When Cheap Isn’t Cheap: How Discount Agencies End Up Costing More Than Money
In the world of marketing, you get what you pay for! That means that the $97/mo. agency you hired because they promised you converting ads, engaging social media posts, 5,000 SEO backlinks, and long content articles, isn’t actually doing you any favors.
There isn’t an agency on this planet that can provide high quality services for that little fee. In fact, they’re likely COSTING you thousands in lost revenue or missed opportunities because in order for them to make a living, they need to have hundreds of clients!
Backlinks Galore
If you’ve ever been on Fiverr or other low cost sites and looked up SEO services, you may notice freelancers offering “3000 quality backlinks for $15!” If you take anything away from this article, let it be this – STAY AWAY FROM THESE SERVICES! Not only is buying backlinks is against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, but it also means you’ll get a Google penalty if you get caught. And such a Google penalty will kill your search engine rankings.
But let’s explore why companies buy backlinks to begin with.
It saves time
Legitimate SEO takes time and costs money. Depending on the size of your business, you may need to hire an in-house SEO team full-time, or an agency working part time. Whatever option you choose, your SEO manager needs to create quality content, prospect link opportunities, qualify those opportunities, build a relationship, test outreach strategies, hire writers, and repeat. And that’s just the link building part. You can see why companies would take shortcuts.
Faster results
Many business owners don’t realize that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. The race to get to the top of page 1 results forces leaders to take extreme measures. What they don’t realize is that by buying links, you could hinder any legitimate progress you have made by getting your website banned.
This also means that your SEO or marketing manager now needs to start the process of removing those links and undoing the damage caused from them. This could set you back several months.
The moral of the story – JUST DON’T DO IT!
Your brand is a number
Low-cost agencies just don’t have the capacity to create custom ads or social media posts. This means that you’ll get templates that have been used for dozens of other businesses, on who-knows-how-many-other-social media pages.
Not that there’s anything wrong with templates. But if you’re paying for an agency, then chances are you want a custom solution from a company that’s going to take the time to get to know your business.
Your paid ads need attention
If you’re paying a discount agency to manage your PPC, you might realize that you’re not really getting much for your money. These agencies need hundreds of clients to make a profit. This means that your account gets looked at maybe once a week or less.
This means that your ads manager isn’t optimizing your campaigns, looking for new opportunities, or updating your campaigns based on performance. This can result in lost revenue, broken links, missed errors, high cost per click or cost per conversion, negative comments getting ignored, and a whole lot of neglect. PPC isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. It needs constant attention and these agencies just don’t give it to you.
Communication
You might be assigned a manager. Or you might be assigned multiple managers, depending on how many services you have retained the agency for. The problem here is that managers might have up to 200 other accounts they’re trying to manage. There’s no way your manager can give you the time and attention you deserve when they’re trying to manage that many accounts.
If you’re looking to hire an agency to manage your marketing, consider hiring a boutique agency. A boutique agency is typically more expensive than discount agencies offering the same services, but the difference is that a boutique agency only needs a few clients to be profitable. This means that they might have 10-20 clients – not hundreds. Their team members might manage 1-2 accounts apiece, ensuring that your business gets the time and attention it deserves. A boutique agency will take the time to learn about your business, what your ideal customer looks like, and the best way to reach them. Boutique agencies often work with 1-2 niches, meaning that they’ve taken the time (years, perhaps) to really understand your industry so they can serve you in the best way possible.
