10 Sep 2009

Guaranteed #1 on Adwords for a Fixed Monthly Fee? Yeah right.

People sometimes ask me about companies that guarantee a number one spot on Adwords for a fixed monthly fee. These guys usually cold call, and one of them called one of my clients.

Here's his question about it and my answer...

Hi George,

Hope you are well.

Wonder if you could help me with the following…

I’ve been contacted by a company called www.xxxxxxxxxxxx.co.uk They are offering - always on page one on Google Adwords and unlimited clicks for £99 per month. Have you heard of this? Do you know if it’s genuine? What do you think of it?

Thanks

Kevin


Here's my response:

Hi Kevin,

Yeah, there's loads and loads of companies like these about. They usually cold call small businesses, offer a deal like this and refer them to a website similar to the one you mentioned. A few of my clients come to me after dealing with guys like these.

It's genuine-ish (as in - 'not illegal'). I knew a guy who sold for these kinds of firms, and here's roughly how it works:

  • You sign a 6-12 month contract commiting to a monthly fee.
  • They set up a new Adwords account that you cannot access, where they set up your ads and keywords etc.
  • You only see reports or at best, access your data through their (limited) interface.
  • "Unlimited" clicks is quite misleading. For £99 per month, they'll only accept low traffic keywords that won't cost anywhere near £99/month to run on Adwords. Probably more like £20-£50, and they keep the difference.
  • If a keyword was getting more clicks than they predicted, (and they were set to lose money or break even) there are a few tricks that can be employed. Such as running some "creative" ad scheduling or reducing geographic targeting to a tiny area. This will give the appearance of "page 1, unlimited clicks" but will keep their margins healthy.
My opinion of this kind of service is quite low. It plays on the business owners lack of knowledge on the subject - detaching them from the use, control and intellectual property of their Adwords campaigns.

Just my opinion though from what I've heard.

Oh, one more thing... If you want to mess with them, get them to agree to "unlimited clicks" for £99/month, then tell them your keywords are "debt management", "secured loans", "IVA", "personal injury" and "injury lawyers". They're all going for £10-£20 a click these days.

If you can genuinely get unlimited clicks on the above keywords for £99 a month, send them my way and I'll be retired in the Bahamas by Christmas ;)

Cheers,


George Lane