BT Web Clicks
Today I received a phone call from one of my clients who said that they had a BT engineer with them. OK. I thought, what’s going on here…
They then proceeded to ask me “what do we rank for on google?”, my response was “your company name, unless you request otherwise”.
They then went on to mentioned that “the man from BT” can get us listed “at the top” of the search engine for “our keywords”.
Naturally I reply to this with a sigh, but how they can they go around making such statements? It’s so unethical to make these kind of claims.
After reading their marketing bumph, I found out what they meant by “at the top”. What they are offering is the ability to list as the “sponsored links” in search engines, which appear “at the top”.
They requested my email address to send me “further details” through, below is the marketing email I was sent. I couldn’t wait to pull it apart.
This isn’t at all a review of the BT Web Clicks service, in fact i’ve not used it, it’s simply an analysis of their marketing blurb.
BT webclicks is a new service that guarantees as many or as little hits on your website based on your particular need.
Example. Anybody searching search engines such as google yahoo and msn for the specific type of business they need will be presented with a choice of various differenet company’s. What we guarantee is not just a priority sponsored listing. We absolutely guarantee that we will the will actually click on to your website searching for whatever your key words say about you. Ie car hire chaueffeur driven
WRONG: You can’t guarantee anything you have no control over. You have no control over our websites or any of the search engines. No matter whether you think you do or not, even if you are using deep packet inspection for targeted advertising, which is against your privacy policy and thus against the law.
If we don’t achieve the level of clicks you want we will give you your money back for the percentage we don’t achieve. Furthermore we are that confident of our product that we will allow customers to trial the 960 package for 3 months and can terminate the agreement if they are not happy at the end of this period.
EXPENSIVE: According to the BT Web Clicks Prices, you’re charging between £1 and £15 per month per click. So, 100 clicks in a month could cost you £1,500. Why would I do that when I get get 100 clicks a month for free using organic methods?
BT Web Clicks – Search Engine Marketing for Small Businesses Running a small business is hard work, fortunately your Internet Advertising doesn’t have to be Do you run a small business in your spare time or know someone who does? If so, BT is launching a new service which could help you save time and money.
WASTE: of time and money more like. Small businesses are vulnerable, but they’re right, running a business doesn’t get any easier, just like huge corporations are going to continue to try and trick you trick you into buying something you don’t need. If your business is important, spend the time and money doing it yourself, rather than paying BT to do it.
Internet Advertising is the fastest growing advertising media in the UK, fuelled by the tremendous growth in the use of the Internet. But small and medium sized businesses are missing out on much of this usage because advertising on search engines is complicated and time consuming.
NOT ALWAYS BEST: Just because it’s the fastest doesn’t always mean it’s the best, this is because it’s very competitive, and just about everyone has some involvement these days. This is why Google have now started using other forms of media including TV, audio and print. Whatever gets results.
BT Web Clicks is a new Internet Advertising product that helps small and medium businesses by taking away the pain of advertising on search engines, leaving them to concentrate on their business. It offers customers a fixed amount of leads to their website for a fixed monthly fee. It is backed by a guarantee1 that offers them money back for undelivered clicks.
PAINKILLER: Yes, using BT Web Clicks is much like using a pain killer, it block the pain, but they don’t actually give you a solution, and just like pain killers, they wear off after a while, unless you keep paying for them. Instead invest in a consultant who can act on your behalf.
Setting up a search marketing campaign on the major UK search engines can take up to 30 hours, however, customers placing orders for BT Web Clicks will have our expert team identify the keywords relevant to their business, create the advertising text, and place and manage the adverts on the major search engines including Google, Yahoo and at least 12 other search engines.
HOW LONG?: Last time I checked, planning and setting up a search engine marketing campaign should take about 30 minutes, not 30 hours. If choosing relevant keywords, creating advertising text and signing up to Google Adwords takes 30 hours, you must be stupid.
BT Web Clicks
Get more customers to visit your business website!# Sponsored links on multiple search engines
# Experts choosing optimised keywords
# Fixed prices to suit your budget
FREE: None of this actually costs money, just your time. How much is your time actually worth? If it’s worth more than BT are charging for this service, I recommend you hire someone else to read through this for you.
BT Web Clicks is a search marketing service for your website or online shop. This service creates your business’ very own sponsored links on both major and local search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, in order to drive relevant leads through to your site through carefully chosen keywords.
FREE AGAIN: Creating your very own sponsored links is a FREE service offered by search engines. You only have to pay for them to appear on search engines for the keywords you choose.
Who will benefit from BT Web Clicks?
Your website is the first step in getting your business online, but how are people looking for your type of products and services going to find you if they don’t know you exist?
MARKETING: There’s lots of ways people can find out you exist. You shouldn’t rely on paid online marketing exclusively, there’s plenty of free methods and other medias to explore.
