Lies That Search Engine Marketing Companies Tell
I get the unfortunate opportunity of speaking with a lot of medium sized businesses that have search engine marketing companies handling their paid search campaigns. Within the last month or so the lies i’ve heard being told to these businesses have been getting more and more outrageous. I figured i’d share some memorable ones (oh and by the way these lies come from huge companies not just some kid out of his basement selling search engine marketing):
- Everyone showing up on the page pays the same amount per click
- Ads in position 5 get 60% of the clicks
- We are best to manage your campaign because the search engines charge us less per click because we do volume
- We can sell you position 1 for “keyword” for $250/month
- We can host your landing page on our “trusted” domain and that will get you much cheaper clicks
- Most people searching for your keyword will use a geotagged keyword along with what they are looking for ie. “exterminator in San Diego, CA” (Totally not true)
- The more paid search you do the better your website will rank organically
- By having logos on your website like “featured in such and such news source” you will get more & cheaper clicks
- Your cost per click will always be the same
- We manage all of your competitors campaigns so we are obviously the best company to go with
Just a few i’ve heard lately. Do you have any you’ve heard and would like to share?
Wow, unbelievable! My definite favorite is “The more paid search you do the better your website will rank organically.” Unfortunately, that’s a really common misconception.
“By having logos on your website like “featured in such and such news source” you will get more & cheaper clicks”…
Yeah sure, I’m going to fill my blog with logos as it has been featured, on nbc, the bbc, abc news, cbs news, fox news, sky news, news web, the new york times, google news… (Or maybe not)
I’m going to get $0.01 clicks! (Or maybe not)
And you’re saying that big companies are serving these lies? wtf
I’ve heard the one about selling the #1 position for a set fee each month before. It just goes to show how little a typical company knows about the way search marketing works. It makes it easy for so-called search “experts” to make things up and convince companies to hire them. Most companies just won’t know any better and will believe a lot of the nonsense.
Dude, ******* has to be the biggest SCAM out there. Their entire pitch is pretty much a lie.
Wow. That is insane. But what blows me away more is that a company would buy the BS and hire them. I think I’d think twice before I took on too many more of those clients who are obviously clueless and can’t tell quality from crap.
As far as I know with Adwords… accounts with bigger history will get cheaper clicks so not sure why that was marked as a myth.
“We can get you 30,000,000 legit backlinks…in like…a day”
“You can actually buy the first position the keyword ______________ and have it reserved for you…forever!”
But regarding “Ads in position 5 get 60% of the clicks” – I thought it was more like 180%?….
One I heard while talking to some companies that manage PPC campaigns (acting as a potential client):
Him: “Our software shows you do not have the quality score you could be having. We can really help you with that.”
Me: “Oh really? I have 10/10 quality score for most of my ad groups.”
Him: “No… our software is showing otherwise…”
Lol – caught in a lie ftw.
We garantee 1st position for any keyword forever!
“We have MULTIPLE degrees from FullSail University – no one else can compete with that resume.”
“SEM if not managed correctly can hurt your SEO rankings”
I find this hard to believe honestly but I don’t doubt these responses. In dealing with clients I have heard some horror stories about people that have very little understanding of sem managing campaigns.
With that being said you can make a killing doing this with knowledge, honesty, hard work, and building trust with your clients.
These are the people that get the jobs and get fired. You want a client to keep coming back to you month after month.
As someone who has previously outsourced PPC management because it was something I just couldn’t put a realistic amount of focus towards when I’ve got 5 other fires to tame, I’ve spoken to some real idiots who spew “promise” and “trust me” from word one. These clowns don’t make it past the first phone call.
I always skip the first four positions in the search results and then begin clicking at position five. So yes, position 5 gets 60% of the traffic.
Hey for jon volk or Adhustler, can you guys reccomend 2 or 3 seo companies that can help me with a few local clients we are currently doing local affiliate marketing for, thanks to a few posts on here! hey how about a post on how to pitch a local client on some SEO pricing.
yes, the way most search engine marketing companies tell lies like “more paid search paid you do the better your website will rank organically” is remarkable because popularity of site depends on quality of advertising not cost.
“If you remove the backlinks promoting our SEO services we put on your site, your rankings will drop.”