Audit Your Current Marketing Company
There are a lot of agencies that say they do marketing.... Unfortunately, a lot of them are lying about what they are actually doing for you.
We have listed the top Red Flags to look to make sure your business is safe and getting what you are paying for.
Red Flags to Look Out For in Marketing Companies
- if they require contracts.
- if they just show reports instead of educating you.
- if the reports only show the successes and there is no data about areas they could improve on.
- if they don't tell you what they are actually doing to boost your rankings.
- if they are not constantly making changes to improve the results.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
1. Know the keywords you are paying for. Go to a Google Incognito window and type them in. Make sure you are ranking where they have promised – either ads, maps, or organic listings. These three are all different.
2. The keywords should not be super long phrases.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing –
Paid Search Engine Ads)
1. Keep track of your cost per click
2. Ask to see your keywords and negative keywords. Negative keywords are things that will optimize your ROI and keep the ads micro targeted. They should have performed lots of research at this point, so they should be able to explain why they chose both the keywords/negative keywords and also should be adjusting these daily.
Websites & Domains
1. Make sure you OWN the site. You should have admin access to the backend, domain in your name, and pay with your credit card. You should also have the site backed up on a secondary cloud like Google Drive or Dropbox in case the relationship becomes bad.
2. Don't pay for fake traffic. Use analytics to see where your traffic is coming from – that's how you optimize your campaigns.
Facebook & Other Social Media Platforms
1. Just posting articles is not going to move the needle. Posts should have a strategic value; otherwise, they are just a waste. All you are getting is activity.
2. To entice the algorithm to work with you, 20 posts a month would be an ideal minimum.
3. You also want to have a little ad spend on the social platforms in order to get any traction. They are all "pay to play" platforms now.
This page was created because we have had a lot of clients come to us in “ransom” situations and we have had to rescue them and sometimes quickly rebuild what they had so it didn’t affect their business. In some extreme cases, even we couldn’t remedy the situation and all of their data was lost… So it’s very important to OWN your site and domain, and have admin access to the backend.
We hope this helps clarify the ways some marketing companies are taking advantage of business owners. Feel free to reach out to us anytime and we will do a complimentary and confidential audit. Whether it’s giving you suggestions for your marketing plan with your current company or strategizing a marketing plan that can accelerate your growth, we are here to help with no obligations or guilt trip. We truly want to help end the scams and see everyone succeed. 😊