SEM Scams to Avoid

Avoid these pay per click companies and save money.

Archive for category SEM Scams

Is Reach Local a Scam – or just another deceptive, over promise, under deliver company?

Sep 4

Posted by Muskrat37 in Advice for small businesses, Reach Local, SEM Scams | 62 Comments

*** update 9/4/11 ***
This post was originally written on 6/19/10. It show’s up #1 on Google for the phrase “Reach Local Scam”. I receive a lot of readers for this post, and to date, no one has successfully challenged my theories about the problems with Reach Local. If you are a small business that is considering hiring Reach Local to manage your SEM, I strongly encourage you to find alternatives. Another post that may be helpful is my short but sweet post titled “Google Adwords Secret….Reach Local…does not want you to know”

*** end update ***

********* ORIGINAL POST *****************
This is a review of Reach Locals pay per click program. Information in this blog post is from former Reach Local employees, Super Media (formerly Idearc Media) training, former Reach Local customers, various internet postings, personal experience, and real world examples I have stumbled upon while surfing the web.

Have you heard the pitch that goes like this?   “If I brought you 50 phone calls this month, and only 10 percent of those converted to customers, you would have received 5 new customers from your Reach Local Advertising.  You told me that the average customer was worth $1,000 to you, so you would have generated $5,000 in revenue for your $1,000 investment.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Google Adwords Secret that Reach Local, AdzZoo and Supermedia do not want you to know.

Aug 17

Posted by Muskrat37 in Advice for small businesses, AdzZoo, Reach Local, SEM Scams, Small Business Tips, Super Media | No Comments

Reach Local, Super Media, and AdzZoo would like you to believe that their is a ton of work to do on an Adwords campaign each and every month. They want you to believe that they have some advanced proprietary software that gives them a competitive edge in the “bidding war” for keywords. (they do have software, but I believe it is designed to maximize their profits by minimizing man hours, and maximizing the clients to employee ratio.)

I have even heard (as recently as today) that Reach Local reps are still telling potential clients that they get a discount on keywords because Reach Local buys in bulk. Google clearly states that they give NO ONE a discount. On Google’s FAQ page about resellers, under “Companies and Claims to Avoid when considering Adwords”, Google states “Nobody receives preferential prices for AdWords”
and they say “Every advertiser pays the same price for AdWords. We don’t give discounts to anyone.”
(see this link for proof)

These companies will tell you that you have to stay on top of Adwords, and that you have to change your bids many times a day.

THE DIRTY SECRET IS:
There just isn’t that much work to do.

Don’t get me wrong, there is work that needs to be done, and you need to monitor your Adwords account to ensure that everything is still running fine, but you don’t have to look at it 10 times per day.

The honest truth is that for most small businesses, on budgets less than about $1500 per month, there will be less than 10 keywords driving the bulk of your traffic. You should watch this traffic, and look at the Analytic’s (not just the Adwords reports) to make sure your ad’s are converting at an acceptable rate that gives you a Return on your investment. You should run comparison ad’s to see if one ad is more successful than another…but this is not that much work, and is definitely not worth the management fees that Reach Local, Super Media, and AdzZoo charges in markup & management fees.

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Is AdzZoo an SEM scam, or yet another company preying on Small Business Owners?

Jul 23

Posted by Muskrat37 in AdzZoo, SEM Scams | 75 Comments

Please note – all comments are my opinion, and meant to facilitate an open discussion regarding your experiences with AdzZoo. 

As with many of my other posts regarding companies that provide Search Engine Marketing Services, I will start by reminding you that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

I believe AdzZoo’s pay per click plans are a huge waste of money for many reasons.

  • They are an MLM – Of the money you pay them, how much goes towards your internet marketing campaign?
  • They are not results driven. In my opinion, the reports that are provided to their clients are very misleading.  These reports that contain no valuable information.  Campaigns appear to be designed for impressions, not conversions.

    • Read the rest of this entry »

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Are Supermedia’s, formerly Idearc Media, SEM Programs a Scam?

Jun 19

Posted by Muskrat37 in SEM Scams, Super Media | 15 Comments

It is my belief that Super Media’s Search Engine Marketing programs are a scam (or at the least, a waste of money)
because they over promise and under deliver, and the company is motivated by making money, not making YOU money.

We have all heard “If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.” Why then do we not listen to our guts when some smooth talking salesman from Super Media, or Yellow Pages, or Dex talks us into an appointment, and then delivers a perfect speech, with just the right amount of pressure to get us to sign a long term (12 month) contract for an internet marketing program? Read the rest of this entry »

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