What is BT Web Clicks?
Many people start researching through search engines for both local and national suppliers – so whether you’re a local business such as a florist, takeaway restaurant, or hairdresser looking for local customers, or a specialist mail order company selling nationally BT Web Clicks can help.
WHAT?: People do what? I don’t think they do, they use yellow pages for local information. Don’t let them trick you.
What do I get?
# Keyword generation – our team of experts analyse search engines and choose the keywords that are going to generate you relevant leads to your site.
# Advertising text – we use professional online copywriters to create a text ad for your website to attract customers.
# No admin – our automated systems connect directly with the search engines to bid on keywords and upload your sponsored links.
# Fixed budget – you choose the budget so you know exactly what you will spend each month, all backed by a guarantee.
# Leads direct to your door – when a customer clicks your sponsored link they go straight through to your website and not through any other online directory.
# A monthly report with number of click through to your website – you can monitor your traffic and increase package if necessary
GUARANTEED PIECE OF CRAP: Here’s how I see it. A guy puts a guarantee on the box ’cause he wants you to fell all warm and toasty inside. But they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That’s all it is. Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time.
What does this mean for my business?
Getting visitors to your website is the first step in getting a paying customer so promoting your site in the right place is vitally important. Search marketing is a proven way of generating leads directly from both major and local search engines, however getting it right and running a search marketing campaign to generate quality leads can be both time consuming and costly.
With BT Web Clicks you get the opportunity to use expertly chosen keywords and professionally written advertising copy that are all relevant to your business. This helps ensure that the visitors that come to your website using a sponsored link are looking for the products or services that your business supplies, and more likely to become your customer.
THE REAL EXPERT: They aren’t the real expect, YOU ARE, yes, that’s right, the real expert is YOU! After all, it’s your business, you know your customers better than anyone else, right?
If you need anymore information don’t hesitate to call Yours sincereley, Mark Clark Sales Executive: Cheshire and North Wales BT Directories
Email: mark.d.clark@bt.com
Mobile: 07918717465
THANKS: Thanks Mark, you’ve been most helpful. I enjoyed writing about this. Now watch as I rank on the first page of google for “BT Web Clicks”.
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Joseph said,
May 31, 2008 @ 9:20 pm
I think you’ll find this is harsh denigration and sour grapes directly from a person who charges for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) How much do you charge? My business recently signed up to BT Web Clicks, I have a letting company and passed my internet marketing over to BT, I really don’t have time to learn the ins and outs of this. I know BT Web Clicks saved me alot of money on a certain consultant i used to use. And its delivering more enquires than the guy who used to be my “consultant”
Steve said,
July 2, 2008 @ 9:49 pm
Beware all you search engine optimisation specialists being paid big fat salaries for sitting on your lazy asses all day. Bt Webclicks works harder than you, delivers better results than you and costs less than you… dear oh dear, do I detect panic in your text? The bottom is about to fall out of your little world… The fact you a had time on your hands to write such a long rant is a clear indication of how hard you work for your clients…not very!
hm2k said,
July 4, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
I think you guys missed the point. *grin*
Steve said,
July 8, 2008 @ 10:04 pm
Not at all,
The fundamental flaw in your attack… You don’t tell us how you would go about delivering the exact same results for your clients and what you would charge for the service, and what would you offer them as a guarantee. Alright, so you managed to get on page one, but what does this mean to me… not a lot unless you can tell me how many clicks have successfully generated on this page as a result, and how long it took to generate them.
You have also retyped the marketing blurb rather than cut and paste, so you have, and I assume, by error, missed out some of the original text.
Incidently, the Geneva software platform that BT webclicks uses to generate the clicks to customers websites has just been voted the No1 internet product of 2008 in the USA by the AeA, and is now also the number one way in America in which customers search for the details of businesses from which they intent to buy. Now… the worlds biggest internet users can’t be all that wrong!
hm2k said,
July 8, 2008 @ 10:29 pm
That’s because I don’t sell SEO as a product or service, but as consultancy, there are no guarantees.
The text you see is the text I received by email, if i’ve missed it out its because it wasn’t sent to me correctly. The more text the better really.
It doesn’t matter what platform they use, it’s the way in which they try and sell it that is the issue, thus why I provide their marketing blurb, and not details of the product.
junior1138 said,
July 12, 2008 @ 8:37 pm
You have leveled some serious and unfounded criticisms. I will try to answer them sensibly.
Guaranteed Service. Any service or product can be guaranteed. BT guarantee to deliver a set level of referral. Failure to deliver results in a pro-rata refund. I believe this meets the current popular definition of guarantee.
