At an Orange County AdzZoo meeting this weeken, Bill Olive, who claims to be one of six AdzZoo “founders”, made this startling claim:

…AdzZoo is partners with Google. How did they become partners? Google came to AdzZoo, knocked on their door ( his words, not mine ), and asked them to be 'partners'…

The most obvious reason for making these statements at a business opportunity meeting is to create the impression that Google and AdzZoo are business partners.

First, you need to understand exactly what AdzZoo does. They manage PPC ( Pay Per Click ) ad campaigns using Google’s Adwords program. Their ‘business opportunity’ is selling reps on the ability to walk into businesses, promise ‘first page Google ranking’ to business owners, and make commission when the businesses pay AdzZoo to manage their campaign. That, and commission when they refer others to pitch the AdzZoo business opportunity.

The only basis in fact in the “AdzZoo partners with Google” pitch is that Google offers certification in its Adwords program, and calls those who pass the certification “Google Adwords Certified Partners”. These are the individuals that manage the PPC campaigns. Microsoft does the same thing with software specialists. That doesn't not make the software specialist a "Microsoft Business Partner", and definitely doesn’t make AdzZoo a business partner with Google.  

To understand it even more clearly, Google SPECIFICALLY PROHIBITS members of its Adwords Certification program to represent in any way that they are endorsed, approved by, or agents of Google:

“Google Certified Partners operate independently as AdWords advertisers, and are not employed, endorsed, approved by or agents of Google. Certification is not an endorsement by Google, but only an indication that these certified partners have met the certification criteria.” ( Source: Google Adwords CertificationTerms )

What Does AdzZoo Really Offer?

AdzZoo offers PPC ad campaigns, which appear under Local Search results for business, under targeted phrases.

How difficult is it to achieve these same results through organic search, versus Pay Per Click marketing? Depends on the phrase.

For example, if I create a post here titled “AdzZoo in Orange County”, in all likelihood I could have first place on Google Organic Search in one day. Or, how about this phrase: “AdzZoo Google Partner”?. As a test, I created a post yesterday with that title. Today, if you search Google for the phrase "AdzZoo Google Partner", you can see that I rank at position number two if you search without quotes, number one if you wrap the phrase with quotes.

These are called “Organic Search Results” and the longer the “long tail keyword” phrase, and less common the phrase, the easier it is to get placement.

According to posts, reviews, and AdzZoo’s own web page, AdzZoo offers businesses the ability to appear on the ‘first page of Google’. They do this by having them pay for a managed Adwords campaign, and using the local search aspect of Google ( which uses Geo Search, which they seem to misleading claim as their own technology) to place them on top of the page where the *paid advertising* appears.

Here’s the cold hard fact they don’t want you to know. ANYONE can get that top spot in the paid results if they want to outbid everyone else for that spot. There’s no magic about what AdzZoo is doing.  As part of their pitch to businesses, they appear to try to reduce the rate advertisers pay by building their PAID Adwords campaign around obscure Long Tail Keyword phrases.

For example:

AdzZoo Rep: “Hey Joe, what if I could get you on the top page of Google for your Arkansas Extreme Zipline  Adventure business.”

Joe: “Wow that sounds great. How much will it cost?”

AdzZoo Rep: “Well Joe, since you are the only Arkansas Extreme Zipline Adventure in the Ozark area, we can virtually guarantee you will be first on the page for results when someone enters the phrase ‘Arkansas Extreme Zipline Adventure’.”

What they don’t tell Joe is that if someone types in the phrase Arkansas Extreme Zipline Adventure, and Joe already has a webpage with the title “Arkansas Extreme Zipline Adventure” that has been indexed by Google, then most likely he’ll already appear at the top of the page free because it’s such an obscure long tail keyword phrase ( I’m betting that by tomorrow, this post will be on top of the page for that phrase ).

It gets more complicated if the business wants to actually get traffic for a prominent keyword or phrase. That would go a little more like this:   

AdzZoo Rep: “Hey Joe, what if I could get you on the top of the page your business?”

Joe: “Great. How much will it cost to get me to be on the top for Orange County Plastic Surgeon?”  

AdzZoo Rep: “Well, quite a lot actually. To bid on that phrase is going to cost a bundle, but…we can get you to the top of the rankings at a huge discount for the phrase “Orange County Plastic Surgeon Specializing In Cat Scratch Facial Scar Remediation”

Fictional Joe the plastic surgeon, who is an educated medical professional, hopefully tells our fictional AdzZoo sales rep to take a proverbial hike.

