Thoughts on this Website Design and Marketing Proposal ?

[CALTCAgent]

Hello,

I was wondering what others with more technical knowledge than myself thought on this proposal I received for a website design and marketing platform. I am not very technically inclined so hopefully I can get more ideas about this here.

Here are the details:

I believe they said they use Rainmaker. Although they could use whatever I wanted. ( I have no clue ). I keep hearing wordpress.

1. $1,200 a month in Ad credits, PPC
2. $500 a month in NLA( Natural Listing Ads ) credits, SEO
3. Creative time (design) 1 hour.

Notes:

*$385 dollars is called a "base". I think this means the amount paid each month for the google certified adwords person to manage the ads for me.

* Ex: ($385 Base / $1,700 Fuel)

* I have to agree to a 6 month contract to continue this amount of money on marketing. If I want out I must pay $2,300 for the website. So I guess I don't pay for the website up front, only if I want to leave.

My thoughts on the websites I saw is that they had good graphic images but they seemed simple and short on content. The sales guy told me that is what I should want. He mentioned something about videos or making my own with my cell phone with clients. Not sure that will look professional.

I wasn't wanting the 6 month contract but was told I needed at least that amount of time to "make this work". I didn't quite understand that as the PPC ads should work or not right away, shouldn't they ?

I wanted flexibility to adjust as I please.

Thoughts, ideas, opinions on this deal ?

Thanks!

 

[Justin Bilyj]

As a certified google ppc guy myself I can say the average fee for a ppc campaign is 20% of the actual ad spend, with a minimum of 1k for the fee.

If this is just purely for ppc, then yes you want the landing page to have less content, because you want ONE action from them, to submit their info for a quote. If this was just to get traffic back to your site, then yes you would want more content to entice the visitor.

Rainmaker is the company https://rainmakerinternetmarketing.com/pricing/, their pricing is great for people wanting to tiptoe into ppc without spending the larger fees that taper off with larger ad spends.

The Natural Listing Ads is a software that helps with SEO and PPC, you can order content from that, but I'd be suspect to it's quality, remember Google has EAT CONTENT rules now, so low quality outsourced content won't do it.

If you want a little bit more info, Perry Marshall, who've I worked with his ad specialist has the best book on PPC, https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Local-Business-Marketing/dp/1599185784, I would read it so you know whether the agency is really optimizing your ad groups and language. With 1 hour creative time, that doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy, probably just popping in your competitors and copying their ad language down.

The magic is in the landing page, the book is worth it alone to get the template...

My take on this? Try it out for two months, see if they can really optimize the results.

 

[CALTCAgent]

Thanks for the response!

As a certified google ppc guy myself I can say the average fee for a ppc campaign is 20% of the actual ad spend, with a minimum of 1k for the fee.

If this is just purely for ppc, then yes you want the landing page to have less content, because you want ONE action from them, to submit their info for a quote. If this was just to get traffic back to your site, then yes you would want more content to entice the visitor.

Rainmaker is the company https://rainmakerinternetmarketing.com/pricing/, their pricing is great for people wanting to tiptoe into ppc without spending the larger fees that taper off with larger ad spends.

The Natural Listing Ads is a software that helps with SEO and PPC, you can order content from that, but I'd be suspect to it's quality, remember Google has EAT CONTENT rules now, so low quality outsourced content won't do it.

If you want a little bit more info, Perry Marshall, who've I worked with his ad specialist has the best book on PPC, https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Local-Business-Marketing/dp/1599185784, I would read it so you know whether the agency is really optimizing your ad groups and language.

Thanks for this reference. I will check out this book!

With 1 hour creative time, that doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy, probably just popping in your competitors and copying their ad language down.

I was thinking the same thing.

My take on this? Try it out for two months, see if they can really optimize the results.

Yeah, that is also what I was thinking. With their 6 month contract I have to stick with them for 6 months. Or I can purchase the website for $2,300 and leave. The sites they showed me didn't look like they would cost $2,300 to make. I could be wrong though as I have an untrained eye.

 

[Justin Bilyj]

I rushed off to happy hour before I really looked at the contracting requirement for the 6 months, and that is also standard, nobody wants to set themselves up to not show any results when it takes 1-3 months to really get your split testing going, depends on competition to determine the amount of testing needing to be done.

I did notice Perry Marshall endorsed that company and they have won some PPC Google awards which is positive, and they post consistently every week on their channels. Their own organic search is weak with not that many citations, and they (Nagle, Crawford, etc.) haven't guest posted so I would say ppc and not organic seo is their stronger suit.

The previously mentioned book will definitely give you a base level of ppc education imo.

Are you doing state, metropolitan, foundational, longtail keywords i.e. California, Temecula, part b premium, or cheapest medicare supplement plan G?

If you want to check out your competitor, I'm a big fan of https://www.ispionage.com, usually gives me some ideas for ad language, or landing page design if you decide to go it your own.

I would say if it's the same company mentioned above, I would rather try them than another company because of the low monthly retainer, most ppc companies want 2-5 monthly ad spend or 1k in set-up fees to make it worth their time. But the ugly truth in the PPC world that even Perry talks about is that PPC is a gateway drug to upsell SEO services that cost multiples more than PPC, which is harder to pin down with results, so be wary of cross-sells before you start to see results with the PPC.

PPC is nice in that you can see instant results and can tweak it unlike SEO which takes TIME and CONTENT to pull off...

 

[CALTCAgent]

I rushed off to happy hour before I really looked at the contracting requirement for the 6 months, and that is also standard, nobody wants to set themselves up to not show any results when it takes 1-3 months to really get your split testing going, depends on competition to determine the amount of testing needing to be done.

So it sounds like they are being reasonable. That is good to know.

I did notice Perry Marshall endorsed that company and they have won some PPC Google awards which is positive, and they post consistently every week on their channels. Their own organic search is weak with not that many citations, and they (Nagle, Crawford, etc.) haven't guest posted so I would say ppc and not organic seo is their stronger suit.

Interesting. These are the things I would have no clue in evaluating them. So they sound decent so far. I wonder how important their lack of organic SEO focus will be. Maybe it is something that I can learn or hire someone else if that becomes an issue.

Are you doing state, metropolitan, foundational, longtail keywords i.e. California, Temecula, part b premium, or cheapest medicare supplement plan G?

That is a good question. Not really sure where to focus. I have always been a face to face guy, so the area to focus was easy to determine.

I guess it depends on volume, which I don't have an idea yet. I have heard a few people mention "casting a wide net" as to being better.

If you want to check out your competitor, I'm a big fan of https://www.ispionage.com, usually gives me some ideas for ad language, or landing page design if you decide to go it your own.

That is an interesting site. I have looked at it.

I would say if it's the same company mentioned above, I would rather try them than another company because of the low monthly retainer, most ppc companies want 2-5 monthly ad spend or 1k in set-up fees to make it worth their time. But the ugly truth in the PPC world that even Perry talks about is that PPC is a gateway drug to upsell SEO services that cost multiples more than PPC, which is harder to pin down with results, so be wary of cross-sells before you start to see results with the PPC.

PPC is nice in that you can see instant results and can tweak it unlike SEO which takes TIME and CONTENT to pull off...

Great info! This should help me quite a bit.

I have been told I can't compete nationally with SEO as I would need a bigger budget than I have. I guess that is where long tail keywords come in as there is not as much competition.

How do you get to be a certified google adwords specialist ?

I looked it up quickly and there were tests that must be completed. I was wondering where the courses were or study materials to prepare for those tests.

Thanks!