If you are using Yellow Pages, stop now! I just got off the phone with Yellow Pages. The experience probably took several years off my life. I feel so drained by it. Here is what happened. My client made an agreement with Yellow Pages and are locked into using their services for 1 year. This contract was signed before I started working with the client, so it was too late to save them from it. They are stuck using Yellow Pages SEM Touchpoint service. The client brought me on the call with Yellow Pages to review how the campaign was going.
So here is the Yellow Pages Marketing review:
First topic discussed, on the call, was the cost per click. Currently, they are spending $22/click and all calls are tracked via a Yellow Pages’ tracking number. The terms they are targeting are really expensive I know the industry so the PPC amount is topical. However, I’m also working for another client in the same industry and same location and their average PPC is only $3. So why the difference between client #1 versus client #2. Client #1 is using Yellow Pages to manage their Adwords campaigns and client #2 is using my services. Now you might be thinking that client #1 would be getting more clicks because they spending 7x more per click but actually client #2 is getting about 5 times more click traffic. The issue really comes from the fact that Yellow Pages doesn’t understand online marketing. They are just really bad at it. With client #2 their cost is only a fraction of client #1′s and paying the high management fees that Yellow Pages makes the whole situation even more painful for the client. The contract they signed with Yellow Pages forces them to continue wasting money with Yellow Pages for a whole year, though they are trying to get out of the contract. I never lock my clients into these kinds of contracts and as I result I keep my clients year after year. My focus is on the client’s success rather than merely trying to drive up their spend and whenever possible I try to discourage them from using Adwords because I can get much better results with organic SEO. The people at Yellow Pages have no clue how to build organic rankings and consider PPC as the only means to market a client.
So my Yellow Pages marketing review reaches the follow conclusion: If you have a contract with Yellow Pages, cancel it. They wasting your money and not looking after your best interests. I believe Yellow Pages isn’t an evil company, but just lack the skills required to do good work for their clients. They don’t understand that having the highest bid price doesn’t guarantee high number of clicks or top ad rankings.