I’ve heard from a few clients recently about them receiving marketing or telephone calls from “Official Google Adwords Resellers”.

And it’s not just me, a few marketing buddies have also heard this.

So, what’s it all about?

A “reseller” calls up your client and offers them a guaranteed listing on page 1 of sponsored listings, with unlimited clicks through to their site, all for a small fee of £99.00 per month.

The biggest culprits of this so far seem to be Matchmaker Marketing.

I’ve long been dubious about this. As a SEM it’s hard not to be, and anyone who has conducted even a simple PPC campaign will smell a rat straight away.

Now, I’ve never had the time to 100% investigate this, but I had my suspicions about what you actually got for your £99.00 per month:

  • Long tailed keywords with no searches and very little competition
  • No keyword research
  • No increase in traffic
  • Poor service
  • A hole in your wallet

The thing I couldn’t fathom with any certainty was how they could offer unlimited click throughs.

Well, the great Michael Wall has actually spent some time investigating this:

When I had a look at the report, I noticed that nowhere does it mention clicks, it actually mentions impressions!

His article goes into more depth about how the reports are constructed, the service you can expect from these companies and, thankfully, affirms what we as SEMs have always thought – £99 Google Adwords promises are generally a no traffic, no profit rip-off.

Check out Michael’s Google AdWords Rip-Off article for the full breakdown of his investigation.

Check out these interesting forums posts on the subject too, great reads:

Have any of your clients signed up for this? Have you had any dealings with Matchmaker Marketing?

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