Expensive. Define expensive. I am typing this on a G4 PowerBook from Apple. It cost 1200 quid, three times what an of it’s time PC based laptop wold have cost. The machine is now approaching it’s sixth year of use. The bulk of businesses qualify for the £1/click with the higher cost packages reserved for higher margin generating companies.
Waste. Small businesses are vulnerable, I agree. What makes better sense, a drop of 500 leaflets that might reach 1% of your customer base, of a marketing plan where you only reach customers that are looking for you.
Not Always best: You answer this by saying 99% of the population is on the web. Erg, you reach 99% of the population. I fail to see the objection.
Painkiller: I fail to see how this is different from the service you offer. Your solution is ongoing as is the BT solution.
How Long: Most Plasterers and Horse Riding Equipment suppliers are, in my admittedly limited experience, tend not to be skilled in the fine art of creating source code. You might be able to knock up keywords inside an episode of Doctor Who, but the average plumber isn’t as skilled in HTML as you or I.
Free: yes, it does only cost time, assuming you have the requisite skills. BT offer the service if you don’t.
Free again:”You only have to pay for them to appear on search engines for the keywords you choose.” So, not free then.
Marketing: Webclicks can be used as a standalone product, or in conjunction with any other plan. It depends entirely on the product or service that is on offer.
What: Perhaps you should join BT as part of the market research team. I spite of being a lone ranger web designer, you seem to know more about UK buyer research than a major conglomerate telco of many decades does, in spite of them having scores of staff who do only this.
GUARANTEED PIECE OF CRAP: in lieu of any sensible debate, you resort to playground stile abuse. Ofcom will tell you that the warranty is of legitimate value. BT are regulated by something called compliance that prevents them from saying a great many things. Perhaps you could draw upon it’s wisdom.
THE REAL EXPERT Customer can produce websites on their own, but that won’t suit you either as they will be at best amateurish and at worst, well, I guess you get the picture.
It is my belief that you see WebClicks as a clear and present danger to your business. I also believe that you will have been charging exorbitant prices for your service and are now feeling threatened by a simpler and more cost effective customer solution. Correct me if I am wrong.
hm2k said,
July 14, 2008 @ 9:30 am
Thanks for your kind words, but you totally missed the point. Web Clicks is no threat, if it was, I’d be attacking the platform they use instead wouldn’t I?
I’m just not happy in which they try are trying to trick my clients.
Steve said,
July 19, 2008 @ 8:20 am
To hm2k,
Is BT tricking your clients or simply luring them away with an offer of a much better service? You can’t attack the platform because a world leading authority in web marketing tools (the AeA) has declared it is the number one way in which Americans now find a businesses from which they wish to buy. If you were the concerned and decent consultant you perceive yourself to be you would be recommending BTwebclicks and BTwebclicks Plus to your clients as a cost effective way of generating contacts to their businesses. If you really have a serious problem with the way that BT has marketed Webclicks simply raise a complaint with Ofcom, better still, why don’t you speak to one of many many many many many many many many many BTwebclicks subscribers out there and see if they think they have been tricked or if they are more than happy with the results they’re getting, where else after all, can you buy a customer for your business from just £1?
As a SEO consultant you should have no problem identifying a Btwebclicks subscriber… they’re the ones that appear in a prominent position on the results page!!!!!
Now… who’s trying to trick who here? And no… I’m not missing the point!
Neil said,
August 12, 2008 @ 10:07 am
I signed up to Bt Web Clicks back in March of this year and todate have had ZERO correspondance from BT. I have tried emailing their support@webclicks.com address but it bounces back! I have searched around forums and others to have had this same proble. I have tried their Live Chat system on the BT website but to no avail. I have spent much time on the phone via the 0800 800 152 number being passed from pillar to post but no one seems to know what to do. As I type I am currently on hold (26mins and 7secs!) for the VAS team?
What I would love to know from the Pro comments above (and I am not against this product – I just haven’t had it!) are you BT Web click customers or BT sales people? If you are sales people then I understand your need to defend, if you are customers then I would love to know how this is working for you and if you have had any problems conatcting them or if indeed you have a contact number. I note the mobile number above in the email but feel its a little early in my problem solving to call this one yet (albeit I am in the Chester and North Wales area!)
29 mins and 4 secs now but my call is important to them
Neil
Steve said,
September 9, 2008 @ 6:55 pm
Neil, Did you sign up online or did a sales rep came to you? If the latter, he or she would should have left their contact details, My rep has been great, which is a bit unusual I know! There were a few teething problems at the start (I also started my clicks in March) such as no monthly reports and a bit of a lack of communication from BT directly, but after a few phone calls to the rep that sold me the clicks everything has been running smoothly, I have also since doubled my package of clicks as it works so well for me.