Several people have posted online about their lack of results from AdzZoo. If you are looking for help creating a local search campaign, Google has a list of Certified Adwords Partners who are not also trying to sell you on the MLM vehicle which is where the real money at AdzZoo is being made.

If you need a managed Adwords account without the MLM hype or misrepresentations, here’s a link to find Adwords Certified Partners:

https://adwords.google.com/professionals/search/

More to Come in Part 2 “AdzZoo and Google’s Misleading and Bad Practices Policy”

Awesome post! I have always found it fairly distasteful when companies use methods like this and play with the context of statements in order to lie in  subtle ways. It seems to me the more unstable an associate feels about his or her company, the more they pull these kinds of stunts to create a sense of security.

With AdzZoo I can't say I'm entirely surprized because they seem to have left a trail of internet woe here and there, but regardless, when a company builds a reputation of making false statements and half-truths it really makes you wonder how serious its members take its reputation.

AdzZoo scores a B+ since the last time I checked the BBB but there is still no shortage of people saying bad things. I can unsderstand why there is no legal implications to the statements made, but I think its still cutting it pretty close.

At an Orange County AdzZoo meeting this weeken, Bill Olive, who claims to be one of six AdzZoo “founders”, made this startling claim:

…AdzZoo is partners with Google. How did they become partners? Google came to AdzZoo, knocked on their door ( his words, not mine ), and asked them to be 'partners'…

Full disclosure: I am a AdzZoo Rep

I have attended many webinars and conference calls and the main point all AdzZoo presenters made is not to claim to have any relationship with Google other than as a Google Certified Adwords Partner.

That is it. 

All Search Engine Marketing (SEM) companies charge fees to manage their client's adword campaign, otherwise they will not make any money.

So I fail to see your point.

Adword Campaigns will not work for every business.

Why?

Because they are not being searched for by paying customers for the product they offer.

AdzZoo is currently enjoying a 70% retention rate, which is fantastic. 

I know that is a great retention rate because I work in radio.

But that means 30% do not.

My point, there will always be people who will be negative about a product or service.

Your keyword example  for the Plastic Surgeon is more applicable to those that sell SEO not SEM.

AdzZoo reps do not engage the client about what keywords are to be used, we leave that to the experts at the home office.

If you actually think most small and medium businesses can manage their own adwords campaign I can only conclude you have never met one :)

Most business are experts about their product or service.

They hire accountants, lawyers, marketing companies and many other experts because they do not have the time or expertise to do it themselves.

So this DIY mentality and how easy it is to do yourself is so misleading.

Peter Fuller MBA CA
905-566-1927

Fortunately for the business world in general, companies are not usually held responsible, boycotted and blogged on ruthlessly for the statements of a few uninformed sales reps. If that were the case, no one would do business with ANY company that was driven by commission based salespeople. 

I have done MY research on AdzZoo and they provide precisely what they claim they do. The bottom line is this. There are a number of companies out there who provide a service to small and medium sized businesses to get their information on the first page of Google. They ALL charge for this service.... The good companies monitor their client's campaigns daily to maximize quality and quantity of click throughs. This is a time consuming service and well worth the expense. I know of numerous companies who have attempted their own adword campaigns and discovered that it's a heck of a lot of work. Google has recently established a 100% transparency policy for all Google adword resellers. This policy requires the reseller to divulge to the client exactly how much of the client's money is spent on their online media budget and how much is spent on commissions, administration, etc.. The standard for most reseller companies is 20-30% towards adwords, 70-80% on commissions and admin.

Google recently did a mailing of hundreds, if not thousands of coupons for $100.00 in free adwords if a business would sign up and do an adwords campaign directly with Google. My understanding is that this campaign was less than successful. The reason? Most business owners do not have the time or the inclination to set up and then monitor and manage such a campaign. Google changes it's algorithms on a regular basis and this needs to be accounted for, monitored and then managed. AdzZoo does all of these things for their clients. They guarantee in writing that the client will have his business featured on the first page of Google, on a rotational basis, in a geographically appropriate area. They place their clients on the Google content network, (195 other websites), Bing, Yahoo, AOL, contextual advertising on Facebook and over 90 search directories, (yellow pages etc). Also included are Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and all GPS manufacturers. AdzZoo IS a Google Adwords Certified Partner, just like they say they are. NOT a Google partner, (look it up for yourself on the Google website). AdzZoo's clients have the option to run a "Competitive", an "Agressive" or a "Market Leader" campaign and their rates are between $400.00 and $1,000.00 per month for a regional campaign and depending on the campaign that the client chooses, roughly 45-61% of that monthly cost is placed directly into the client's online media buy with Google, and that portion is non-commissionable to the sales reps. They provide analytics so that the client can see exactly how many page views, impressions and driving directions they received each month. They also show what average position that client occupied on the first page of Google.

