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

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 

[quote user="Peter Fuller MBA"]I live in Canada and AdzZoo is not officially open yet so I cannot sell to local businesses.
[/quote]

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 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 

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

[quote user="WatchDog"]

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

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'…

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”

Hello Wallace

Thanks for your response.

I am an AdzZoo member and I just completed my certified basic training, which is new required training for all AdzZoo reps. 

In fact I completed it the first day they opened up the training and whipped through it with honours :)

But the important thing in the training is that they reinforce what we can and cannot say as an AdzZoo rep.

In fact they released an updated policy just recently as well.

So if any AdzZoo rep ever does what all of these rumours say they do, they will be terminated immediately, no fooling around.

I can see new, excited reps not knowing, but now with the required certification no one will have an excuse for misrepresenting what we do.

Peter Fuller MBA CA
905-566-1927

Hi Peter

Thank you for clarifying, Google and adwords in general are something I'm not particularly schooled on. When I first heard about the AdzZoo story, it made me notice the certified Google Adwords logo and I started wondering if that was part of the complaint. If that's something Google created, then by all means, I stand corrected.

Naturally I don't know anyone who claims to have been approached, but I may have jumped the gun in regard to this story and got sucked into the tidal wave of criticism. I see so much of that kind of thing when learning about these companies that to some extent, I have come to expect it. I haven't done enough research on AdzZoo to have jumped into this conversation to be fair, but I suppose old habits die hard.

Kudos to you for countering the claims if what you say is true, I appreciate the input.

Kind regards.

Hey Wallace

First, Google created the Certified Adwords Partner program and actually wants us to display the logo and tell people :)

There is a fringe who are posting on the internet the same common false story about AdzZoo.

 It always relates to either an AdzZoo rep approached them or they know a business that was approached.

Why do you think there is a problem with promoting AdzZoo as a Certified Adwords Partner?

Thanks

Peter Fuller MBA CA
905-566-1927

Hi Peter, with respect, I can understand the feeling that there are ulterior motives for posting here, especially in a place with MLM invested members. In your responses, I have come to read your input as to how the partnership between Google and AdzZoo issue began. I apologize if this is a long running issue you come across and AdzZoo never made such claims. I can say that I have seen firsthand what a few bad reps can do to the image of a company, especially if they are net savvy and can toss around some keywords.

However, I think it might be better to define what being a Google adwords partner exactly means. There is no ant-AdzZoo army trying to attack your company, that much I assure you, but this forum provides a section in which we discuss frauds, scams and complaints, and it can't always be helped if one company becomes the center of attention over what may very well be a technicality, or a legitimately false statement.

?

The whole "Certified Adwords Partner" seems to be the thing that causes the stir. The icon certainly isn't presented in a way that seems neutral, and why is it necessary to advertise it anyway? It at least appears to others as though the company is trying to dance close to a line it can't legally cross with the hope of creating a sense of stability based on the foundation of an Internet giant.

I'm not saying that is what AdzZoo did, I'm only saying that is how it appears, so naturally it finds its way here, and this is what we discuss weekly, often daily. You at least have the opportunity to correct the perception, and perhaps as an AdzZoo rep, give your company a better understanding of where the issue is so that they can perhaps modify the root of the problem.

Who are you guys to have the pulse of the small and medium sized businesses calling you to complain about AdzZoo :)

I put a smiley on that statement for a reason.

There seems to be a campaign organized by you guys reporting how AdzZoo misrepresents itself.

Here is the thing, I am an AdzZoo rep and I am told in every training call not to represent ourselves as a partner of google or to have any sepcial relationship with Google.

Al I can do is state facts and that is we are a Google Adwords Certified Partner.

We are experts about delievery paying customers to businesses and helping businesses retain them.

Peter Fuller MBA CA
905-566-1927

We main problem seems to be that Adzzoo is in fact trying to sell internet advertising but do to the cost structure and the amount paid to the reps and to run the company there is a limited amount of the AD spend dollars that can be applied to promote the business. This will always be a problem for the customer. We have heard of many customers that were happy with Adzzoo in the first few months and then the results dropped off.

The number one AdzZoo complaint I am hearing is that AdzZoo reps are completely misrepresenting what AdzZoo does as part of their sales pitch to small businesses.

AdzZoo reps are reportedly claiming that their programmers are from Google  and that they are certified Google Internet Marketing and advertising experts.

AdzZoo reps have gone so far as to re-register businesses with Google, which causes Google to send out verification to your physical address and causes you to be dropped from the local ( free ) listings until verified.

I heard about a scam similar to AdzZoo before I ever heard of any AdzZoo complaints - a company was using an autodialer calling businesses and telling them they needed to renew their Google listings - when they got callbacks, they pitched them on how they could make the business appear in the top of the search listings.

