Another Indecisive Business Owner

Recently I took a call from a business owner who I was in touch with last year. He sells a clean and attractive niche product, with a clear target market, so for a small business would be a rewarding account to manage.

Last year he chose a cheaper AdWords Manager, because despite my clear logic and rationale about return on investment, skill, competence and awareness etc, he couldn’t get to thinking about “making money” because “spending money” was too big in his mind (as it is for lots of small business owners).

So recently he decided that (surprise!) his cheaper AdWords manager was vague, not strategised or focused enough, and the business owner had the feeling that more could be done.

I linked into the account, and sure enough, it was a total mess. Massively varied keywords in the same adgroup. Dynamic Keyword Insertion used improperly (mentioning the same keyword straight after the insertion which reads very badly). The highest impression levels were for irrelevant search queries (or at least, not leading to a relevant page), so low click-through rates and poor bouncerates would have certainly hurt the quality scores.

Yet… despite all this, the conversion rate was still excellent, and the cost per conversion very cheap (a testament to the site and product, rather than the AdWords account). Its a rare occasion when the AdWords account actually is the bottleneck, rather than the site or product (especially when its supposed to be managed professionally).

Anyway, this is all background info. The point is that I explained clearly my strategies, skillsets, and forecasts of savings, conversions, extra revenue etc, as well as some work that could be done on the website.

The business owner agreed to go ahead, but needed more reassurance on tracking. Proving that I was making a difference. So – I explained thoroughly how AdWords and Analytics track literally everything that needs to be known, down to keyword level, including page durations (relevant visitors), bouncerates, clicks, costs, conversions, everything. He agreed to go ahead again.

A week later and still no payment, so I enquire.

Still thinking about it. Having already spoke a year ago, having analysed his current account, written a proposal, explained again and again about the tracking etc etc, it seems some people just don’t like to spend money.

Its normal for clients to need reassurance – and I’m always willing to offer it.

But – I can’t tolerate people not sticking to their word – agreeing to go ahead twice and then changing their mind. I just don’t have time for it.

So now, regardless of the outcome, I won’t be managing what could have been a great account to manage (and a good example of how better AdWords management would have led to a much better ROI).

Because the site was bad? No. Because the product was bad? No.

Because if there’s one thing worse than working with poor sites or accounts, its working with indecisive, anal and anxious business owners! In my experience they drain time and energy more than anything else.