If you can’t find the reps name and number it should be on the order form at the top, failing that, try the email or phone number below, I think they have a dedicated number for webclicks customers now but I don’t have it…sorry.
btwebclicks@bt.com or 0800 833 400 without choosing from the automated options.
Hope that helps
Valerie said,
October 6, 2008 @ 3:11 am
I stumbled on your site from the Open Cart forum. Great site and a wonderful post! Just last week I had a client ask me if her new site was search engine optimized. She wanted to know if I could get them to the top of the Google search results. Um…no. My SEO services? Top notch. They consist of adding some META tags – keywords, description – and a robots file. That’s IT. On a good day, I may even submit the site URL to a few engines. I don’t offer SEO as a service and have never recommended a SEO service to anyone – probably never will. It actually tickled me because the client is a local CHURCH.
I coded my first web page in 1996. I remember going to sites by IP! I say that to say I’m a veteran and I’ve seen all kinds of crazy stuff make money online over the years. I think for the most part, SEO is a bunch of hooey. There are some great pay per click services and I’m sure it makes sense for larger companies but IMHO, and I agree with you – depending on the business/organization, most are better off spending money on strong local marketing and advertising campaigns.
James Kelly said,
October 22, 2008 @ 4:31 pm
BT Webclicks is mis sold. We had a sales agent come and see us, I explained That I used to sell website advertising so I know a little of what I was talking about. I explained my company would be interested if we could track the results independently via google analytics at it tracks where the sources of the clicks to the website are from. at present compared to what bt have told me I have recieved 250ish few clicks to my website. They also tell me that I can get the information from yahoo apparently 99.3% of the clicks they state I have received have come via yahoo. I email yahoo and they state they only way that that could be tracked if I set up yahoo analytics and embedded the relevent code into my website. They also state that they can set it for people who only search from within a 50 mile radius of our business postcode I didnt think this was possible? last but not least I changed the keywords I wanted and they rejected them as they were too specific? surely as its my business I should know which key words and phrases I want as long as they are specific to my business I should be allowed them.
timax said,
October 30, 2008 @ 2:29 pm
I’m just about to cancel my BT webclicks as when I type my own shop name into google it doesn’t come up on any page… at all. That’s how good BT web clicks is. If someone can explain why I should not cancel when my own shop name which is unique world wide can not bring up my BT webclicks website, I might consider staying with them. I’m get a better response from free listings.
Emma said,
November 2, 2008 @ 10:52 pm
I have just set up in Business a small Business, It feels like every Tom ,Scoot and BT click wants to jump on the band wagon and sell you something top of the list! Fortunately I have been saved from subscribing to any of this nonsense! When you’re a small Business and Money is tight you need supporting not ripping off! The costs of these services are at best funny and at worst day light robbery! Money for old rope!
Neil said,
November 5, 2008 @ 9:15 am
A long one this! After my initial post on August 12th I did manage to speak to my Rep but I am still not ’signed up’
I have now ‘blogged’ my events. Sorry for the length but it is cut and pasted below. Hope it helps someone somewhere!
The Paste :
Just for fun, here is a diary of events with BT! I have replaced actual names with an initial to save the blushes of those involved!
12th March 2008
I took a phone call today from a ‘J’ to introduce BT Web Clicks and arrange an appointment with me for next week.
18th March
Met with ‘J’ and agreed to sign up for BT Web Clicks on a ‘3 month trial’ at £1 per click.
17th April
‘J’ called back in to apologise and said that one of the papers signed in March had been completed wrong and could I just resign!
12th August
I phoned ‘J’ to say that I had heard nothing from BT with regard to my account but certainly noticed that no ‘new’ traffic was being directed to my site. He replied that he was actually going to call me the very next day as it happened (what are the chances!) because he had noticed that himself and blamed the fact that they couldn’t extract the key words from my site.
13th August
‘J’ called in quickly before his pending holiday and asked me to re-sign some paperwork and that this time things would get moving! At this time he failed to mention that actually the 3 month trial was now no longer an option or that I should actually be in a different ‘tier’ paying £2 per click. All of which I found out later.
4th September
I received a phone call from a ‘V’ who makes an appointment to see me with regard to my Phone book entry next week.
15th September
Met with ‘V’ as agreed but her starting point of the meeting was to introduce to me Web clicks! When I informed her that ‘J’ had already beaten her to it, but as my THIRD meeting with him was over a month ago and that, as I still hadn’t heard anything from BT I suggested that maybe things were still not in place. It was then at this meeting that ‘V’ kindly informed me that the rate had not only gone up but with it the 3 month trial had been removed!
Upon further investigation at this meeting we actually discovered from my old paperwork, that on the last meeting with ‘J’ he had conveniently ‘slipped in’ Carpenters and Joiners on my category listing which apparently would get around the small matter that I was sold £1 per click!