They did this by simply being sure the business was registered with Google, and when the business owner looks up his business, his Google results are tagged by his IP address which Google uses to display local business results, and sure enough, there you are on top of the local listings - exactly where you would be if you simply registered with Google for free.

AdzZoo complaints that claim that reps are misrepresenting and trying to charge for something that businesses can do themselves for free seem to be completely valid.

Interested in opposing viewpoints.

[quote user="Peter Fuller MBA"]

I just went down to my local grocer and he was closed, I wonder if they are having problems with google too :)

That's actually hilarious.

I jumped the gun when I suggested, without clearly characterizing it as sarcasm, that they yanked their site to clean it up.

Sites become unavailable all the time - everything from a local service interruption to temporary server issues can bring them down.

I just went down to my local grocer and he was closed, I wonder if they are having problems with google too :)

How long have you guys been on the internet?

You guys are a hoot.

Peter Fuller MBA CA
905-566-1927

Although there is that sense of wait as to when this company will fold under some legal hammer, the site is back up as of 11/09/10. Could have been anything that caused that little blackout. Perhaps Google yanked them until working out some kind of deal, and now they really ARE partnered with Google :P.

Maybe someone complained to Google about their misrepresentations about their certification in the Adwords program, and AdzZoo's management yanked their site to clean up the mess.

Whatever the case, watch the spin: "AdzZoo's servers were down because of overwhelming traffic to our business opportunity".

The AdzZoo website is down. I can't view it from any computer I try.

Did AdzZoo close?

As an AdzZoo Rep I am told repeatedly that I cannot claim that AdzZoo has a special relationship with Google.

In fact I could be terminated for saying so.

Since you guys have the pulse of the market at your fingertips I suggest you file complaints directly with AdzZoo so that they can take action with the reps.

But somehow I doubt that is why you are posting this stuff :)

Peter Fuller MBA
905-566-1927

Lol, love the analogies. Its true unfortunately. Simply using the services of a large company seems to be grounds for claiming affiliation. I was just reading about this recently in a few other areas and it seems AdzZoo is the latest to start making these types of claims. This is actually happening all over the place, and with bigger companies than just AdZzoo.

Eight new fraud cases have surfaced with people being hit with judgments amounting to $29.5 million in settlements.In one case, a company claimed to be affiliated with Google to somehow cleanse the act of financial fraud. The latest offending companies to claim affiliation with Google are Infusion Media Inc.; West Coast Internet Media Inc.; Two Warnings LLC; Two Part Investments LLC; and Platinum Teleservices Inc.

A company known as MPB has been making claims that it is affiliated with Wal-mart, simply because it uses Wal-Mart gift cards as one form of compensation. In addition, the same company actually claimed it was backed by the United States Government. Some companies like MPB even went as far as to shoot commercials on Wal-Mart property.

AdzZoo saying they are Google's business partner is the same rap Ray Mario at Zippi always pitched about being partners with eBay. Mario went a step further and claimed that eBay invested $100,000 in their business shortly before he left Zippi.

This is standard MLM hype.  AdzZoo Google Partner. What a joke. Use iPads in your office and you are an Apple business partner. Fly to your 'opportunity meetings' on Delta and claim they are your business partner.

Most likely AdzZoo will experience the same fate as Zippi and Local Ad Link which used their exact same business model. If your business is selling PPC advertising to businesses who don't get it, just say you are a PPC campaign management company. Don't charge $200 in fees and give them $50 in clicks when they could go to Google directly and get $200 in clicks and figure it out themselves.

A friend recently asked me if AdzZoo is a Google business partner, as was represented by founder Bill Olive during a recent opportunity meeting.

I'm going to address that in a separate post, but this post is simply to show an example of 'long tail keywords' as part of a broader overview of Adzzoo,

AdzZoo claims they can provide first page ranking on Google, and validate their company by representing themselves as being the AdzZoo Google Partner.  Google has an adwords certification program, and individuals who complete the program can put a certification image on their websites which brand them as a "Certified Adwords Google Partner"

This is not the equivelent of being a Google Business partner, and Google specifically prohibits their Adwords Certified "Partners" from making claims that misrepresent the relationship as anything other than a certification. So when someone spouts the fact that "AdzZoo is partners with Google" its spinning the certification in a prohibited way, to validate what seems to be an otherwise lackluster 'business opportunity'.

Is AdzZoo really a Google Partner?

Here is how Google defines members of their Adwords Certified Partner Program:

Google AdWords Certified Partners are online marketing professionals, agencies, and other individuals - such as search engine marketers (SEMs), search engine optimizers (SEOs), and marketing consultants - who currently manage or want to manage AdWords accounts.

More to come about AdzZoo Google Partner Claims and the nuts and bolts of the Adzzoo MLM program.