Citysearch PPC Service Has Long Way To Go
As a consumer I’ve been a fan of Citysearch for years. I know their service as a great way to get a quick opinion on restaurants, clubs, and other local venues. You take Citysearch reviews with a grain of salt, of course, but they’re more often than not reasonably accurate (the user reviews, that is, not the fluffy editorial reviews). As an advertiser I only wish their PPC advertising service could rise to the same standard.
For a site with a top 1,200 Alexa rank (yes, another thing to take with a grain of salt), and a well established business model I expected a lot more from Citysearch PPC advertising. I didn’t expect the same types of shady tactics that you’re wary of when dealing with smaller players (more on that in a second). From day one I was unimpressed – annoyed even – by the lack of flexibility offered by their ad management interface for advertisers. Only the most basic changes to account information and ad images can be managed by the advertiser. All other changes must go through your account manager. And if your account manager is anything like mine was, any change could take a while.
Now, I was spending about $1,000 per month, so I didn’t exactly qualify as a whale…but I certainly didn’t expect to get the “no call back” treatment when I needed help with my ad. Long story short, just like one of the stories on the Citysearch sucks post on the ‘Approaching Midnight’ blog (which has been collecting complaints in the form of comments since 2006), I had problems with the quality of the traffic Citysearch was sending to me. Much of it was coming from junk partner sites, and was absolutely worthless.
Hey Citysearch, let me give you a heads up: If you offer your advertisers an ad management utility so they can upload images, text, and other information to tailor their ad just like they want it, those advertisers are going to expect their ad to appear just like they designed it. If instead you pare the ad down to a basic text link and try to get viewers on other non-Citysearch sites to click the irrelevant, non-contextual link, it’s a safe bet that is not what your advertisers had hoped for. You are misleading your advertising customers and charging them for the service of directing worthless traffic to their websites. It’s a common practice, but Citysearch is supposed to be an uncommon company.
That’s basically what I told my account rep. He said he saw where I was coming from. He said he agreed that I should get a partial refund. And then he disappeared…quit responding to e-mails and phone calls. Funny how that works. I cancelled my Citysearch PPC account, and assumed I’d just have to eat the loss. 6 months later I discussed this story with a colleague who, coincidentally, worked for Citysearch for a number of years. He put me in touch with a sales manager in my area who pushed my refund through. Funny how that works, too. You know who contacted me to let me know the refund was coming? My old account rep. He was there the whole time.
Now, my issue finally got resolved. And, to be fair, so did the one from the Citysearch sucks post. But it shouldn’t have gotten to the point – in either situation – where the advertiser felt compelled to share his negative experience with others. Hey, Citysearch, you might have heard this before: an ouce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It’s true.
