Back in May 2009  it came to our attention at Whatswhat.ie that a UK company is calling companies on our directory.  We have over 66,000 companies listed and believe they have contacted 1,000’s to date.  This company is called Matchmaker Marketing.  There are others but Matchmaker has a vigorous campaign going on at the moment targeting Irish companies. They also use other names like Zenith Marketing, Storm Media and Sphere Marketing…to name a few. I will post more when I hear about them.

It is bad enough they are calling our customers and sometimes being detrimental about our service, however it is difficult for us to stop this as being an online business directory we are in the public domain and companies listed with us show their details in order to be seen.

The problem is that this company infers they are Google from the start of the conversation and are tricking Irish businesses into thinking they are being called by Google so the call must therefore be bona fide.

Those that know a bit better realise that Google wouldn’t be calling them direct so they ask who they actually are and they admit to being Matchmaker Marketing. However they then claim to be affiliated with Google or a Google reseller or Google’s largest reseller in the UK. “As in Carphone Warehouse is to Vodafone” (their words)

The sales spiel then starts and they say many different things. The main ones being:-

• We can get you on the first page of Google in the top 3 organic listings and guarantee that you stay there
• We can get you on the first page of Google in the top 10 organic listings and guarantee that you stay there
• We can get you in the top 3 sponsored links on Google and guarantee that you stay there
• We can guarantee you stay on the first page of Google somewhere
• We’re only selling these spots to one type of company in your area
• Google have allocated us one space in the natural listings and we are the only reseller that can do this
• Blah blah blah
How do I know this? Because they contacted me directly not realising my connection with Whatswhat or that I actually knew what they were saying could not be true.  I also have about 150 emails from people who have been contacted by them.  And the number is growing daily.  Unfortunately some that have paid too.  Whatswhat.ie hopes to stop this misrepresentation happening to businesses with the best of our ability. We do not condone this type of business behaviour and intend to stamp it out.

We contacted Google and they have their legal team investigating the matter.  Firstly because this company are using the Google logo on their email correspondence without permission by Google and secondly because they have seen a batch of the emails I’ve been receiving whereby people have said they thought they were being contacted by Google so they paid over money.  Here are two statements that Google have given me to use in order to warn people about this:-

“Thanks for the complaint and we can understand your frustration.  It’s been forwarded to the appropriate team, which will investigate. Essentially, it’s up to advertisers to work with agencies they trust. MatchMaker Marketing and Sphere Marketing have no affiliation with Google” Google UK & Ireland (dated 20/5/09)

“We’re extremely concerned to learn of companies without affiliation to Google using our name to mislead or mistreat small businesses who want to advertise online.  Our legal team investigates such abuses and we continue to work with the relevant authorities to combat the problems caused. We always urge businesses in the UK and Ireland to work only with agencies they know and trust. We have established a programme of Authorised Google AdWords Resellers whom businesses can trust to manage their advertising on Google. Alternatively, they can do this directly with us at adwords.google.com.” – Google UK & Ireland (dated 22/5/09)
Basically what they are selling is Google Adwords for a fixed price per month.  We’ve been told prices that range from €90 to €250 so far. It varies with the company they contact.

Google Adwords do NOT get you on the natural listings in Google – on any page.  They get you in the sponsored listings and not always guaranteed the top 3 or first page.

With Google Adwords you would normally pay per click (ppc) for the words that you want to come up on Google for.  You will show in the sponsored listings on the right hand side and very top randomly.  See the diagram below:-

Organic versus paid listings

Courtesy of http://www.webmentor.ie.  For a full and easy to understand description of the difference please use this link – http://www.webmentor.ie/how-to-guides/seo-sem/what-is-seo-sem.html

I spoke to a company that had paid them €90 for one search term (adwords) for one month.  I have checked and last month that search term had less than 10 searches on Google Ireland.  If they’d gone direct with Google the adwords would have cost them approximately 5 cents per click therefore approximately 50 cents for the month.  Can you see how much Matchmaker made with that company therefore???  It is possible they get the Adwords pay per click even cheaper as they are ‘buying in bulk’ but we don’t know that.  Ironically our customer was also second in the organic listings for that search term via Whatswhat.

Unfortunately they are contacting people that may never read this because they don’t use the computer or internet very often or at all.  One man contacted us about it and did not know how to forward the email he’d got from them so is sending it in the post!!!  All they know is that the first page of Google is the be all and end all.  They don’t understand they could go direct to Google.adwords and choose how much they pay per click and get it a lot cheaper.  Or use a bona fide adwords company (preferably in Ireland) that will work with them for a much cheaper cost and no false promises.

This company probably isn’t targeting London companies where the Adwords pay per click would cost a lot more.  No, they are targeting companies in rural areas in Ireland where using, for example Youghal, tagged on to a search term the cost would be minimal via a legitimate Adwords campaign.

We are not saying Matchmaker Marketing is not a legitimate company and they cannot offer a legitimate service.  They are no longer Google accredited for selling Adwords.  They are not ‘Google affiliated’ or a ‘Google reseller’.   Unfortunately they are not saying that when they ring Joe Bloggs plumber who thinks he’s been called by Google because they picked him out of the hat for his area to make sure he gets onto the first page of Google.

You can read more on these forums:-

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=88096
http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/01619417944

or just type in Matchmaker Marketing on Google.co.uk and you’ll see a lot.  Seems they have moved from targeting UK companies to Irish ones now.

Please warn everyone about this as we really have to stop this happening to the small businesses in Ireland. Especially in this time of recession.

If anyone has more information please email me on sian@whatswhat.ie as I am compiling information for Google plus other investigations.

Good luck and take care

Barbara & Sian

Whatswhat.ie