It was agreed with ‘V’ that if I was indeed to trust BT again and to carry on signing up with BT Web clicks then the very least ‘they’ could do was cancel anything to do with my first order & extend my 3 month trial because after all I was now being asked to pay double the cost!
With that ‘V’ dictated an email to be sent from me to her immediate line Manager ‘S’ and also a copy to web clicks to cancel my ‘first order’. I received an almost immediate reply from ‘S’ (who was aware of the email coming because a phone call had taken place between him and ‘V’ for advice) which kindly said:
Neil
Please accept my apologies for this situation occurring. We have a dedicated account manager to look after your Business and I am unsure as to why’ ‘J’ would have contacted you in the first place. I have raised this issue with his manager. I understand that ‘V’ is coming to see you again on Friday. ‘V’ will confirm that we will offer the three month minimum cancellation contract as previously discussed. Should you place the order I will personally ensure that this managed through and put in place within the agreed timescales. Once again please accept my apologies for this situation occurring and should you have any further issues my contact details are below.
Regards
‘S’
Head of *****, BT Phonebook
Great, I think at least I now have 2 people (‘S’ and ‘V’) who understand my situation and they will personally get things sorted!
The situation with Web clicks itself was a little different. During this meeting with ‘V’ she also phoned up web clicks to advise them of my situation and to discuss the ‘progress’ of my initial order – you know the one from March. Well they informed ‘V’ that the account was actually due to go live that day!! What are the chances! They advised that of course the email should be sent with out delay. No reply came from Web clicks about this at all. Time ran out on the day and we never managed to get the ‘new’ order form (Version 4!) completed so we arranged another meeting for Friday of this same week.
17th September
I received an email today from BT Webclicks with the subject boldly declaring: Activation of your BT Web Clicks order – on Internet Search Engines, with the email basically saying “Thanks for your order…..here are your keywords…..”
I thought at last someone really is making sure this gets done, that is some quick service!
As I had a query with one or two of the key words, I phoned through to the department in question only to find that this was actually nothing to do with my ‘new’ order but was still to do with my initial order!! The lady informed me that actually it was too late to cancel my first order as it had now gone live!! So the phone call on Monday, the email on Monday and the last 6 months delay meant nothing! I pleaded with her some more and assured her that although the ‘new’ form didn’t get signed on Monday it WILL get signed on Friday (along with yet more phone book advertising!) she agreed that she would indeed cancel the order.
19th September
Finally I signed (for the 4th time) my Bt Web clicks order form in my correct category (£2 per click and not the £1 previously sold) and left for the day with assurances from ‘V’ that this would be dealt with straight away!
3rd October
Still no word from BT, which bearing in mind during the ‘sales pitch’ I was advised that I should get a call/email within a week with my keywords and also bearing in mind my lovely email from ‘S’ assuring me he would “personally see it through” I felt obliged to email ‘S’ and ask him for a progress update……No reply!
10th October
Can you believe that today I actually received a telephone call from (we will call this one ‘M’ who called himself the Marketing Specialist for Webclicks (in particular for conservatories). He wanted to talk to me about web clicks. My initial reaction was that he was the one sorting the ‘new’ account out and that finally it was on track. Imagine my surprise when I found out he was simply trying to ‘sell me’ the idea of web clicks again. I remained calm and advised him that I think that BT should spend as much time and money sorting out how to administer Web clicks as they do trying to sell it.
Now, as I still hadn’t had a reply from ‘S’ for my last email 10 days ago, I felt it necessary to email him again. Let’s just say it is no surprise for you to hear that I am still awaiting his reply!
24th October
Today I received a report via email entitled: An Update on Your BT Web Clicks Programme, advising me of how many clicks my keywords have produced. All keywords said Nil? My first reaction was that doesn’t seem very good. My second reaction was, hang on a minute, just which campaign does this relate to as obviously I haven’t had my ‘new’ keywords emailed or any form of confirmation. I emailed the sender to ask.
31st October
I received a call today in response to my email question to inform me that the report is actually in relation to the results for the first order!! I explained the ‘summarised’ version of events to him and he informed me that he would look into it and get straight back!!……
4th November TODAY!
You couldn’t make it up! I am now 252 days (I make that 36 weeks) since my first contact about web clicks and I honestly do not know what I have and who is really interested in helping me sort it out! I have many phone calls a week with regard to SEO and first page placing from other firms and to tell you the truth I beginning to think the whole thing is all
Steve 2 said,
November 5, 2008 @ 11:07 am
MMM Neil looks familiar, I have not been chasing them yet but did sign up months ago, I cant even find the relavant search page to find web click clients, I must be stupid!!! well if the thing doesnt work surley BT will handing back a load of money. No calls or clicks for us yet, a little frustrating especially in the current climate the extra business would be welcome.
