agencies riddle me this ...

[Shane]

I'll begin my rant like thus : having just found I've been outbid on a keyword I have a look and see what it was that outbid me.. it's a major brand being managed by an agency.

I check the bid and it's gone in at 80p across the whole sector .. yet on the main keyword I'm in second now on 23p, third place is 22p and fourth is 15p.

I'd love someone from a big lazy faceless agency just like this one to explain how they justify bidding by category, ie 80p every keyword regardless of other bids in play, it takes zero effort and is counter productive for the client, and bearing in mind they will most certainly be charging the brand a severe wedge/retainer for their "specialist and tailored" services it's just not on and if it's percentage of spend then it's doubly so not on !!

unless some retard at the brand has said "yup bid to 80p across the board, I don't care what everyone else is bidding" then just where do these lazy agencies get off treating client accounts like this ? it's so bad .. sure yes.. bid in first place but for fecks sake EARN your fee, bid 24p.. NOT 80p and come back later and check it

oh wait.. makes sense if the agency is on percentage of spend commission structure .. ahhh then the scenario becomes clear !.. they bid 80p instead of 24p and hope everyone bids up to 79p and pocket nice slice of 80p instead of the same slice of 24p.. instant profit.. kerching difference at 10% of spend would be from 2.4p to 8.0p .. big difference !! that's over 200% profit uplift just by being lazy.

gaaaaah eitherway it's just bad practice.. a chimp can manage PPC at one bid per sector ! bout time some of these so called agencies started earning their money and stopped playing cowboys with client accounts !

the bigger the agency the more lazy they seem to be so I dare any agency to explain themselves and clarify how bidding like this is a positive thing for the client.

[Paul Wright]

The only trouble with this scenario is that the fat lazy types are certainly to busy picking doughnut crumbs from their belly to wander in here an answer your question shane.

I often see Sky TV's search campaign doing the exact same thing except even worse. I've spotted them numerous times bidding to number one position on the term 'cosmetics'. Great conversions there I'm sure and definitely an easy way to burn excess budget.

Sure, if your bid management tool is working to a blanket CPA target then there may well be the inital bid drifting here and there but there's no substitution for hands on management to get the best return for your money.

Paul

[Elaine]

I think I'd be sorely tempted to 'educate' the merchant in question as to how PPC works and exactly why their PPC budget is so high, spelling out exactly what it's costing them

It annoys me when I see agencies broad bidding on terms that the particular merchant doesn't sell - again easy money. Although one agency worker did say that if they didn't spend the full budget from a merchant then they would simply receive a lot less next time - which is probably why I was once offered £1k to put a simply text link on my site - it didn't even have to produce a sale, just be there for a minimum time - crazy.

[Vivid]

Originally Posted by Paul Wright definitely an easy way to burn excess budget.

That's it really, I imagine that is exactly what is being done. They don't want to over perform by too much on an agreed ROI when they can renegotioate the budget safe in the knowledge they can drop 50p+ and retain the volume.

Craft and particularly unpleasant way to treat a client.