Advertising in Antwerp
Google Ads agency for Antwerpen (Antwerp)
Campaigns on the districts and languages you work in, measured down to the enquiry.
The price question first
A Google Ads agency in Antwerpen costs you two amounts: the budget that goes straight to Google, and the agency's management fee. For a local small business, Belgian agencies advise at least 1,000 euros of click budget a month, and management costs 500 to 1,500 euros a month at most agencies. What that budget brings in depends on your click price, and in Antwerp that is often higher than in a smaller town.
This page is for a business in Antwerp that works in English: an international firm near the port, a company with a foreign owner, an expat who opened a practice or a shop. Below you read how to turn that budget into clients for three kinds of business, how to aim a campaign at the city, its districts and its languages, and which mistakes cost Antwerp advertisers the most money.
What 1,000 euros a month can bring in Antwerp
Renovation or installation
- 1,000 eurosbudget per monthat 2.50 euros per click
- 400clicks5 percent ask for a quote
- 20quote requests
- 6 to 7new jobsif one in three goes ahead
Law firm
- 1,000 eurosbudget per monthat 6 euros per click
- 166clicks5 percent call or email
- 8enquiries
- 2 to 3new casesif one in three goes ahead
Restaurant or brasserie
- 1,000 eurosbudget per monthat 1 euro per click
- 1,000clicks8 percent book a table
- 80bookings
- 240guestsat three per booking
A worked example with click prices inside the Belgian ranges per sector. You only see your own click price after a few weeks of running.
Why clicks in Antwerp cost more
Google Ads is an auction. The more companies bid on the same term, the more a click costs. In Antwerp, the bidders on 'loodgieter antwerpen' (plumber) or 'advocaat antwerpen' (lawyer) are not only Antwerp firms, but also companies from the suburbs, national chains and platforms that resell jobs. That puts your click price in the city at the top of the Belgian range for your sector.
| Sector | Belgian range per click | Where Antwerp usually sits |
|---|---|---|
| Hospitality and local shops | 0.50 to 2.00 euros | the middle, with peaks around events and holidays |
| Construction and renovation | 1.50 to 5.00 euros | the top, because platforms resell enquiries |
| B2B and services | 1.50 to 5.00 euros | middle to top, depending heavily on the term |
| Legal and financial | 3.00 to 8.00 euros | the top, with many firms in a small area |
The ranges come from our guide on Google Ads cost. You only see your real click price once your campaign has run for a few weeks; work out what a different price per click gives you with the Google Ads budget calculator.
Dutch, English or French: one campaign per language
Antwerp searches mostly in Dutch, but not only. Expats, international staff and the companies around the port often search in English, and visitors from Brussels and Wallonia in French. Google lets you aim a campaign at one or more languages and works out from a person's settings and searches which language they read. Mixing languages in one campaign hides what each audience costs.
| Audience | How they search | What the campaign needs |
|---|---|---|
| Antwerp residents | Dutch, often with the district: 'kapper berchem' | Dutch ads and a Dutch landing page |
| Expats and international staff | English, often with 'antwerp' instead of 'antwerpen' | English ads, an English page, prices including VAT |
| B2B buyers abroad | English, sometimes German or French, on the product | a page per product in their language, a quote form |
| French speakers | French, with 'anvers' | French ads and a French page, or none at all |
If you only have a Dutch site, start with that audience and add English when you can answer calls and emails in English. A page in each language, with its own address and titles, is the work of multilingual website development.
Aiming your campaign at Antwerp
Most mistakes we see are not in the ad text but in the location setting. Google lets you target a radius, municipalities and postcodes, and by default it picks people 'in, or regularly in, or who have shown interest in' your area. That last part means that someone in Kortrijk who once searched for Antwerp can see your ad too.
| Setting | When to choose it | Watch out |
|---|---|---|
| A radius around your address | You go to the client and drive a set distance | A radius of 15 kilometres around the centre reaches Kapellen and Kontich; check that you really work there |
| Municipalities and postcodes | You work in a few districts or towns | The city of Antwerpen has several postcodes: 2000, 2018, 2020, 2030, 2040, 2050, 2060, plus districts such as Deurne 2100, Merksem 2170, Berchem 2600, Wilrijk 2610 and Hoboken 2660 |
| Only people who are present | You sell to people who live or work in the city | Choose 'presence' instead of 'presence or interest' |
| Exclusions | You want no clicks from outside your area | Exclude towns you do not serve, and searches with 'gratis', 'vacature' or 'jobs' |
For a shop in the centre, a small radius with a higher bid works better than the whole province with a low bid. For a B2B service in the port, the whole province can make sense, but then with terms only a buyer types. How Google Ads works for a business with a fixed service area is on how does Google Ads work for local businesses.