Contempt said,
November 11, 2008 @ 7:41 pm
So let me get this straight. They’re selling it under the brand of search engine optimization when indeed it’s Pay Per Click. “To the top of google” is a term related to SEO. I don’t know about you all, but would you buy a computer from best buy when they tell you a laptop is a “cd player with a screen”? A company that doesn’t even know their own industry terms running a multi-thousand campaign per month, sheesh.
So let’s get this straight. I could spend $5K/month getting placed top 3 from a reputable SEO/SEM company for 3 terms that will bring me roughly 3,000-5,000 targetted visitors PER DAY looking for my term; or I could pay BT 90,000/month for the exact same service (assuming $1 per “click” from them).
I’ll stick with the proven method. PS – If anyone here wants to look into BT I’m more than willing to join HM2K – take a crap in a box and sell it to you for xx,xxx/month. I’ll even put a pretty bow on it.
Stupid companies like this devalue the industry.
Someone in the know said,
November 21, 2008 @ 7:13 am
First of all, If you consider how many businesses are now reaping the rewards of a weblicks campaign and how many have posted here…the results really do speak for themselves.
It is not the “inexperienced” BT that format each campaign but a partner company with world leading technology and experience, their technology is in the least 5 years ahead of that in the UK so it makes sense, as poster Steve mentions.
Yes, sometimes there are breakdowns in communication in every business, every day. Some are worse than others, some you will let go by, but because BT is BT your expectations are exceptionally high, and quite rightly so, however, with millions of customers across the globe for many different innovative products there are always going to be a few teething problems when a new product is launched… patience!
I am one of the people out there that genuinely care about my customers, in fact one called a few weeks ago to say they had not heard from BT in 3 months yet money was being taken from his account for his webclicks…turns out he had given us an email address that he hardly ever uses, he quickly found his welcome email and 3 monthly reports… you should also check your junk/spam folder.
From the first post by HM2K, BT Webclicks has now been upgraded to Webclicks Plus… it’s more than sponsored links and SEO, it’s a completely new product to the marketplace which still comes with a money back guarantee, now how many companies out there will give you your money back if your advertising doesn’t work?
BT Webclicks Plus is very soon set to become the UK’s (just as in the USA) leading online marketing tool. Yes… that’s what we should call it, “an online marketing tool”.
wow weee said,
November 21, 2008 @ 6:50 pm
BT will get you contacts from any number of search engines by purchasing sponsored links and building an ad on your behalf. They do not gaurentee positioning as they do not need to, most business will pay £1 for a webhit if they percieve this as good value. Many customers are taking BT up on the offer some choose not to but either way they choose. It does what it says on the tin and BT send an acurate report each month, if you were to purchase 12000 clicks p.a at £1 per click and BT only deliverd 6000 clicks guess what you get 6k back.
You should not be critical of a BT rep delivering a BT product.
James Kelly said,
November 26, 2008 @ 11:55 am
This is the problem BT say it is not pay per click and they cannot independently validate there results and they use clicks that are too vague so it delievers hits to your website but when you check google analytics for example the person has left straight away as the content was not relevent.
They sell it on delievering relevent clicks which is what they dont do.
Dave said,
January 12, 2009 @ 1:46 pm
I agree that it is mis-sold, and the opening spiel is clearly a little tongue in cheek!! They do claim they can do everything, whereas you could do it all for less.
IME google adwords (which is all they are selling you) can be done by yourself as easily, or by someone else for around one third of what BT are offering.
Not a great deal.
I’m currently trying to leave it. Been in for three months, they have not hit the levels I was told, generally not happy. But hey, I can cancel. If only they’d tell me how…. also note to junior1138…. your post made me think. They have guarenteed me a minimum of 80 clicks per month. If they only get 72, I only get 10% of my money back!! Just a thought….
Also, the biggest misselling issue for me is that their advertising is over a wider area than I can generate business. I assume people will only come to my clinic (in my case) if they have to travel less than 30 minutes. 40 tops. Therefore on Google, I draw in an area which I think is reasonable. For BTwebclicks, their minimum area of advertising is 50 miles. This in terms of time takes to to about a 90 minute drive away (at an extreme – although not unreasonable). Therefore they are advertisting to areas which are not productive. And some clicks come from those areas. And they don’t call. As James says – they don’t deliver relevant clicks (well enough)…
Generally not impressed. I do generally like BT, but for me clicks don’t lead to business in a meaningful ratio – I’m looking at 3-5% if I’m lucky (a relatively weak way of winning business – my problem, not theirs); customer service is a struggle; poor value for money in terms of what they offer compared to competitors; and they essentially fudge the figures by generating clicks which are guarenteed (for me) not to turn into business…
Darren White said,
February 17, 2009 @ 6:16 pm
I agree that it is mis-sold. The sales rep stated.
