can undercut everything else on the list. But building one takes design, development, and conversion copy skills that are a different job from adjusting bids and mining search terms. Some PPC managers have those skills. Many do not, and even those who do are rarely pricing them into a monthly management fee.

There is no industry standard here. One agency bundles a few pages a quarter, another treats every page as a quoted project, and a third refuses to touch pages at all. "Included" means whatever the signed scope says, and if the scope is silent, expect a disagreement.

Why Landing Page Builds Are Often Billed Separately

The effort doesn't match the fee

A new page can take many hours across copywriting, design, development, and QA on mobile and desktop. A monthly management fee is sized around account work that follows a steady rhythm. Dropping an unpredictable build into that rhythm either eats the margin or starves the account of attention.

Different skills and different tools

Designers, front-end developers, and conversion rate optimization (CRO) specialists do work that PPC managers usually don't. CRO is the practice of improving the share of visitors who complete a goal, such as submitting a form or buying. Then there are the tools. Pages get built in platforms like Unbounce or Instapage, or on WordPress, and those subscriptions cost money. Someone has to own the account and pay for it, and that decision needs to be made up front rather than discovered on an invoice.

Dependencies the agency can't control

Builds stall for reasons outside the PPC team: brand approvals, legal review of claims, delayed site access, hosting changes, and feedback that arrives three weeks late. A flat monthly fee is hard to defend when the timeline depends on the client's calendar. A project fee with defined revision rounds handles this better, because the work has edges.

On pricing: costs for page builds vary widely by market, experience level, and complexity, so any dollar range you see quoted without a named, dated source deserves skepticism. Get quotes for your specific scope instead of relying on a generic average.

Common Ways Agencies Package Landing Page Work

Most arrangements fall into four models. Each trades predictability against flexibility.

• Not included. The client supplies and maintains pages. The agency manages ads and may give feedback. This is the cleanest scope and the most common default.
• Revisions only. The retainer covers changes to existing pages: copy swaps, headline tests, form tweaks, button changes. No new builds.
• Capped hours or pages. The retainer includes a fixed number of hours or pages per month or quarter. Unused allowance may or may not roll over, so write that down.
• Separate project fee. Each new page or page set is quoted and billed as its own project, alongside the ongoing retainer.

Who each model suits

A freelancer working solo usually has limited capacity, so "not included" or "revisions only" protects their time. An agency with in-house design can afford capped hours or a per-page project price. High-volume lead generation accounts, which may need many pages for different services or locations, tend to justify a capped allowance or a template system. A single-offer campaign often needs one good page, which makes a one-time project fee the simplest fit.

An illustrative hybrid

Suppose a retainer covers A/B test setup and copy edits on existing pages, while any new template is quoted per page. The client gets steady improvement on what already exists, and the agency isn't absorbing a surprise build. This is an example of how a scope could be structured, not a recommended standard.

Watch the fuzzy words

"Optimization" and "CRO" can mean anything from reporting on conversion rate each month to a full page redesign. If a proposal says it includes conversion optimization, ask what that produces: a report, a list of recommendations, test setup, or finished page changes. The answer determines whether you are paying for advice or for work.

How Landing Pages Affect Results (and Why Clients Expect Them Included)

Clients expect pages to be covered because pages visibly affect ad performance. In Google Ads Help, Google describes landing page experience as one component of Quality Score, alongside expected click-through rate and ad relevance. Quality Score is a diagnostic rating of how your ads and pages compare to others, and it feeds into Ad Rank, which helps determine whether your ad shows and in what position. Check the current wording on the first-party Google Ads Help page for Quality Score, since Google updates its documentation.

The cost side is blunter. You pay for clicks whether or not the page converts them. A tidy search terms report that filters out irrelevant queries still leaves you paying for the relevant clicks that land on a page that confuses people.

