This is a follow-up to Company A’s Adwords scam that I blogged about in May. The good news is that I managed to convince the doctor to let me manage her campaign for 2 months. The even better news is that she’s projected to save S$110,000 a year. Of course it’s early days yet as we’re only approaching the end of the 2nd week, but the Adwords campaign is stable now and the numbers should be reliable barring any unforseen circumstances, e.g. Company A gets pissed off with me and increases the bids for the other doctors under their management, forcing my average CPC to shoot through the roof (doubt this though cos it’ll be at the expense of their profit). Taking the average daily ad spend of S$154 over the last one week, the campaign is projected to cost S$56,000 a year. Add to that my S$12,000 campaign management fee, the doctor stands to save just over S$110,000 compared to the lump sum S$180,000 she paid to Company A last year. Does this mean that Company A pocketed a whopping S$124,000 (i.e. 69%) of the S$180,000 campaign money last year? At the end of the day, I guess what’s more important is that the doctor’s happy AND I’m happy. She owns her own Adwords account now, her ads are ranked tops for almost all keywords, the campaign’s performing above average and she’s saving a lot of money. Despite all these, I do have some admiration for Company A. Especially for their systematic approach in targeting verticals (e.g. doctors, lawyers, spas) and aggressive sales - they even approached a friend whose spa business was only 1 week old! Anyway, this project has really been an eye-opener for me. I never expected the medical aesthetics industry to be this competitive, hence, the keywords to be that expensive …much less in little Singapore. I had a phone chat with John Kerr of Edelman 2 weeks ago and if I remember correctly, he was complaining about S$0.50/click being expensive and here we have over S$4.00 per click for keywords like dermatologist, acne scars and hair removal - incredible! I thought this was reason enough to create a website, SEO it and see how far I can go (probably should write an article on situations where SEO is more compelling than Adwords). So I spent an afternoon designing Dermatologist Singapore, where I intend to have information on common skin problems, available skin care treatments and a directory of Singapore skin specialists, and even a blog. The content’s particularly challenging because dermatology is alien to me so there’s going to be lots of reading and research to do. So anyone looking for an honest Google Adwords campaign manager? :)
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One of our current clients is in this line too. Though he might say I want to be like up top in the search engine he’s not willing to spend on an SEO consultant. Too bad for him.
I don’t know bout the cost-per-click but I do know the phrases for the industry is rather competitive. Especially if you want to rank in the international scene.
Comment by Danny Foo on July 13, 2008 at 11:15 am
That’s a shame but not surprising because even the local ad agencies here are still resistant. SEO will be most effective since the doctors here can’t advertise openly like in Singapore.
Anyway, I hope I can create some awareness - I’ve written an article on search engine marketing for a Marketing magazine which should be out next month.
International? Back when I was into Adsense, keywords like “asbestos cancer” used to costs about US$80 per click. :)
Comment by Larry on July 13, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Congrats Larry for the good job in exposing Company A.
well, there’re basically only 2 Google resellers in Singapore right now: Activa Media and Purple Click. Not very difficult to guess which one is Company “A”…. :)
You mentioned of CPC S$4 for dermatology related keywords such as dermatologist, acne scars, etc. The truth is this is raised artificially high. It need not be $4. Why?
Simple. At least 8-9 of the 10 Singapore based dermatologists advertising on Google now are handled by Company A. Company A is paid based on a percentage of these advertisers’ spend. It is very easy for Company A to raise the bid high for all these advertisers and earn from the high Cost Per Click. Company A basically command the “monopoly”. As one doctor put it aptly, he calls it a “cartel”. Ya, except that there’s only 1 operator to this cartel: Company A.
it’s the same case with the lasik doctors, the plastic surgeons, the cosmetic dentists, the gynaecologists, cardiologists, breast cancer surgeons, ENT, oncologists, etc….Company A got it covered with the same tactic.
You should share this success stories with all the dermatologists advertising on Google right now, so they know what’s really been going on, and let them make their own judgement.
I would safely say, out of all the SG doctors advertising on Google, easily 90% of them are still handled by Company A. 6 months ago, i dare say they easily covered more than 95% (yes, that’s close to 100%) of the medical advertisers on Google.
You think that’s hard to believe? well, take it from me. I’m an insider, I’m not your average joe writing nonsense here. I used to work in Company A so i know exactly how they work. I left because i was very disillusioned by the way they abuse the ignorance of advertisers and the way they go around maliciously spreading fabricated rumours about their competitors.
Yes, Company A is very liked by the staff at Google right up to the GM of Google. I can assure you that.
Company A is in the good books of Google…well, afterall Company A brings in so much revenue for the Google Reseller Manager, helping her meets her target and everybody looks good. And yes, the Google Reseller Manager will protect Company A. Let me tell you this….the Google Reseller Manager is very very close to Company A. There are many things that Company A knows well ahead of the other Reseller.
So now Mr Doctor, if you have a Google Reseller Manager coming to see you (again) with Company A assuring you that “everything is above board” and if you assume that “oh since Google came to see me and assure me, then it should be fine…”….then think again.
The Google internal accountability of revenue is this:
If the dermatologist advertised through Larry or set up her own Google AdWords account and self-manage it, whatever Cost Per Click spent does NOT go to meeting the Google Reseller Manager’s targets.
Only Cost Per Clicks spent through a Reseller goes to meeting the Google Reseller Manager’s targets.
So in a way, although the money goes to Google either way, but the revenue accountability center is different.
Yahoo works this way too.
Yes, it’s true. Google will save the commissions otherwise payable to a Reseller, if advertiser signed up through people like Larry or self managed instead of signing through a Reseller. BUT Google doesn’t want to be building a large sales force to talk to every florist, every locksmith about Google AdWords. This work is to be done more efficiently through Resellers, while the same head count at Google, drawing a big salary could be used to ptich larger accounts like Nokia, etc.
Well, if you have read up to this line….give yourself a pat on the shoulder…come on, do it! :)
By now, I hope all of you are alot more informed of the “scam” that has been going with Company A. They have been able to do this for the past 3 years without much challenge from anybody, partly because they were so well protected by Google or perhaps Google themselves also didn’t know the dirt on the ground. I think the Google staff could have been so charmed by the good “PR” skills of my ex-lady boss (at Company A), hearing only her version of story and believing everything.
It’s a lovely day, bright and sunny still, the scam goes on….well, what did we lose? just a dermatologist to Larry Lim. That’s nothing…
Comment by The Truth on July 15, 2008 at 11:25 am
The Truth: I’m not mentioning specific names - it’s up to my readers to make their own conclusions. ;)
Btw, can you get in touch with me because I’d like to learn more about your experience with them? Feel free to use the contact form. Thanks!
Comment by Larry on July 15, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Hey TheTruth, this was one of the best eye openers.. i’m one of the SEO folks and it hurts to see how docs get scammed this way.. and it hurts even more when these very docs squeeze more from their patients to cover their ad costs.. that company A enjoys fat margins doing nothing at all.. i kindda find it even ill earned if you ask me.. much like casino cash..
Comment by TheTruthFan on September 30, 2008 at 9:19 am