” We are experts in this field and will generate better quality customers to your website so you can expect a real increase in sales volumes – how many orders can you comfortably handle”
Switching to BT saw a fall in sales volumes as the key words were so vague resulting in bounce rates of 95%
I asked for the most tenuous ones to be removed – guess what, they immediately replaced them with another set of tenuous ones. And this is supposedly generated by experts to drive “prime leads”.
Professional online copywriters designed an ad – “”Order …………… components now” Did a professional copywriter really have to be employed to string this sentence together.
We were offered a 3 month trial period after the sales rep realised we would not sign up for a 12K contract. Guess what, BT had no knowledge of this The sales Rep left BT soon after. His sales Manager came in to deal with our concerns and was shocked that we had actually heard of the 3 month period and the other claims the sales Rep made. He was to discuss it with his senior managers and report back a week later. 5 months on and no, nothing has been resolved.
So billing my company at £1000 per month delivering very poor potential customers.
I am a big fan of BT but certainly on this occasion they have fallen very short and all because of one very poor sales rep.
june howley said,
February 18, 2009 @ 3:05 pm
re – BT Webclicks – Can anyone tell me if they had to pay anything for the set-up? I was interested in the BT Customer Street campaign originally and signed up for it paying £299.00 to set it up. However, owing to some confustion on the seller’s part and little communication to rectify this I agreed (somewhat foolishly) to transfer to web clicks. Without going into too much detail, I’m finding the customer service very bad, the website they’ve ‘designed’ is awful and could actually harm my business, and so far in three weeks, not a click to my name. I’m supposed to be paying £40 per month as well. I can’t find any pricing on any of their sites re set-up so if anyone can tell me if they had to pay a set-up fee similar to mine (or not) I would be very grateful.
Brian said,
February 25, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
Just signed up for bt webclicks for 40 contacts a month costing £480+vat the rep told me i would only get 40 contacts a month becouse if i got 60 then that would be in the next price bracket and bt would be giving me more than i paid for BUT bt terms and conditions state that the contacts are for the year not per month so i could get 480 contacts in the first month and none for the rest of the year.
Point 2 £480+vat will get me 40 contacts per month this i take it as it reads i will get 40 contacts per month for my £480+VAT
NOPE bt terms and conditions state i will be charged for each and every contact they bring to me so what is the £480+vat for????? (not the web design its shocking)
I am now in the process of canceling my contract
Brian said,
February 25, 2009 @ 3:29 pm
just another quick point if someone clicks through to my bt site it will count as a contact and if that same person continues and clicks on the call option set up by bt that will be classed as 2 contacts even in the same sitting, so insted of having 40 possable customers i could end up with only 20 but paying for 40
yellow pages are no better………………….Stay away from the Big Boys
Anthony said,
March 3, 2009 @ 10:29 am
I signed up with BT Webclicks in december. We are a self storage company with 4 facilities across the UK. The idea that for £800 per month we could get a guaranteed 4800 clicks over 12 months (400 per month) seemed liuke good business. At the time my Google CPC was about £3-£4. The fact that BT would cost me just £2 sounded like a great saving.
So, i signed up and they began setting up my account. Being a self storage company i predicted that the set up would be painless as we offer a fairly self explanatory service. But, no, BT managed to set up 3 campaigns that for 1 didn’t even use our best performing keywords and 2 get us clicks through avenues that are not relevant. They created a listing for selling boxes, which is only a small proportion of our sales, about 5% a month. Using the boxes category they managed to get me 900 clicks in the first 6 weeks before i became aware that they were incorrectly advertising the company. Needless to say I have altered this and in the month of February I got a rather insignificant 79 clicks. So i spent £800 on february for 79 clicks (£10 per click!).
Needless to say, their guarantee is ovevr the 12 month period so I’m going to have to wait until November before I can get my money back on this. If they maintain this 79 clicks per month they’ll be refunding me over £6000 in failed advertising.
I would agree with other comments here in that you are better off setting up and running your own Adwords account. That way you have control and can improve your positioning as and when you need to by increasing bids. Don’t listen to BT, they’re not going to provide you with the dedication you can provide yourself.
david roycroft said,
March 19, 2009 @ 10:20 am
btwebclicks!!!
joined up for this last November, I feel its a waste of money at £1.00 per click. This does not mean any one has contacted me.
Told by bt we are in a 12 month contract and cannot cancel.
I have told them they will be losing us as a cutomer.
Any advise
thanks
Mike Fordham said,
April 15, 2009 @ 11:58 am
Ignore BT’s sales people when they ask “How many contacts can you deal with in a month?”, all they are selling you are pay-per-click services, and rather half-arsed ones at that. We were severely mis-sold by the agent who came to see us. He painted a rosy picture of GENUINE CONTACTS, not anonymous web clicks, being made available to us. he also failed to point out that refunds for less than your monthly click allowance would be refunded at the end of month 12 of the contract.
