Update: See Updated Yodle Review Here!
Recently, I was helping one of my plumber friends here in San Francisco to help him with PPC campaigns on Adwords. Well, since I don’t have the time to do it myself, I found a great company called Yodle, who was even featured on TechCrunch, supposedly competitor to ReachLocal. (I even tried ReachLocal too, their services are pretty good but very expensive.)
Well, so I thought. So I did a 1 month test with Yodle. Even though they said I need to do a 3 month test, I “negotiated” a 1 month deal because I never want to sign up for anything long term, that’s #1 rule in investing in something you never tried before. Yodle said we needed to do a 3-month test but I think that bs just to get their money’s worth if the campaign doesn’t work out, at least they get paid. This is obviously great insurance for Yodle but bad for business risking their money.
Anyways, our campaign with Yodle was rather disappointing, we got 1 phone call and 2 e-mail leads. Since we spent $800 for the month, that’s about $266.66 per lead.
We did however encounter some problems during the middle of the campaign where communication with my friend and Yodle stopped as my friend left for Philipines during the middle of the month. But the point of this blog post is not about the mis-communication but that we spent $266.66 per lead!!! No matter what, Yodle should have stopped our campaign or at least be responsible for that. There’s simply no excuse to spend that much for a lead.
Now, that said, it still didn’t make sense to me that we spent $800 on 1 phone call. E-mails are not worth as much I think, especially for a plumbing business where deals are settled on the spot after a phone call. E-mails are usually harder as a lot of times, it can simply be the competition trying to mess with you.
Anyways, I think if you have a lot of money to test the waters, Yodle might be worth a test but in my small budget testing, Yodle failed me big time.
I highly regarded Yodle because of their plumber video seen here where Joe the plumber spends $800 and gets a bunch of leads, makes up for more than his initial $800 investment.
Now, we can keep throwing at Yodle for another month to see if it works with more changes but I don’t want to keep risking my friend’s money. If it doesn’t work again, it’s my reputation on the line, not Yodle’s. I want to refer the best services/products in the world to my friends.
Victor, who was our sales manager, did help me greatly and he’s a great guy but I do business based on results, not friendship.
It’s even really hard for me to write a negative review about Yodle because Victor was a very nice guy. But this is what I do – I am a blogger and I blog about what I do.
What I feel my plumber friend deserves?
Let me tell you a story first. I used to work at Comfile Technology where we sold computer chips. I provided the most excellent customer service in the world. I prided myself on going beyond “normalness” to make my customers happy, even if that was working from 6am to midnight to finish some code.
I remember one time a customer accidently “fried” about $1000 worth of computer chips he bought. (It was completely his fault even though he tried to lie to me.)
Since the company had just launched in the U.S., (parent company was in Korea) I simply shipped $1000 worth of computer chips free of charge because I wanted to really show that Comfile Technology cares about its customers. I knew in the long run, the customer would order more computer chips and his “word-of-mouth” would be “viral” and he’d tell all his friends about it.
I was director of Comfile Technology at the time and wanted to do whatever necessary to make customers happy. (and I had the power to do so which was great!)
Most of us simply “work” at a company and do our jobs “normally”. I tended to work “harder” and did literally everything I could to make the customer happy. It’s simply in my nature to do so. A lot of times, I even “fought” my boss for my customers. It was like I worked for my customers, not my boss.
Because of that ethic, I no longer work for someone else and I do still apply that in every part of my own business, keep the customer happy no matter what it takes. That’s how you never lose one single customer. A lot of people focus on frying “that big fish” but it’s a lot of “small guys” that can make you big too.
A lot of salesmen do this but the wrong way. They “sell” first and never following through with world’s best customer service.
My end goal in this blog review is that the CEO/President of Yodle reads this and offer my plumber friend a month of free advertising on them. I know in business, things can be done. If not, my review will stand here and end here.
If companies can really stand behind their products/services, they should go far beyond normal expectations. That will pay dividends in the long run and build a truly everlasting company. If not, you will always be like “everyone” else.
