A few months back, I stood in front of an auditorium of business owners at a digital marketing conference, and asked them to stand if they’d hired a digital marketing agency.

Not surprisingly, almost everyone in the audiences had hired a digital marketing agency or was currently working with one. 

That can be expected.

Digital marketing is important and everyone gets that. Some businesses spend more on digital marketing than any other expense.  Digital marketing is the be-all-end-all of business growth.

A magic formula for success.

Then I dropped my next instruction:

“Stay standing…if you are seeing results.”

Almost every single person in the room looked around, stared at the ground, and finally sat down. Then, as if on cue, the entire room erupted into nervous laughter.

And these weren’t newbie business owners.

These were the same people hiring pricey agencies, investing hundreds of thousands in PPC and SEO campaigns,  and shelling out cash for the latest and greatest promise—all the while turning around and saying they are losing money on digital.

I wish the answer surprised me.

But, unfortunately, I’m not. 

A correction is coming!

Last year I met with a client that was paying their online marketing company $15,000 a month and the online marketing company was not doing anything. It was a total disaster which caused me to write a blog all about protecting yourself from shady SEO companies.

This morning I was on the phone with a PPC agency and I couldn’t believe what they were saying to one of our clients. They lied over and over about our PPC campaign just to try and get us to spend more money. 

When we asked them what kind of results we could expect, they said that this is marketing and they have no idea.

The truth is 73% of Google PPC campaign budgets are blown on bad campaigns. But, nobody is going to tell you. 

Last month I listened to a business owner that paid $18,000 for a website that could have been done for $1500. The website was a total disaster and needed to be fixed.

I wish this was rare, but it is not.

I have run into 100s of businesses that have fallen victim to companies like Dex Media, Yellow Pages, Yodle, Network Solutions, Reach Local, Dexyp, and 1000s more.

Here is how it goes:

Your business needs an online presence. Somehow you get contacted by one of the companies above. They cold call, cold email, solicit you at events, or fill out your forms on your website. A lot of them just click on your ads to call you. Which costs you money. 

They promise you results and get you to sign a contract that could range from $500 to $10,000+ a month.

Sound familiar?

The salesman’s goal is to get you to sign a contract, and then he can wash his hands and pass you off to an account executive who just got hired. 

But They Told You

This Time It Would Be Different

Below I am going to show you images of what is happening to my Facebook news feed. It has been taken over by Guru marketers and high ticket items. Found these images in less than 2 minutes on my Facebook Feed. 

These marketers are pitching other marketers on how easy it is to land high paying clients by offering marketing service. The main goal is to land one or 2 clients and milk them for 5k to 10K per month. 

There’s a problem here and it hurts every business.

Marketing campaigns are not built overnight. Good marketers have years of experience. There’s a big different between a marketer who has had 1 year of experience and someone who has  10 years.

You will want to deal with an expert because you are competing against experts and full marketing teams. 

Here are just a few I found in 5 minutes of scrolling. 

It’s time

Let’s switch a few things up

Marketing takes time, money, and expertise. If you have the slightest feeling that you are not getting the results you think you should, we are going to help.

We would like investigate your currently online marketing plan.

• . If there are holes in your marketing, we will find them
• If you are wasting money on PPC, we will show you
• If your social media ads are no good and not producing results, we will show you why
• If you hired a crooked agency, we will call them out
• If you have an intern running your marketing campaign, we will let you know
• If your SEO campaign has zero chance for success, we tell you why
• If you are being ripped off, which is more than likely, you will see how, where and why

This can get a bit uncomfortable for the agency or your marketing person, but it has to be done. We don’t even need to let them know. That is your decision.

If you are ready to find out the truth about your marketing campaign, here’s what you need to do.