BT’s handling of our account, a basic one for £100 per month, was a joke. Had we not flagged with them the fact that our advert appeared on page 5 of Google, not on page 1 AS PROMISED BY THE AGENT, it would have remained where it was.
We cancelled the direct debit and aborted the contract within the 14 day cool-off period. We should have realised after our dire experiences at the hands of BT Business Broadband that this organization are completely incapable of delivering sturdy business solutions other than basic landlines.
Don’t be afraid of cancelling outside the 14 days if BT isn’t delivering the results you want. The negative publicity generated from sueing a customer is not worth their while.
If you want pay-per-click, go to the experts. You may already have heard of them, they’re called Google.
JM said,
April 15, 2009 @ 2:12 pm
I have just cancelled my contract with BTwebclicks with no fuss and no apology.
I signed up in November after a two and half hour meeting with their Sales Rep – I told her this sounds too good to be true………she said….if you can’t trust BT then who can you…..I should have seen the writing on the wall then!!!!!
This service was completely mis-sold with guaranteed sales leads, sponsored listing on Google etc, etc but I got nothing, just a monthly bill.
I fail to understand why anyone is having a problem cancelling. I complained initially by phone, then confirmed this in an e mail and within a matter of days I received the following response;
CANCELLATION CONFIRMATION
Dear Mr Moulton
I am sorry to hear that you wish to cancel the webclicks plus service.
Our compliance team have analysed your email and your issues and have found in favour of yourself over the sales rep – Clare Haines.
I can confirm I have arranged for your webclicks campaign to be cancelled and for any further payments to be stopped. I have also raised credits on your account for billing to refund 4 payments of £**** plus any VAT. If you have any questions regarding the credits please contact billing team directly on 0800 838 738 op1 and they will be happy to help.
Regards
Jacqueline
Jacqueline Brook
New Media Support
BT Directories
btwebclicks@bt.com
I’m still feeling very miffed about this but do not know where to go with it. Keep your suggestions clean & don’t let BT get away with it.
James Kelly said,
April 21, 2009 @ 1:26 pm
Well I went back forth with Bt over the relevence of the keywords etc and to put it bluntly they are useless. In the words of the customer service rep that I got on the phone the words we use are done to deliever the appropriate number of clicks to your website my bounce rate went up to 96%!!! from 55%. I have now after reading the more recent threads cancelled the Direct debit and emailed them just so. As a not the rep who sold the product to me has left again we were promised we could cancel after three months if we felt it wasnt relevant. I just wish I had cancelled sooner..
A Previous BT "Customer" said,
June 16, 2009 @ 5:28 pm
Well well, very interesting reading.
I assume that “Steve” WORKS for BT? Hmm, no surprise if that’s that case.
Let me tell you about the £11k I spent with “BT” (who still insist on sales tactics based around those two household letters “B & T”)
Remember when you were “BT Yellow Pages” Bt Reps??? That’s how you wormed your way into prospect accounts by using YOUR name alongside a much stronger brand name to “get in” until Yell GRoup took you to task about it and much revenue was exchanged!
Anyway I digress… After the 11k spend and yes “ALL THE GUARANTEES” the BT rep could offer me I waited from the response.
I contacted BT “web clicks service” three months later to enquire about my click rates and website views because we had achieved ZERO yes, ZERO, ZIP, NOTHING, NOWT from this 11k investment. (We hire skips and plant by the way so a busy business sector for ANY search engine) We had dedicated e mails and telephone numbers set up throughout the website so were in a position to record data and monitor.
Now, you try getting ho;d of anyone from BT when things get sticky or you have a query! Not a chance! The “stats” they sent over were absolute rubbish in terms of web click through rates and individual views on my website.
So how anyone can endeavour to defend such a ridiculous waste of money is quite frankly beyond a joke.
The internet is now replacing the gap left wide open by failing print media publications notable BT Phone Book, Thomsons and Yellow Pages in certain classifications and everyone and his dog now thinks they’re “Guru’s of the web” when in fact only a handful of companies who do their research, prove the market and invest in their own abilities actually KNOW HOW TO GENERATE LEADS FOR YOU! So, beware because this BT thing is latching onto what seems like a good idea and 11k later was the worst investment I ever undertook. The guy above is right, you CANNOT Guarantee something you have no contol over!! How about if people stopped using the internet to find a skip hire company… WHO could guarantee me that would not happen? Anyone?
Like all things in the new media world – be careful and forget CLICKS” just you take note of how many people cross your palm with money as a result of any investment in media.
Rant over. Thank you.