AddPeople

[makeusvisible]

We have just had a call from one of our clients, who we do PPC Management for.

She was very concerned, having just had a call from Google, telling her that her Adwords campaign is performing badly, and it is an URGENT issue. She immediately called us, and we quickly recognised that it was not a Google phone number.

On research, we have found that the call came from someone called Natasha at AddPeople. She left our customer believing that she had just spoken to someone at Google, and that there was an urgent issue with her Adwords campaign under performing. Their website is here.

As it happens, the client's AdWords campaign is performing incredibly well, having doubled conversion rates in the past 3 months.... but not going to turn this into a sales thread.

I'm very angry about it.... because 1) Addpeople have no access to our clients Adwords data on which take make assumptions. 2) they left our client thinking they had just spoken with Google.

Has anyone else come across these people and is this their standard sales practice?

 

[Faevilangel]

search on here and Google and you will find lots of negative info about addpeople, they changed their name around 2 years ago to addpeople due to the huge amount of negative press they got under their old name.

 

[Michelle Murphy @ Yoma]

Hi makeusawebsite,

I have just had a little search of them and found a mix of reviews on the Review Centre (can't post the link sorry).

There are some shocking stories on there including one business getting a manual penalty from Google after they let Add People do their SEO.

Thanks,
Michelle

 

[Customer Service]

Hi, Neil here I’m the Marketing Manager at Add People.

To respond to the OP, we do not claim we represent Google. However, we are an official Google Agency Partner for paid search which - as other agencies who have achieved this accreditation will testify - demonstrates a commitment to developing in-house expertise, applying best practice and being transparent in the work we do.

Natasha will have likely mentioned this and asked if your clients' PPC campaign was working for them as part of her fact finding.

Makeusawebsite – We record our calls for training and quality purposes. If you’d like to PM me specific details I’ll be glad to investigate this call further and feed back any specific issues to our sales manager.

Thanks,
Neil.

 

[british steve]

I had a call from AddPeople a few weeks back, while they did not say they were from Google they tried to give the impression that they were. They told me that I was lost in Google and that they would be suprised in anyone could find me and that if I signed up to them they could help me out! To be honest I have no idea (and dont care much) where I am on Google anymore

I stopped paying for anything Google a couple of years back, we only use direct mail, PR and affiliates, we get more conversions and it costs a whole lot less than we spent on Adwords and i'm not giving money to the devil that is Google. If Google provided proper accurate search results like it used too then people would not need adwords in the first place

 

[MASSEY]

I had a call the other day from a marketing company (not add people) that used sales spiel that would make any one non the wiser think they were calling from google.

These marketing companies all seem to be reading from the same scripts when trying to pick up adwords management telling people they can get unlimited clicks and hard selling with the 'how much extra business can you take on'.

To some extent i don't blame other companies being cheeky and trying to poach other companies customers, but when it comes to adwords most of the marketing companies are just telling blatant lies.

 

[Homer J Simpson]

You should hear Yell reps!

 

[directmarketingadvice]

A while back, I wrote an article called, "5 Questions You Should Ask Before You Hire A PPC Manager" - those questions should help forum members identify most of the cowboys:

http://www.bothsidesoftheclick.co.uk/5-questions-you-should-ask-before-you-hire-a-ppc-manager

 

[realitybytes]

Addpeople are still going?? Wow, I thought they'd been chased out of the country with pitchforks and torches

 

[Deleted member 240155]

Avoid this company "AddPeople" / "Its Cold Outside". Sad to say as I did not see this forum before I made the mistake of using the services of AddPeople after a cold call. After being disappointed with the costs and being bounced between multiple representatives I tried to cancel only to be told I have apparently signed a 6 month contract and now owe the remaining months.

I've tried to get a copy of this contract but am failing miserably.

One of the worst companies I have dealt with in my 6 years of business, please do not support them.

 

[Bob]

So @Dan Izzard how does Neil Marketing Manager at AddPeople manage to get 3 "Thanks" magically appear when there aren't any on the 1 post that he has made?

 

[Faevilangel]

So @Dan Izzard how does Neil Marketing Manager at AddPeople manage to get 3 "Thanks" magically appear when there aren't any on the 1 post that he has made?

Wierd, he has now deleted posts that I can see so no idea, hopefully Dan should be able to find out why

 

[Dan Izzard]

This thread is closed for further comment while I look into a number of issues raised both here and to me directly. It would be appreciated if members could refrain from starting further threads on the subject until I've had a chance to look into the details, or ping me a PM if you have any questions in the meantime. Thanks all