Hi Phil,
My current budget is £2.50 per day, my max cost per click is currently set at 50p although I change this quite often, sometimes to as low as 5p, as other companys also change their bids to suit, most of the work I get from google is one off cleans (end of tenancy, new builds, spring cleans) I am in the process of having another web site done for me, to appeal to larger customers, I have learnt to write html and built my own web site but i'm no designer, its ok but not as professional as I would like it to be, as I stated before the average I pay is £15 per month, compared to yell.com (about £33 per month) its very good value, one thing to note is that other cleaning companys will click on your sponsored link and use up your budget for the day, then your not listed, it does happen.
I do have a first page listing on google (not sponsored) for certain search words, google is the hardest search engine in my opinion to get listed for free on, it can take up to 3 months after submission.
Regards
Paul