SEP businesses

[Morticia]

Got a call today from a company that will remain nameless so they don't come on here and try to defend their rep as they did on every other site that mentioned them (as a scam).
They got hubs on the phone, by name, so he talked to them. I could tell it was a 'sell' as all he got to say was, 'Yes, that's me,' and then he sat there for a couple of minutes while he was being 'sold'. (I have metioned this is why I do not like having my name on my website, right? It's only first names and that's all they said, a first name.)
Finally he said the he doesn't handle that (so I assumed it was a web-related call) and he asked me if I wanted to do this search engine thing to be on the front page of Google. Of course not. But, I had to go look at what the cost would be anyway!
For a $79 Google adwords set up fee and at least $25/month they will guarantee me the top slot for the paid search term they sell me, 24x7 as long as I pay the monthly fee. (The phone rep said that. The website says 'first page' not 'first slot'.) The search term 'sells' for $1.48 right now and has, according to Google, 18,000 searches/month. So, I would have to pay $1.49 to beat out the person in slot one right now. Today. It could go up substantially at any time.
However, with the addition of the tiny word 'and' the number of searches goes down to 110/month and a fee of $0.05 per click. So, for the guarantee fo 24x7 top slot return which search term do you think I would have gotten for $25/month?
BTW, in case anyone else got called, the search term is 'Maine bed and breakfast'. The 'cheap' search term is 'Maine and bed and breakfast'.
So, if you got called today or some other time, keep in mind you are not the only person being called. And there are only 10 paid slots for each search term. And a really 'good' search term is not cheap. And this company will not tell you what your stats are for that search term or how much it is costing to get clicked for that search term. At least those were the complaints I read about.
We did a group PPC last summer. After $600 (and a good search term writer) we saw more hits on the website, but no one could verify any bookings.
SEP- search engine placement, aka PPC.

 

[Copperhead]

And this you could have done by yourself if you had wanted and saved that $79 fee they charge. Google Adwords provides assistance to find the best search terms for your business, number of searches per term and cost. These SEP business reps are just out their for the quick buck...or $79 bucks and sells you on a PPC placement you would never consider if you know anything about web searching. They are really looking for those small business people that are not internet savy.
Well we know they hit a dead end with you. And thanks to this site, I think more innkeepers are 1 step ahead of these scam artists.

 

[DaisyMae]

I've gotten those calls different times. The most recent one just said "thank you for your time" when i said i was not interested. Sometimes, though, they are more aggressive and just don't want to hear no.

 

[Copperhead]

I've gotten those calls different times. The most recent one just said "thank you for your time" when i said i was not interested. Sometimes, though, they are more aggressive and just don't want to hear no..

Of course the easiest way to take care of those agressive ones is the click button. I hate to have to use this method but when a nice 'No thank you" doesn't work I do resort to using it and will have no regrets.

 

[Morticia]

I've gotten those calls different times. The most recent one just said "thank you for your time" when i said i was not interested. Sometimes, though, they are more aggressive and just don't want to hear no..

Of course the easiest way to take care of those agressive ones is the click button. I hate to have to use this method but when a nice 'No thank you" doesn't work I do resort to using it and will have no regrets.
.

Hubs got another one today from a company wanting to give him $150,000. They asked for the previous owners at first. Poor hubs. He's sitting there saying, 'Sir? Sir, may I interrupt? Sir?' Finally the guy shut up and hubs said, 'I don't need the money.' The guy said something else and hubs laughed and said, 'Really, I don't need the money at all.'

 

[happykeeper]

Got this call a month or two ago. I thought scam but I have to be honest- they prayed upon my limited knowledge and they knew just how to say something.
I actually asked the guy to follow up with an email and when he put on the pressure that I had to act then cause someone else was interested in the slot, I figured out it was a slick scam. He did send an email and guess what the slot was amazingly still around the next day. Of course, by then he figured out I wasn't the stiff he was looking for and his next call lasted long enough for me to express my indifference before he was gone-gone gone.

 

[birdwatcher]

Got this call a month or two ago. I thought scam but I have to be honest- they prayed upon my limited knowledge and they knew just how to say something.
I actually asked the guy to follow up with an email and when he put on the pressure that I had to act then cause someone else was interested in the slot, I figured out it was a slick scam. He did send an email and guess what the slot was amazingly still around the next day. Of course, by then he figured out I wasn't the stiff he was looking for and his next call lasted long enough for me to express my indifference before he was gone-gone gone..

Yup last year got the same scam only they claimed to be "GOOGLE" at first, so stupid me was WOW! anyway, they continued that they could GUARANTEE my business to be first but they where a subsidiary of Google. Ok I said I would call them back (thinking back on my sales techniches of past occupation) anyway called my webmaster and asked he said its a scam, so thank goodness that I didn't take the bait.
Like they say: If it sounds too good to be true it usually isn't.