Like any other direct selling business, there are pushy salespeople and pleasant salespeople. Trust your gut and work with a company that explains their program, divulges how they spend your money, (it is YOUR money after all), and doesn't leave you with the feeling that you have just showered in used cooking oil. I would be happy to discuss an online campaign with anyone who has an interest. Just drop me an email at MyBestLocalSearch@gmail.com and I will give you ALL of the details. Thanks for reading and good luck. It's the Wild West out there and you deserve a decent frontier trailblazer

Hi Peter,

What I found so troubling about this specific incident is that it was a person who claimed to be a "founder" making this claim. 

You make excellent points, and it is entirely possible that AdzZoo will be the company that makes this model work. According to their Google certification they have 4 people in-house who have been certified as experts.

You say that AdzZoo won't work for every business - does AdzZoo reject funds from businesses they probably can't help, or do they do campaigns for the business regardless of the expected outcome?

Is the the 70% retention rate for AdzZoo reps, or for the businesses?

I have only spoken to one AdzZoo rep in person. She has been in the business for seven months. She has not had much success, despite working it full time and bringing people to meetings.  That doesn't mean much - she may just not have any skill at selling the business or product. Have you had better success?

Could you provide some numbers on what it costs to become an AdzZoo rep, how much the monthly fees are to stay active, and how much the average new campaign costs a business when they sign on to AdzZoo?

Although I only talked to one AdzZoo rep, every person I know who owns a small business says that they are constantly being solicited with offers to "get them to the top of Google". Not by AdzZoo, but just from similar businesses.  There's a lot of saturation for this type of service in the marketplace, does that make it harder to sell?

Thanks

Hey Watchdog

Thanks for the very professional reply.

It is impossible for any marketing plan to work for every business, however AdzZoo does have a 100% money back guarantee for first page serp results.

The 70% renewal rate would be company wide on all AdzZoo campaigns.

I live in Canada and AdzZoo is not officially open yet so I cannot sell to local businesses.

However I have attended many events and have spoken with many small businesses and I have a huge list of interested companies.

I do this by attending the right kind of trade shows, internet marketing seminars and barter network social events.

I would not do cold calls.

So my technique is not to hound small businesses :)

You can start with AdzZoo for nothing, however you cannot recruit until you have.a certain level of sales.

You can join outright like I did for $299 one time fee and immediately start to build your business.

There is no auto-shipment like other mlm's and the monthly back office costs $20 per month.

I realize this will sound biased, but their back office is one of the best I have seen, with auto-responders for both small businesses and recruits.

Their capture page and follow through to the main site for both businesses and recruits is so good I see no reason to develop my own.

As for saturation, all you have to do is search small businesses in the local market and see how many are not on the first page of google.

Plus all you have to do is drive around your city and see how many businesses there are.

I have a great day job but there is one downside, I have to show up every work day and sit at my desk in my office.

I am at a point in my life where I want to be able to build a business to support my lifestyle when I retire down the road.

I have been looking for two years now, tried one mlm, but it was the self- consuming consumer model that I was not keen on.

What attracted me to AdzZoo, and I found them by searching for business opportunities online, is that they do provide a product businesses need and I can build a team for overrides.  I have no illusions, I could build a nice business just selling marketing campaigns but that would just be a job, the power is building a team.

The beauty of finding AdzZoo on my own was that I could pick what team I wanted to join and I believe I joined the best based on all of the support that is available.

Plus I wanted something with no auto-shipment.  This business has a true product for a true third party customer.  I like that.

I hope that answers your questions.

Peter Fuller MBA CA
905-566-1927 

I live in Canada and AdzZoo is not officially open yet so I cannot sell to local businesses.

Hello Peter,

Are you paying to be a member right now and marketing to US customers?

Is there any guesstimate on the date AdzZoo will be available in Canada?

JT

Hey Jim

I am a paying member and I do not market to anyone yet.

I paid early so that I could learn the product inside out and be fully trained before they did open.

Supposed AdzZoo has satisfied the Canadian Government on the compensation plan and are just waiting for final approval.

It could happen anytime now.

Peter Fuller
905-566-1927