New Approach Marketing

[Spencer]

A few years ago I worked for Shopzilla (a shopping search engine) in the UK, the trouble with what these people are doing is that it isn't actually illegal, merely Black Hat SEO. There premise of the whole thing is just that they don't get caught, that is why they cut the calls and start prevaricating when questioned too closely. It's actually a lot more common than people realise. Hey there are even books you can buy on Black Hat SEO

[tec0]

Taking all the facts into consideration there is most definitely a need for investigation. I still think if you get Google involved they will be able to give clarity to the situation at hand. I advice caution...

[Andrew Dryden]

The sales department only sell PPC, they are NOT offering SEO, its all smaller business, they are informed exactly where they are appearing on Google and this is explained once again on confirmation, for compliance so the customer knows exactly what’s involved, how to cancel etc they can terminate the phone call at anytime, but we only want happy customers

After the customer has been marketing on page one of Google and realised this method of marketing works, we will then introduce SEO so they can increase their presence on page one and start to reduce the PPC campaign thus saving them money.

The SEO call is made from the technical department, so IS NOT made by a sales person and neither do we cold call to sell SEO, it's all up sold to existing customers, who are happy with the company and service already, so they want to continue marketing on Google and finally all SEO is white hat.

We are a professional company selling PPC, then once the customer is established selling SEO, we are not mis-leading anyone and with strict procedures and voice recording, I know that any mis-selling would be stamped out.

I have just returned from America since I live and breathe Google, looking at new and different methods for the SEO customers to ensure they keep appearing on page one.

[Marq]

Just had another call (yes about three this month) from some idiot representing New Approach. Comes in on this uk number - tells me he is from CT and here to save my business. Special this month usual R4000 a month story now only R1400 per month - same number as a few months ago now grew to a big number before being 'discounted' to a still ridiculous number.

So he tells me I can have 5 words/phrases. Any words.

Now as far as I know there is a charge per word which can vary depending on the word and budget and limits have to be set for the account and it can get very expensive if you have a lot of clicks. If you dont have any clicks then it costs you nothing. None of this is explained.

How would this fit into a fixed monthly fee structure? Do they set a 'budget' of say R500 and when that is reached you are off the system until the next month? What would an average be that one should spend on adwords marketing assuming you organised this yourself?

[IanF]

Marq
I spend r200 a month with adwords, set it up yourself. Don't let google choose the amount per click. I went in low per click. I see they suggest something like R17 per click for keywords like business cards to show on the first page of search results.
My thinking is R17 then 1 in 5 ask for a quote and 1 in 4 actually buy. So for 17x5x4 you make a sale for R260 and ad costs are R340.
So I stay away from chasing the first page impressions and rather see what business you pick up.
I have noticed that people are lazy so at least 3 times a week I get a call asking for prices on normal mousepads (rubber backed). We make a paper pad which is glued 2 sides as a mousepad and say "Our mousepads are NOT rubber or foam backed mousepads" This is the first line but still we get asked for them. What I am saying is some people waste the click through as they do not read.
So if your manage it you can do well.

[Dave A]

Let's put it this way - R1400.00 can get you a lot of exposure if you are doing all the right things. Marq, you'd probably need a chain of guesthouses...

However, done wrong you could blow R1400.00 and have very little to show for it.

What is a bit of a grind is you really need to set up an optimised landing page for each ad as the value of the bid is based on your bid and a quality score for the landing page - at least initially. After a day or so it's the value of your bid times the CTR.

[tec0]

From the look of things I would just use other methods to get the word out. Pay per Click is one-thing and I myself are looking at alternatives... Really I can see why Google is so successful but again you are losing money “because you have a webpage� that is just stupid... A big shiny banner on a popular road can do more for me than a webpage and yes it is expensive but it is basically once off.

[Marq]

some people waste the click through as they do not rea

Is there also a chance that your opposition could sit clicking away on your ad all day long and ring up a big score for you?

[IanF]

Is there also a chance that your opposition could sit clicking away on your ad all day long and ring up a big score for you?

Yes they could, there is an option to have a daily limit which I have otherwise you blow your budget in one day. Plus you can limit the area in which your ads show and the times it shows. So I just show for about 14 hours a day during the week. The options are actually good, they also analyse your website and suggest keywords.

[Dave A]

We now have a new player ploughing this field - Chrome Marketing. He actually said he's from "Google Chrome Marketing" during the course of the discussion and upon trying to establish the exact relationship - they're "contracted with Google."

If I hadn't asked the right questions, I would have been none the wiser that this was not, indeed, the big G.

Now the genius is twofold -

• Chrome is associated with Google nowadays as a result of their browser, so the Google and Chrome connection already exisits in the minds of many and they are less likely to start asking awkward questions.
• If you were trying to research this operation, a search on any combination of the keywords is going to have the results drowned out by discussion on Google's Chrome browser.

I know second hand car salesmen have a bad reputation, but I'm starting to suspect there are worse creatures in this world. This is starting to fall into the category of timeshare and expensive vacuum cleaner pedlars.