Video Transcript
Google have decided that they’re going to offer enhanced customer support, which sounds great, but there’s one big problem. Google Ads customers are going to have to pay for this enhanced support, and rumor has it that payment amount will be in the region of. $40 for a one hour phone call with a specialist.
This isn’t just a rumor though, because this has been confirmed. People have seen this in their Google Ads account as an option for getting support from Google and Google themselves have acknowledged this as well. A Google spokesperson said that the paid pilot is intentionally small in scope, so we can take feedback and iterate based on what works best for our customers.
As part of this evolution, we’ve made significant upgrades to the help center to help customers resolve issues on their own more easily. This includes multimedia additions. Such as videos and gif across articles related to how to edit your campaign settings, edit your bids, and resolve data inconsistencies in Google Ads accounts.
We will continue to invest in this area, agencies working with customers. Included in this pilot will be able to schedule specialized paid support consultations. Tailored to their client’s specific needs. So what does all this mean? Well, luckily for you, I’m gonna unpick all of this. I’m gonna first understand, are Google actually trying to offer a service for account management and taking business from agencies and freelancers?
Also, should your business actually pay Google for support when you’re already paying thousands of dollars a month on advertising? And finally, will it even be any good? So are Google trying to get into the ads management business? Are they trying to muscle in on agencies managing clients? The answer is of course, yes.
And the reason I say this is twofold. First of all, paying for someone to manage your ads, even if it’s a nominal fee of $40 per hour. Is an agency fee, you are paying somebody to manage your account for you and give you advice, kind of like a consultation. But essentially this is the kind of thing customers would pay an agency for to ask the questions they need when accounts are under their management in order to get better results.
Interestingly enough, when you think about it, Google used to offer phone call support, even though it wasn’t from a top tier team from out of their HQs or anything like that. You could actually phone somebody and speak to them about your campaign, but ever since 2020, they have cut this service completely.
Meaning advertisers are now in a position where they are using really poor and appalling service and support from Google, and a $40 incentive for a paid conversation with a enhanced Google rep. That might sound quite tempting to a lot of businesses, to be honest. I think it’s absolutely despicable of Google to cut their support to the bone, leaving businesses hanging out to dry when they’re asking questions and getting supports and actually outsourcing all of their operations to third parties, like in the EU and the UK, they use a company called Teleperformance, which is a telesales sales agency.
They’re not somebody who has expertise in campaign management. Sure, they go through onboarding and training, but these are. Very much telesales people with targets. But wait a minute, Google are claiming that they’re going to offer enhanced customer support for that $40 fee, which will be above and beyond the normal frontline support businesses get access to.
But will this support even be any good For me, the answer is going to be no. And the reason I say that is because for Google to offer this enhanced service at just $40 for an hour consultation, it’s not gonna be enough to cover the level of quality of account manager. To manage the campaign effectively.
Essentially, when you look at that $40 fee, if Google, and let’s assume Google are a multinational corporation focused on generating profits, then it’s not gonna cover the base. So let’s do the maths on this, or as my American friends would say, the math on this. If you think about it, Google’s parent company, alphabet run with a general operating profit of about 25%.
So let’s assume that the services Google are providing will target that profit margin. So that leaves behind $30 for somebody to manage a Google Ads account for one hour and have that consultation with businesses now take into account the cost of hiring that agent, training that agent, providing the equipment for them to use the paid holidays.
All of that, that doesn’t leave much behind from that $30 per hour left over for that agent. In fact, I would be highly surprised if the cost of hiring that agent for one hour of consultation is any cheaper than the bottom tier outsource support Google are paying for right now with companies like Teleperformance.
I’ve seen a post from a fellow PPC consultant, Boris Berecic. And I hope I’m saying that correctly, if not, sorry, Boris, but he actually went through the process of getting hired by Teleperformance, the agency who runs Google Ads support in the EU and the uk, and he went all the way through the process and he found out a ton of information about the agents you’re speaking to.
On the end of the telephone, the salary was 25,000 euros per year, and there was a 4,000 euro. Performance based bonus. So this is quite a good salary for an entry level tele telephone sales position. So we go back to that $40 fee, which is now being cut from Google’s profit margin. It doesn’t leave a lot behind to get much higher than that initial salary of their bottom tier support.
So with that in mind, if Google wanted to have a really good specialist, like the people who spend the most money get from their head offices across the world, They’re gonna have to eat losses on consulting with these smaller businesses for one hour at a time, at $40 per hour. And Google doesn’t do losses.
Have you seen your budget tracking recently? You are probably overspending right now. So with that in mind, we know that Google are thinking of trying to muscle in a little bit onto the service side of the business in terms of a. Revenue stream for Google. We also know that this enhanced support, based on that $40 fee, at least if they were to roll this out across all advertisers as an option, would be loss making.
And Google does not do losses. The level of support is not going to be very good. It’s not gonna be much higher than what people get out the box already with these outsourced telephone sales agencies with hard sales targets. So that basically answers my final question. Should you, as a business owner, Engage in this.
Should you be paying Google $40 for a conversation? If you haven’t got the idea by now, you should know. The answer is definitely no. Do not pay Google for a consultation of $40 because they should be offering you this service anyway. You are spending thousands of your hard earned dollars on this advertising platform because they know you have nowhere else to go.
It is the only place you are gonna find people when they’re looking for your services right now. They have a monopoly, therefore they think they can charge $40 just for their normal support. And as I say, It is their normal support. It is not gonna be that much more enhanced than what you probably get already.
The numbers don’t make sense. Maybe at this stage, if they’re taking a loss on it, it does. But in the long term, they will have to increase the cost for this to make sense. You don’t get conversations with specialists for $40 an hour after service delivery and profit comes out as well. It can’t happen. So to all business owners out there who are listening to this video, Please, please, please, when that option comes up in your support settings in Google, you might think it’s tempting to go ahead and do that, but from what I can tell, it’s not worth your time and it’s not worth your money.
But as I say, this is my opinion, but what do you think? As a business owner or an agency owner or whoever’s watching this video, let me know in the comments below whether you agree with me or not. Do you think Google can deliver on the promise of an enhanced customer service at $40 an hour? I love discussing this stuff, so hit me up in the comments down below, like this video.
If you like it, don’t forget to subscribe. Don’t forget to head to my website, darren-taylor.com in order to get. PPC consultancy. I work with a ton of businesses and I’d love to hear about your business too. Don’t forget to subscribe and check out the other content on the channel, and I’ll see you guys on my next video.
