Is this offer legit?

[jonnya]

Hi there, advice needed:

I was called up today by this company <snip> offering me a £150 30-day trial of their google adwords package. It apparently gets me on the 1st page of google ads for 5 search terms for that 30 day period, regardless of how many clicks my ads get..

The reason they gave for how they can guarantee this is that they place so much business with google that they get a cheaper cpc than others..

My business is selling Christmas trees, in a specific and very competitive location - so actually if this worked it would be good value for me - but is there a catch?

[ChillDot]

Hi there, advice needed:

I was called up today by this company:www.exceltechnology.co.uk offering me a £150 30-day trial of their google adwords package. It apparently gets me on the 1st page of google ads for 5 search terms for that 30 day period, regardless of how many clicks my ads get..

The reason they gave for how they can guarantee this is that they place so much business with google that they get a cheaper cpc than others..

My business is selling Christmas trees, in a specific and very competitive location - so actually if this worked it would be good value for me - but is there a catch?

Sounds dodgy to me, I imagine there are some terms and conditions, and i bet you end up with 5 ridiculously long tailed keywords. Because if you chose "christmas trees" as a keyword that would cost a lot per click and get a lot of clicks.

Id ask what the terms and conditions are specifically before you get into a deal like this. I cant see Google giving a small web design company based in India much of a discount really.


Edit* Unsure if they are from india, they just have the same name as a company that are, at least. Looking through their website it looks all spam to me, testimonials look fake as only one has a company name. But hey, maybe im just being cynical.

[jonnya]

Sounds dodgy to me, I imagine there are some terms and conditions, and i bet you end up with 5 ridiculously long tailed keywords. Because if you chose "christmas trees" as a keyword that would cost a lot per click and get a lot of clicks.

Id ask what the terms and conditions are specifically before you get into a deal like this. I cant see Google giving a small web design company based in India much of a discount really.


Edit* Unsure if they are from india, they just have the same name as a company that are, at least. Looking through their website it looks all spam to me, testimonials look fake as only one has a company name. But hey, maybe im just being cynical.

Thanks for this- your reaction makes a lot of sense.. I have asked for confirmation by email that a couple of short, competitive terms would be acceptable and I'll see what they send back!

[SEO_AM]

Caveat emptor... Usually, when something sounds too good to be true... it isn't.

[ChillDot]

Caveat emptor... Usually, when something sounds too good to be true... it isn't.

That doesnt make sense?

caveat emptor - aka let the buyer beware, which effectively means that the buyer is responsible for the products they purchase.

surely the saying should be.....Usually, when something sounds too good to be true... it is

[nooby]

All they have to do us set they daily budget at 5 and max bid for your keywords. Every day you'll be in the number one spot until you hit the daily budget, which will actually be closer to 3 so they can make a profit.

Adwords isn't that hard. Spend an hour learning it and do it yourself.

[jonnya]

All they have to do us set they daily budget at 5 and max bid for your keywords. Every day you'll be in the number one spot until you hit the daily budget, which will actually be closer to 3 so they can make a profit.

Adwords isn't that hard. Spend an hour learning it and do it yourself.

Sorry - I should have been clearer..:

They guarantee to keep your ad running ALL the time, regardless of how many clicks you get..

Honestly can't see how - I run my own adwords at the moment and spend around £6 per day (with that budget I struggle to get to the top and even then max out each day).. meanwhile these guys are claiming they can run the same search terms constantly for a fixed monthly price of £150.

A pretty much identical service called me this afternoon: www.searchengineeasy.com - £89 this time, for the same package.. this guy told me it's because they manage 12,000 accounts that they get great prices..

It just seems impossible to me..

[DarrenHaye]

Does no one else feel the OP is just attempting to advertise exceltechnology?

[Dr.Marie]

It apparently gets me on the 1st page of google ads for 5 search terms for that 30 day period, regardless of how many clicks my ads get..

The reason they gave for how they can guarantee this is that they place so much business with google that they get a cheaper cpc than others..

There is a possibility it could be legit. If these people are experienced in Adwords then they could be much better at you than creating and optimizing a campaign. Keywords that could cost you $2 per click (example) could cost them $0.75 because of their experience in knowing what keywords to pick, how to use exact/broad match, how to use negative keywords, how to optimize the landing page to get a better quality score, etc.

A couple of thoughts I have:
-Be sure that this campaign is for 5 keywords that you want and not just 5 keywords that they choose. It could be that being on the first page for "Christmas Trees" is $4 per click (again, example), but being on the first page for "Purple Christmas Trees" is $0.20 per click. Being on the first page for keywords no one is searching for won't help.

-Be sure that this is not something that you have to sign a long term contract in order to get the deal. It could be like buying a cell phone. You get the phone for free, but you've got to sign up with the phone company for 3 years.

[jonnya]

There is a possibility it could be legit. If these people are experienced in Adwords then they could be much better at you than creating and optimizing a campaign. Keywords that could cost you $2 per click (example) could cost them $0.75 because of their experience in knowing what keywords to pick, how to use exact/broad match, how to use negative keywords, how to optimize the landing page to get a better quality score, etc.

A couple of thoughts I have:
-Be sure that this campaign is for 5 keywords that you want and not just 5 keywords that they choose. It could be that being on the first page for "Christmas Trees" is $4 per click (again, example), but being on the first page for "Purple Christmas Trees" is $0.20 per click. Being on the first page for keywords no one is searching for won't help.

-Be sure that this is not something that you have to sign a long term contract in order to get the deal. It could be like buying a cell phone. You get the phone for free, but you've got to sign up with the phone company for 3 years.

Thanks for this - I have asked both companies to let me me know if I can select my own keywords as I've a pretty good idea of what's already working on Adwords for me at the moment. I'll see what reassurance they can give me on that out of curiosity.

In both cases they offer a one month deal - targeting seasonal businesses like mine.

Daren, not sure if you're suggesting I'm writing on behalf of one of the two companies I referred to above but if you look at my previous posts on this website you'll see from time to time I have asked people here for seo advice for my christmas tree business..

Thanks again for advice, will let you know how it turns out

[jonnya]

Just to report back on this as I said I would:

I checked out with the firms that had been chasing me whether I could choose my own key phrases and gave them a list. One said I could, but that it would cost a bit more.

I then checked it out with a customer of ours who happens to be a large PPC firm and was willing to offer some advice - they felt the price for the 5 search terms was perhaps possible, but not great value for money, advised me (as people on here have) that usually its best to steer clear of this sort of offer and instead suggested some other ways of using the same budget.

So in the end I've opted not to go for this sort of package..

Thanks as ever for your help