Yellow Pages (not Recommended)

The Need

As someone that gets little joy out of marketing, and therefore had less then stellar success, I was receptive when a Yellow Pages sales reps called. I was already familiar with Google's PPC advertising but I felt I did not have the bandwidth or knowledge to manage that properly. So I figured it would be a good idea to outsource to someone with experience and accepted Yellow Pages' offer.

Startup

After signing the required contracts we were off and things seemed to be good. I knew that Yellow Pages was an international company with a long history so I had no concerns with their guarded language. I knew that marketing is no exact science. I should have insisted on some level of a performance clause or early exit option but foolishly did not think that necessary. I was simply too eager to get started. I learned.

I was promised monthly meetings to review and a dashboard so I could monitor the performance. I assumed that would be enough because I was looking for a hands off solution managed by someone who knew what they were doing.

I worked through what my ideal client was and what kind of headlines, descriptions and keywords they might respond to and sent the information to Yellow Pages. They wanted time to do the setup and keyword research, which was expected. The contract had included the enhanced metrics and research.

A month later the "Yellow Pages managed Google Ads campaign" was up and running. I was given access to their metrics dashboard and the clicks started to appear. I have been running StatCounter for some time, so I could line up the clicks they recorded with what was happening on my site.

Letdown

I quickly became concerned at the website visitors' behaviour. Almost all visitors quickly bounced. Reviewing the metrics I concluded that the keywords were not appropriate and so I assumed that the visitors bounced because of the mismatch between what they expected and what they got. That started a back and forth conversation where I became increasingly specific about my concerns and what I wanted Yellow Pages to change. Nothing that was done seemed to change the visitors' behaviour and I could quickly imagine my investment disappearing with nothing to show for it. Finally I was told that I needed to stop changing things and wait for the ads to start working.

I waited as asked, but things did not improve. I also started my own low budget Google Ads Campaign just to understand what was happening and hopefully fix things. Within a few days I could see more meaningful traffic from my own Google Ads Campaign, with way more information and control. Completely frustrated and disappointed with Yellow Pages, I asked about cancelling.

I told that I was not sufficiently patient, so I backed off and waited with no changes as they specified. Another bill arrived 24 days later with no improvements and so I finally gave up. I figured that I had given them enough of my money and time.

Timeline

Date *Approx	Event
Feb 13	Signed Contract, adjusted Feb 15. NOTE: Realized after that the updated contract had added a REQUIRED product I had not really wanted with twice the term length. That further undermined my trust in Yellow Pages.
Feb 17	Replied with my client and ad design information
Mar 13	Ads and metrics Active
Mar 18*	Metrics Disappear
Mar 23	Metrics Reappear but the results are not good.
Mar 24	Send corrected keyword suggestions. (Change #1)
Mar 27	Still not looking good so I ask to talk and we have a meeting (Teams). At about this point I start doing my own keyword research and built up a detailed strategy for a marketing campaign broken out into two groups to allow for comparison and improve targeting.
Apr 2	Provide details on the first group. (Change #2)
Apr 7	Provide details on the second group. (Change #3)
Apr 9	Response with questions, which I answer.
Apr 10	As I up my own research to stop the poor performance, I have more questions and concerns.
Apr 13	I ask to target the entire country with highly specific keywords instead of targeting a few cities with very generic keywords. I also ask for keyword corrections again since some are overly generic and would just mislead users. Was told that I needed to leave things alone so the ads could start working on their own.
Apr 15*	Frustrated, I take matters into my own hands and create a Google Ads account to understand what is happening and fix things. NOTE: This from the guy that wanted to outsource it all.
Apr 17	I had a functional Google Ads account with more professional looking Ads, and producing results that looked far more legitimate. The Yellow Pages traffic still looked disinterested. Thoroughly disappointed with Yellow Pages, I sent an email asking about the options for cancelling. I quickly get a call telling me that I have not been patient enough (its been one month), too much tweaking, and to paraphrase, "How can I think that I know how to do ads better then them?" I agree to give them one month. Enabled StatCounter Premium to get deeper detail on what users are doing on site.
Apr 18	One day after that call, I get 1 single, solidly legitimate looking click from the Yellow Pages ad. The next day there is another legitimate looking click, but from outside the targeted region. (Error or shared link?) After that the disinterested visitors resume. No navigation, just a few seconds of mouse movement, scrolling and then exit.
May 11	Another bill arrives 24 days later with zero improvement so I decide to call it quits again, this time very firmly. I am passed on to a Manager and the Ads stop (Last May 10th). The Yellow Pages Metrics access had already been broken but never reappeared after this point.
May 14	Connect with the Manager for a rundown of my issues. Forwarded to another.
May 21*	Finally connect with a Manager in the Cancellation Department. A testy phone conversation where he repeatedly says that he understands but obviously does not. The basic result is that he verbally accepted my cancellation request, but the contract allows Yellow Pages to continue billing me until it expires. I was not abusive, but neither was I very gracious.
May 25	Sent an email requesting confirmation of my cancellation request. Zero Response.
May 28	The Yellow Pages Ads restart and play catch-up, but my metrics access is still gone and is never restored. The Ads are just as ineffective as before. I suspect the Ads were restarted to legitimize that they are still charging me.
Jun 29	Another month of ineffective Ads with no metrics.

Too Hasty?

Yellow Pages will say that I was too quick and that I should have been more patient. That is a legitimate statement but it has a couple of important caveats. A Google Ad cannot learn if there are no conversions. A Google Ad cannot learn if there is no conversion tracking. With no feedback mechansim and no positive input, all it can do is optimize for clicks. But if the clicks don't convert, then all you get is wasted ad spend.

Therefore, if visitors are obviously not interacting with a site then something needs to change, fast! Any delay is just wasted time and money.

Poor Targeting: Keywords, Intent, etc..
Message Mismatch: Ad Promise vs. Page Deliver,
Site Issues: Slow, or a bad user experience,....

All of the above are examples of issues that need a proactive response. While trying to work through these issues it became very clear to me that the Yellow Pages provided metrics (when available), provided insufficient information and no control over what was happening with the Ads. This made it very difficult to discover and fix issues. Creating my own Google Ads account made it obvious how much I was missing from Yellow Pages in the way of control and information.

My own Google Ads Campaign allowed me to prove that the issues with the Yellow Pages Ads were at least in part a Targeting or Message Mismatch issue.

My intent had been to outsource so I could focus on my product and customer service. Instead I was forced to dedicate a very large portion of my time and additional funds into researching and implementing Google Ads myself, with the hope of protecting my investment.

Should I have stuck it out longer and given Yellow Pages another chance? Maybe. But, once I started running into issues, I did a deeper dive into Yellow Pages' customer reviews. That increased my level of concern, especially with their cancellation policy/practices. I could not tolerate the idea of being stuck in an extended version of this, so I decided an early exit from a bad deal was my best option.

Now I just need to pay out the rest of the contract with Yellow Pages with zero benefit. Another 8 months to go...

Summary

A core lesson from this journey was that it forced me to Own the Marketing and the client experience.