In fact, if Yodle did succeed in bringing more customers with their money for another month, I am sure my plumber friend will pay more money to use Yodle’s services for months to come, and this blog review, well, could ultimately end up as proof that Yodle provides the most excellent customer service in the world instead of ending here. Plus, I have a ton of friends to refer to Yodle but it’s on hold now.
My challenge to Yodle?
If you can stand by your products, I am giving you a chance to redeem yourself. Why spend thousands of dollar on marketing when you can make a case study out of this and prove you are indeed who you are? I don’t ever do this, it usually ends here.
UPDATE: Yodle CEO Court has accepted my challenge, he’s actually giving my friend 2 more months free of advertising:
Hi,
This is Court – the CEO at Yodle – and we are 100% up to the challenge. The reason we ask for 3 month contracts is not to reduce risk but to give us time to optimize campaigns – we usually see a big uptick in results in month 2.
To prove this I would like to offer your friend 2 months of free advertising and we can post the results here AT THE END of the process. Reach back out to Victor and referecne this message. if you could also direct message me on twitter with your contact that would be great @yodlecourt.
Thanks giving us the chance to do what we do best.
Court
I will have an updated post after the 2 months is up. I am hoping for the best for my friend and Yodle. Thanks Court again for listening to your customers. I have more friends to refer if this works out well.
I wonder why they wanted a 3 month deal. Maybe they know the results suck after only 1 month of trying. Sorry it didn't work out for you.
Hi,
This is Court – the CEO at Yodle – and we are 100% up to the challenge. The reason we ask for 3 month contracts is not to reduce risk but to give us time to optimize campaigns – we usually see a big uptick in results in month 2.
To prove this I would like to offer your friend 2 months of free advertising and we can post the results here AT THE END of the process. Reach back out to Victor and referecne this message. if you could also direct message me on twitter with your contact that would be great @yodlecourt.
Thanks giving us the chance to do what we do best.
Court
Tight, thanks Court! Highly appreciated it!
Oh I dunno if it takes $800 to bring a campaign out of the red, something is wrong from square one, unless the value per lead is more than $800. In worst case I think the risk should have at least been signed off by the client so that the loss wouldn't come as a surprise. Now it sounds like “oh let's throw $800 at it and see what comes out”. Just saying.
I have just put Yodle in my back pocket and said goodbye. I took the 3 month challenge spending a min, of $500.00/month plus their fees. Just like the previous poster, I found the Yodle account managers to be freindly. Did they help? NO they did not. I only had 2 jobs in 3 months totalling $350.00, so $750.00 per lead= a great net loss.
I would be interested to see how the free 2 months turns out for the plumber, something never offered to me. It seems the CEO shows up when someone slams them on a blog and then makes these offers. I complained and only got lip service from customer service reps.
It's not really a legit challenge. Obviously the CEO is going to make sure his account does well so that they look good here. Good for plumber, bad for anyone buying in.
It's a sucker game. They had me on the phone for an hour trying to sell me and the salesman turned into a big jerk-off when I wasn't biting, like I couldn't see how valuable his product is. The demo is nice, the features interesting, but when it comes down to it they are offering a fancy way to get less. I'm glad I said call me back later. I have been searching sites for Yodle reviews and it looks like a lot of people are pissed off. If you really look carefully, you can pick out the people they have posting positive reviews for them. They pretty much use the same 3-4 lines every post- something about $x in just x months is their favorite. I SWEAR one of the blogs had 2 different people post the same thing talking them up! If you need to scan blogs for negative reviews and make fake posts, you probably are a scam. Watch out folks. The only safe one is probably the plumber since Yodle can't afford to have him fail. Go Plumber!
I am an SEO / SEM professional and have been doing this for 7 years. I don't approve of how Yodle works and how they charge. But in their defense, you need time to see what terms convert and which don't while pausing terms that don't convert. However, by month 2 those terms should of been discovered.
You can't just find what terms convert without test and unfortunately it takes money to find that out. Just with all advertising there is a testing phase. You need to test ads, keywords and landing pages. If you campaign or budget is small you are better off hiring a consultant or individual to run the campaign.
Just my two cents.