A worked example for three businesses
The figure above works with 1,000 euros a month. A renovation company at 2.50 euros per click gets 400 clicks; if 5 percent ask for a quote, that is 20 requests, and if one in three goes ahead, six to seven jobs. A law firm pays 6 euros per click and gets 166 clicks and eight enquiries with the same budget. A restaurant at 1 euro per click gets 1,000 clicks and, if 8 percent book, 80 bookings.
The lesson: look not at the click price, but at what a client brings you. A lawyer with eight enquiries a month and a case worth 3,000 euros earns the budget back easily; so does a restaurant with 80 bookings, if the tables would otherwise stay empty. Work out the sum for your own business before you start: the marketing budget calculator puts budget, margin and goal side by side, and for an online shop the ROAS calculator shows what each euro brings back. How often people click your ad, and what is normal, is in what is a good CTR in Google Ads.
Five mistakes that cost Antwerp advertisers money
- Broad search terms'Lawyer' on its own draws students, journalists and people looking for a lawyer in Hasselt. Work with terms a buyer types: 'divorce lawyer antwerp', 'emergency plumber berchem'.
- No negative keywordsIf you do not exclude 'vacature', 'jobs' or 'free', you pay for clicks from people who will never be clients.
- An ad that lands on your homepageEvery ad group deserves a page about exactly that service, with a form or a phone number at the top; see landing page design and, for a full site in the city, web design in Antwerpen.
- Measuring nothingWithout conversion tracking Google does not know who sends a request, and you bid blind. Track forms, calls and bookings before the first euro goes out.
- Stopping too earlyThe system learns for the first two weeks. If you change everything after ten days, you start over each time.
Google, Meta or your profile
Google Ads answers demand that already exists: someone searches for a plumber and sees you. To create demand, for a new business, an event or a product nobody searches for, advertising on Facebook and Instagram often works better; what that costs is in Facebook ads cost and the trade-off in Meta ads or Google Ads. For Les Terrasses de Durbuy we ran a golf reel as three Meta ads, from 13 December 2025 to 24 January 2026. And do not forget the free channel: a well-kept Google Business Profile often stands above the ads on the map in Antwerp, and local SEO puts you there.
Google Ads and SEO together
Google Ads brings traffic within days; SEO takes months, but then costs nothing per click. Many Antwerp businesses start with Ads to learn which terms bring enquiries, and build pages for those terms that get found on their own over time. More on that trade-off in SEO or Google Ads, and on the organic side on our page about an SEO agency in Antwerp.
Doing it yourself or handing it over
You can set up Google Ads yourself. This is what makes the difference.
- Cost
- YourselfOnly your click budget, plus your own time
- With an agencyClick budget plus management, usually 500 to 1,500 euros a month at Belgian agencies
- Setup
- YourselfGoogle's default settings, often with 'presence or interest' and broad terms
- With an agencyLocation, languages, terms, exclusions and tracking set to your area
- Follow-up
- YourselfWhen you have time, usually too little
- With an agencySearch terms checked every week, bids and ads adjusted
- Measuring
- YourselfClicks and impressions
- With an agencyEnquiries, calls and bookings per campaign
Doing it yourself pays off if your budget is small and you take the time to check your search terms every week. From a few thousand euros a month, management usually earns itself back.
How VBS sets up an Antwerp campaign
We start with your service area and your margin per client, not with a budget. From that follows how much an enquiry may cost, which districts, languages and terms you bid on, and which pages you need.
If we run your campaign, you also get the pages the ad sends people to: the same team builds and measures. Your ad account is in your name. We work in English or Dutch, online or at your office. More on the service at Google Ads; what else your marketing can do, at marketing agency in Antwerp.
- Service area by postcode and district
- One campaign per language
- Tracking of form, phone and booking
- A landing page per ad group
What advertisers in Antwerp ask us
What is the minimum budget for Google Ads in Antwerp?
Google sets no minimum. Under a few hundred euros a month you get too few clicks in Antwerp to learn what works; for a local service, Belgian agencies advise at least 1,000 euros.
How soon will I see enquiries?
The first clicks come within a day. A reliable picture of what an enquiry costs takes two to four weeks, once tracking is set up properly.
Should my ads be in English or in Dutch?
In the language your buyers search in. For local customers that is mostly Dutch; for expats and international firms, English. Run each language as its own campaign so you see what each one costs.
Do you also run Meta ads?
Yes. For businesses that need to create demand rather than answer it, such as a new business or an event, Facebook and Instagram ads often work better than Google.
Is my ad account mine?
With us, yes: the account is in your company's name and we get access. If you stop, you keep the campaigns and the data.
Work out your campaign with us
Tell us what a client is worth to you and where you work; we calculate what an enquiry may cost and whether Google Ads pays off for you.
Rather get in touch right away?