Adwords Bulk Discount

[digitalarts]

Had a few calls recently from agencies offering bulk discount on Google Adwords spends if we pass management over to them and spend more than £5,000 ($7,500) a month, they claim they can offer a 5% discount over what we're currently paying... Can't find anything about this, does Google offer such a deal to agencies?

[UOEWebTeam]

I don't think they do offer discounts, they'll probably just absorb it in their management fee instead. Google does have a partner program where you add budget in bulk, but I haven't heard of discounts

http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/ads/premiersmbpartner/partners-details.html#eligibility

[DavidKonigsberg]

We manage accounts over 50k a month and get no discounts from our google account reps. My guess is they are just factoring it into the management  fee likeAlastair said

[digitalarts]

Yep eating into the management fee was my original thought but, they claim they don't charge a management fee! I just can't understand how they're making such a claim... Bizzarre...

[DavidKonigsberg]

if they dont charge a management fee how do they make money?

[digitalarts]

Asked exactly that... They reckon they make their commission on part of the discount they receive through from Google.... So say they receive a 10% discount, they are passing 5% on to us... Essentially i'm looking to discredit their claim that they receive some sort of special pricing from Google...!

[DavidKonigsberg]

who's credit card is on the adwords bill? Maybe they are lying about clicks and costs- do you get access to account?

[digitalarts]

No and thats the big issue here, you get reports on their 'platform' only, no access to the actual adwords account...

[DavidKonigsberg]

I would check into them over billing the price per click etc

[digitalarts]

We've no intention of using them... Just that they've made these claims that there is some magic Google agency discount out there somewhere! But I can't find any evidence of such...

[DavidKonigsberg]

Call google ask them

[flowsimple]

That's clearly deceptive pricing. By Adwords partner standards they must share costs of Adwords campaigns.

Report them.

[Justin_Vanning]

Yeah I've never heard of this. The other thing they might be doing is just optimizing the accounts they manage to spend less money after they take over the management of them. Optimizing bids, using negatives, and going after only highly profitable keywords could help them reduce costs and then they just keep the savings over the 5% they are guaranteeing you?

If they are still leaving the account and billing in your control, you'd be able to verify this. Did they say how the billing is handled? Either way, this sounds highly suspicious.