EPilot

[BetaChat]

Has anyone ever advertised with the EPilot PPC program, and have good long term results?

[CalArch90]

I just started with them, and have been pretty happy with the results. Traffic was much higher than I would have anticipated and my ROI seems to be good so far.

[bostonseo]

Have tried them for clients in multiple industries, lost money every time. I'd pass.

[BetaChat]

Have tried them for clients in multiple industries, lost money every time. I'd pass.

What type of industry did you advertise?

[bostonseo]

Every B2B basically possible. Magazine, Online Education....all losers.

Epilot salespeople are pushy too.

[edited by: seth_wilde at 4:06 pm (utc) on July 7, 2004]

[Rich_Kydd]

I happen to be a sales person at epilot, we are persistant not pushy, we wouldn't get very far if we weren't. I have hundreds of clients that have been with me for a long time and are seeing good results. If anyone would like more information on epilot I would be glad to answer any questions.

[TheGuyAboveYou]

I tried them and got zero sales. I personally found it was garbage. All traffic is not created equal. I would rather have 100 clicks on google than 100000 on Epilot. I think they are farming out their clicks to what I call "click farms". I am tired of these companies that survive off the infinite supply of newbies. You don't need long term customers on the internet because its not like you are openeing up a little store front where you rely on repeat business. Many people make lots of money off of newbiews.

[Rich_Kydd]

There was a time our traffic was below quality, within the last year we've gained some good partners and dropped the lower quality ones, so the quality of our traffic has dramatically improved.We have an exclusive contract with Yellowpages.com now which has been pretty big for us. Our local search program which will be unvailed within about 60 days and is over and above Yahoo and Google's technology. It's gained us alot of interest from some major players in the industry. I'm not trying to say our traffic is better than Yahoo or Google's, but it has put us in the top 7 cpc search networks. I'll be honest it doesn't work for some industries as Overture can work for one and not on Google and vice versa. I work with many different industries and most have stuck with me for quite awhile so I can only conclude that they are seeing decent results.

[CalArch90]

After trying them out for a bit longer, I can't say that I'm very impressed with the quality of their traffic.

I saw my budget evaporate at a very fast pace with no conversions on my end. I've since lowered my bid price to minimum rates so that I now receive a small amount of traffic at a very low cost.

Among the third-tier ppc engines, I think I would go with Enhance after exhausting Findwhat, Google and Overture. They have their problems as well, but you can bid very low and still get a decent amount of traffic, and you might just find that your cost-to-conversion ratio is not at all bad using this approach.

[bostonseo]

Epilot sales guy you gonna come to the rescue here? Seems as if everyone is saying the same thing...Epilot has been unprofitable for everyone posting here.

[Richard Overvold]

I'm not trashing Epilot in any way from this post. However, I do have some concerns that they need to hurry with a "smart pricing" program. Lets just say the max bid is $0.50 for a certain keyword. You bid $0.51 to grab the top spot. The "now second place" bidder drops the keyword, and the third place bidder is only bidding $0.25. You're still bidding at $0.51, and also, your account never stops charging you after you have reached a zero balance in your account FYI.

So I think the program has a little cleaning up to do if they want to be competitive, and keep a good reputation.

[bostonseo]

Thanks for pointing out; had I known I would have fought for more of a refund.

[iDKris]

whoever said epilot ppl were pushy is right on... i'd even say that's an understatement.

[bostonseo]

I said that. I had salespeople calling me everyday for 3 weeks; even when I spefically told them I would call them.

Their program in my opinion is as bad as the salespeople.

Probably my LEAST favorite program out there.

[manticor24]

Even if their traffic was worth anything, they just buy it from other crappy 3rd tier PPCSEs. You can easily go direct with the other ones if the traffic is good for you.

[Rich_Kydd]

The Epilot traffic has gotten 100% better in the last 6 months. As far as for sales people there, why didn't you tell him yes or no on the 1st call instead of leading him on for 3 weeks, it's your fault! Like I said before we would never get any sales if we weren't persistant and if you run a business how could you not undersand that?

[Richard Overvold]

The Epilot traffic has gotten 100% better in the last 6 months. As far as for sales people there, why didn't you tell him yes or no on the 1st call instead of leading him on for 3 weeks, it's your fault! Like I said before we would never get any sales if we weren't persistant and if you run a business how could you not undersand that?

Alot of people don't have the balls to say the word "no".

[Rich_Kydd]

Well if they're in business they need to grow some or they won't be for long.

[greenleaves]

I was checking their search results, and would say that 70% of their 1st page listings come from other PPC.

It seems as if they are just a big affiliate.

[Rich_Kydd]

you're seeing everything as a sponsored link because the bid prices are being masked. We have over 6000 active advertisers. So no, we are not an affiliate company.

[Richard Overvold]

you're seeing everything as a sponsored link because the bid prices are being masked. We have over 6000 active advertisers. So no, we are not an affiliate company.

If I were Epilot, I'd start setting up a "SmartPricing" type program, as it will benefit you in the long run. One of my main reasons for not using Epilot is because your program doesn't look like it's on the cutting edge of PPC engines. Your program lacks the technology that it needs to be competitive. Sure you're putting a few extra bucks in your pocket in the mean time, but you're killing your possible client base by not offering such services.

[Rich_Kydd]

are you going to epilot.com or e-pilot.com because we are epilot without the dash and we are on the cutting edge of technology especially with our local search program we are unvailing in the near future. e-pilot is some rinky dink portal someone set up epilot is a 30 million dollar company.

[Richard Overvold]

epilot

[jim2003]

Hello,

Does epilot allow advertisers to limit its advertising to only the United States?

Regards

[Rich_Kydd]

Yes, we can direct traffic to only U.S. based partners, it's called our preferred network. Give me a call and I can explain more.

[jim2003]

I presently use a number of PPC search engines and never once have had to talk to somebody in person. I have always been able to do everything online. Does epilot require that I take phone calls from sales people to set up an account?

Regards,

[Rich_Kydd]

The only time you have to talk to one of us is the initial deposit after that everything else can be done online. You are assigned a personal account manager so if you have questions about anything you can get ahold of a person.

[shopnow117]

I also used Epilot and my traffic with them is garbage too!

[bostonseo]

Rich_Kydd you are very amusing. I have posted my thoughts on Epilot and I stand by them; that I have never been able to get the program to work for numerous clients in the last year and a half.

It's interesting you are so defensive about your program;
also for the record...I told the saleguy who called me almost every day for 1 month that I would call him when I was ready to move ahead. They are pushy and do not understand "I will call you, please do not call me". I had the same experience with 2 different salespeople at 2 separate intervals of time. I also discussed the matter with the company CEO.

Is he aware you are representating Epilot on this board, in this manner? In my opinion you are not coming across as very professional.

[RandyRay]

I advertise on ePilot, and I have seen some ROI, but I have had an odd experience with one of my ads there. I can't seem to stop getting clicks on it.

I tried pausing the ad and was still consistently showing daily clicks for those keywords in my report.

So I tried deleting the ad altogether. I STILL receive clicks in my reporting for those keywords.

When I spoke with my rep at ePilot, he was kind enough to make sure that I got credited back for those clicks, but he couldn't give me an explanation why I was receiving clicks for a paused ad.

I found this very odd. I think ePilot is only slightly better than Kanoodle in terms of traffic quality.