Scamming Clients, Have You Seen This?

[Nancy99]

I just had a AdWords management prospect call me and he told me that he is currently having his account managed and was very pleased as he had been paying $60 per click (this is no typo) and the current manager now has him paying $10 a click. He really felt like he was saving money.

Okay I was kind of shocked by those figures but not excessively. Then he told me he has no access to his Google AdWords account to allow us to log in and review his account for the additional work requirements that he was calling us about. He tells me that Google is billing his credit card not the account manager. I think that he may be wrong on this and that maybe he is really been billed per click by the account manager.

Seems to me that the account manager is either abritrarily charging what he wants per click and billing the client not Google and doesn't want the client to see what he is really paying to Google.

Having you ever run into this before? What about the click figures. I have heard of $10 per click but $60? The guy is a personal injury attorney in San Diego. What's your take on this?

I want to be cautious on this as I may not have all the information from the client, but it doesn't look like the client is being treated fairly.

[beren]

Google lets you bid up to $100, so actual cost per click may go as high as $60 or higher. For a narrow niche with a high value per lead, such as "San Diego injury attorney" that would not seem too surprising if you want to be number 1.

This account manager may just have lowered the bid and position to get a lower cost per click. Going from an average position of 1.2 to 3.5 could lower your cost per click from $60 to $10. That seems plausible.

As far as account managers marking up Google's cost: some companies do that. Or so I understand. Our company does not mark up Google's cost; we just charge per hour for our management. Any of our clients is welcome to log into their Google accounts any time and see what they are paying. None of our clients have ever asked for the log in information, though.

[Nancy99]

Thanks Beren, nice to get a reality check on the issue.

[zoomer]

It sounds a little fishy to me. I can't imagine an attorney giving so much latitude to an "account manager". Why would the attorney give the account manager complete control over his spending and account without any oversight?

I suppose anything is possible, but I doubt those are the actual facts of the situation. Why is he contacting you if he is "very pleased" with his current manager?

[jonathanleger]

I am aware of no less than 41 keywords that have max bids of more than $60 a click, so that's not unheard of.

[cubfan]

Ask the prospect if he's paying a "management service fee", or is he "buying clicks"? It all depends on the structure. I've worked at companies that charge under both scenarios. If I'm a client, I want the manager to work within my account, and I pay a management fee. That way I pay the media costs and have control over everything, including the campaign. He should also be asking for a report to be sent that includes Average CPC, Average Position, etc.

[Kings on steeds]

well, we had a personal ijury claim center, here in england and hey was paying £10 for his targetd keywords i can imagine something like persoanl injury on broad matching being quite high maybe very close to $60, but the ppc managment company is not following best practice, most companies in ppc management, at least all the ones we know/ work alongside, allow join access to the account!

[cubfan]

well, we had a personal ijury claim center, here in england and hey was paying £10 for his targetd keywords i can imagine something like persoanl injury on broad matching being quite high maybe very close to $60

was it 1st tier traffic?

[netmeg]

It sounds a little fishy to me. I can't imagine an attorney giving so much latitude to an "account manager". Why would the attorney give the account manager complete control over his spending and account without any oversight?

I have at least half a dozen clients, two of whom are attorneys, who allow me just such latitude. They don't have time to deal with it themselves, I provide them with one page summary reports to show that the money is well spent, and I'm under direction to basically "spend whatever it takes." There's probably tons of people like that out there (and hopefully I'll find some more of them, or they will find me)

[zoomer]

I have at least half a dozen clients, two of whom are attorneys, who allow me just such latitude.

I assume your clients at least have access to their Adwords accounts so they may be viewing their spending without your knowledge--or do you deny them such access?

There's probably tons of people like that out there

Now that would really surprise me...

[beren]

My clients don't check on their AdWords accounts either. They don't even know the log-in information and if I tried to give it to them, they would probably not write it down and just say: "you handle this". I have nothing to hide and they are allowed to look at the accounts any time. In fact, I wish they would, because many times I would appreciate their thoughts about how much we should bid on different keywords.

[netmeg]

Which is pretty much the same for me. The clients have all been provided with the user names and passwords for their accounts, which they have promptly lost, and can't be bothered checking. They can have the information any time they want; they would rather I dealt with it all, including the payment and billing issues.