 

[Hangfive]

These companies call us all the time. The search terms are always some less used terms with cheap placement. You can do this on your own. At times I have run with well over a hundred terms 24/7, just set your max bid really low and maybe increase it a little for certain terms with a higher bid range. Say .10 for the cheapies and adjust the reast up individually as necessary. Set Adwords up to run reports and after a while you'll get a feel for which ones work and which ones have higher bounce rates.
A word of caution with expensive terms, make sure your competition is not seeing the adds. For instance if your in Maine don't run the add in Maine or click fraud will ruin your budget. At least thats what happens in my area.
Regarding PPC, I feel that I have a relatively low return for the dollars spent for the expensive terms.

 

[Morticia]

These companies call us all the time. The search terms are always some less used terms with cheap placement. You can do this on your own. At times I have run with well over a hundred terms 24/7, just set your max bid really low and maybe increase it a little for certain terms with a higher bid range. Say .10 for the cheapies and adjust the reast up individually as necessary. Set Adwords up to run reports and after a while you'll get a feel for which ones work and which ones have higher bounce rates.
A word of caution with expensive terms, make sure your competition is not seeing the adds. For instance if your in Maine don't run the add in Maine or click fraud will ruin your budget. At least thats what happens in my area.
Regarding PPC, I feel that I have a relatively low return for the dollars spent for the expensive terms..

Interesting. I've never looked at AdWords so I didn't know you could deselect areas where the ad wouldn't show. So, if I am online in NY, the Maine ad would show, but not if I were sitting in a library in Maine looking for a place to stay in Maine?
This, BTW, is how I travel...book first and last night if air travel is involved and wing the rest of it.

 

[Copperhead]

These companies call us all the time. The search terms are always some less used terms with cheap placement. You can do this on your own. At times I have run with well over a hundred terms 24/7, just set your max bid really low and maybe increase it a little for certain terms with a higher bid range. Say .10 for the cheapies and adjust the reast up individually as necessary. Set Adwords up to run reports and after a while you'll get a feel for which ones work and which ones have higher bounce rates.
A word of caution with expensive terms, make sure your competition is not seeing the adds. For instance if your in Maine don't run the add in Maine or click fraud will ruin your budget. At least thats what happens in my area.
Regarding PPC, I feel that I have a relatively low return for the dollars spent for the expensive terms..

A word of caution with expensive terms, make sure your competition is not seeing the adds. For instance if your in Maine don't run the add in Maine or click fraud will ruin your budget. At least thats what happens in my area. Regarding PPC, I feel that I have a relatively low return for the dollars spent for the expensive terms.

Boy - you have crappy competition! Are they doing Adwords as well? I read somewhere in the Adwords policy that if one places numerous clicks on another's listing they can be banned from listing.
We do Adwords as well but only for the most used terms...and we make sure we are high on the list as well. What we found was if you only list pennies, you get nothing, if you are really wanting to get a bang for the buck, you need to be on page 1 - (just like wanting your website on page one) One of our listing is for MY town hotels since our website currently is on page 3 or something... and it DOES bring us business. Many callers do state that they always start by looking at the hotels but do like B&B's and was glad when they saw our site.... We have a budget which does limit how long we are listed each day...when out daily alotment has disappeared, our listing does too, until the next day, we are placing the odds that we will grasp at least 1 reservation per daily alotment...now not always do we run out of budget each day, and not always do we get a reservation either, but on avereage, so far so good! (now that was a run-on sentence but I am too out of breath to correct it)

 

[Copperhead]

These companies call us all the time. The search terms are always some less used terms with cheap placement. You can do this on your own. At times I have run with well over a hundred terms 24/7, just set your max bid really low and maybe increase it a little for certain terms with a higher bid range. Say .10 for the cheapies and adjust the reast up individually as necessary. Set Adwords up to run reports and after a while you'll get a feel for which ones work and which ones have higher bounce rates.
A word of caution with expensive terms, make sure your competition is not seeing the adds. For instance if your in Maine don't run the add in Maine or click fraud will ruin your budget. At least thats what happens in my area.
Regarding PPC, I feel that I have a relatively low return for the dollars spent for the expensive terms..

Interesting. I've never looked at AdWords so I didn't know you could deselect areas where the ad wouldn't show. So, if I am online in NY, the Maine ad would show, but not if I were sitting in a library in Maine looking for a place to stay in Maine?
This, BTW, is how I travel...book first and last night if air travel is involved and wing the rest of it.
.

Interesting. I've never looked at AdWords so I didn't know you could deselect areas where the ad wouldn't show. So, if I am online in NY, the Maine ad would show, but not if I were sitting in a library in Maine looking for a place to stay in Maine?

DH handles our campaigns on Adwords but I did check with him on this. You can build your campaigns to include certain cities, states or by regions. May not be totally explaining every scenario but hopefully you get what I am saying. DH says you can build multiple campaigns to show in certain feeder cities where the ad will only appear in those areas, with targeted words just for those areas. He has done this for us - news to me!

So he does more than I give him credit for!!!