That exposes a common misconception: that a PPC manager can fix a low conversion rate by changing keywords alone. Sometimes the traffic is fine and the page is the bottleneck. Keyword and match type changes can improve who clicks, but they can't fix a page that doesn't answer what the visitor came for.

Signs the page is the problem

• Click-through rate looks reasonable, but conversion rate stays low.
• Bounce rate is high, meaning many visitors leave without doing anything.
• The ad and page don't match. Imagine an ad promising "same-day boiler repair" that sends people to a generic heating services page with no mention of repairs or response times. The click was earned, then lost.

None of these signals is proof on its own. Tracking problems, offer strength, and pricing also affect conversion rate. But when the traffic looks right and the results don't, the page deserves a look, and that is exactly when the question of who builds the fix comes up.

How to Spell Out Landing Page Scope in the Contract

Vague scope is where most disputes start. Define these items in writing:

• Number of new pages included, if any
• Number of revision rounds per page
• Who writes the copy, and who supplies images and brand assets
• Who owns the page builder account and hosting, and who pays for them
• Turnaround time, and what happens when client feedback is late
• Who handles tracking setup and form integration, including conversion tags

Then draw the line between an edit and a new build in plain language. For example: "Changing text, swapping images, and adjusting form fields on an existing page is an edit. Changing the page layout, adding new sections, or creating a page for a new service is a new build." Whatever wording you choose, make it concrete enough that both sides would classify the same request the same way.

Ownership matters too. Pages, analytics properties, and tags should live in the client's accounts, or be transferable if the relationship ends. Otherwise a client who leaves can find their pages and tracking trapped in someone else's subscription.

Questions clients should ask before signing

• Are new landing pages included, quoted separately, or my responsibility?
• What does "optimization" mean in practice here?
• Who owns the pages and tags if we part ways?
• Is A/B testing included, and who builds the variants?

Questions agencies should ask before quoting

• Do you already have pages, and who maintains the site?
• Who approves copy and design, and how fast?
• Is there legal or compliance review on claims?
• Can we get access to the site, CMS, and analytics?

Have a lawyer review the final contract language. This article explains how scope tends to work, but it isn't legal advice.

Protecting Your Retainer Hours for Work That Moves the Needle

If you sell retainers, your hours are the product. Search terms review is one of the most repetitive tasks in the scope, and it is easy to overrun. When it eats the week, the work that could improve conversion, like page feedback and test planning, gets pushed to "next month."

A quick distinction keeps this clear. Search terms are the actual queries people typed that triggered your ads. Keywords are what you bid on. When you review the Search Terms Report, you add relevant queries as positive keywords, and add irrelevant ones as negative keywords so your ads stop showing for them. Match types control how closely a query must relate to a keyword.

Keywordme is a Chrome extension that works inside the Search Terms Report in Google Ads. You can add negatives, add keywords, and apply match types there without exporting to spreadsheets. Keywordme says it helps users optimize up to 10x faster, and results will vary by account and workflow. You still decide which terms to add or exclude. Keywordme does not build landing pages, so it won't replace page work. It only trims the cleanup around it.

A practical way to use the time you get back:

1. Batch search terms cleanup into a fixed cadence, such as weekly for active accounts.
2. Cap the session length so it doesn't expand to fill the day.
3. Spend the saved time reviewing page performance against ad messaging and drafting the next test.

Put Landing Page Scope in Writing, Then Make Room for It

Landing page builds are a scope decision, not a default. Whether you're the one buying a retainer or the one selling it, the useful move is to put the answer in the contract: what's included, what's quoted, who owns what, and where an edit becomes a new build.

Once that's settled, protect the hours that make page work possible. Optimize Google Ads Campaigns 10X Faster. Without Leaving Your Account. Keywordme lets you remove junk search terms, build high-intent keyword lists, and apply match types instantly, right inside Google Ads. No spreadsheets, no switching tabs, just quick, seamless optimization. Start your free 7-day trial (then just $12/month, as of October 2026) and take your Google Ads game to the next level.