I just signed on with Yodle this week, and am very excited to see what the results will be. The total initial investment for the first month is 819.00. 750.00 in leads, and 69.00 in account management. My webmaster is rather concerned since he feels that Yodle is a very bad choice. I, however, have spent a lot more than 800 bucks on advertising that didnt pan out, so I am giving it a chance. My sales rep assures me that my monthly investment will return around 40 leads per month. It is my job to convert those leads into sales.Of course, he also told me that if I was not satisfied with the results, that i can cancel and request a new credit card, and Yodle will not come after us for the difference.
My expectations are realistic, and I feel 40 leads per month on an 800.00 investment would be a jackpot….and likely will not happen. I will be satisfied if my company is able to come out of month number one with INCOME (not leads) that makes this look like a half decent decision in te first month. It seems to me, that sales matter more than the quantity of leads. With that being the case, I dont have a problem obtaining 10 leads monthly if tey are quality and profitable – at least to a break even point. We will see.
Well I would advise you to simply be checking it everyday and if it’s not working, let your Yodle representative know and change it quickly. If you do that, I think you should be able to come on top easy. Let me know how you do though, my comment line is always open!
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Any campaign needs time. 3 months is reasonable to assess if it is working. I applaud the CEO for stepping up and giving customer service.
I’m a little suspect of anyone who says they can get you more business and even put a number to it. After 30 years experience in advertising, the best anyone can tell you about ppc or seo, is that they can direct relevant searches to your website.
With Geo-targeting and optimized landing pages AdzZoo can give you web presence. We can get the folks that are searching for you to your website but it is still up to you to sell them. By the way, AdzZoo charges a flat monthly fee and gives a guarantee. Check them out.
Hey Joe,
How is it working out so far?
Your plumber should try Adoozle. They don’t mark up their keyword buys and they provide a marketing website that they optimize for local search, which is what you want if you are a local business. They put your cc on record with google and google bills you direct for the PPC that Adoozle manages on your behalf. I asked them why they didn’t just handle that part of the billing and put it as a pass through and they told me “that so many companies out there mark it up and mislead clients on the PPC that this is the only way it is totally transparent”. So they go out of their way to make sure your ad words aren’t marked up and you have complete tranparency on PPC cost from search engines.
They do a great job. If you have a business that relies on local clients, you should check them out. I think their url is http://adoozle.com. Tell em Bill sent you.
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I could not be more disipointed in yodle. I work as a property management company. We specialize in houses to four units. I have been with yodle for two months and have got lots of call and emails. 98% are vendors, people looking for employment, wrong numbers and people wanting rental lists. I could have advertised any where and got this kind of junk response. Yodle was suposed to narrow down the target audience of people looking for a property manager or someone to lease their property for them. I received four solid leads in the first two and a half week, as time went on the progress got worse not better. I am happy to say I closed on three of the four leads and made enough to cover this venture with yodle. Like max said their just not worth it. I need to make more money not just break even if I get lucky.
I don’t know if Yodle is good or bad since I’ve never worked with them. What I do know is that, local businesses shouldn’t put most of their money in paid search since the Cost-Per-Lead with PPC can be pretty huge.
I for one prefer transitioning from paid search to organic search and my company charges the customer per lead we actually generate rather than a retainer.
So — if you get only 2 leads in a month, you only pay for those. If you get 10, you pay for 10.
The biggest question of ALL is WHY DOES YODLE MIRROR THE BUSINESS WEBSITE??? I was a 2 YEAR customer and was never told my site was being mirrored (how would I know – I dont search for myself). I now know that when the site mirrors it benefits “Yodle’s” score, not mine. I spent over $5000 for my website – why wouldnt I want the customers coming to my site? And why are they stumbling all over themselves when I ask about it??
I acknowledge if you’re at the top of the SEM world everyone has a complaint. But Deloitte ranks ReachLocal #1, does anyone know more about them? Intelligent responses please, no rumor from a neighbor who spent $27 3 months ago dialogue, please. This is my business, I dont like finding out 25 months down the road that you’re mirroring my website and just happened to miss that piece in your sales pitch.
I will keep searching. thanks.
Karl