By results we mean actual money in the bank for our clients – Talk Marketing 050 – Kenneth Mackay

Today’s guest was having a very promising career in IT rising to the rank of project and programme manager before starting his business Initiative 2 which has been turning websites into businesses now for 20 years. He has no less than six Google Ad certifications and is a member of Mensa, he always wears a tie and tells me that no one would take him seriously if he were to dress casually, which has me thinking how does this guy dress casually? Today’s guest is Kenneth Mackay.

Martin Henley  24:33  

So question number one, how are you qualified Kenneth McKay to talk to us about Google ads?

Kenneth Mackay  24:41  

Okay, now at this point, you would expect me to tell you I’m wonderful, the best you should you’d be daft not to use me and that’s what I would imagine anybody and everybody in this situation would say. I want to be a wee bit different and I think it’d be more beneficial to your our listeners, if they’re still with us at this stage is to take a step back and ask them, what sort of criteria would you think is important if you are looking to engage somebody to do Google Ads? Typical criteria include her long has somebody been using Google ads? You know, earlier, you mentioned, you know, back in the mid 2000s, you know, Google ads, in some shape or form has been around for a while. So there’s a school of thought, if you’ve been doing it from the start, you’ll be better than somebody who started yesterday. Not necessarily so. Two reasons for that. Firstly, if somebody hasn’t really improved, their game, never was very good, then they’re as bad today as they were 10 years ago. Second thing related to that, is that Google Ads itself has changed so much, that just because you did it very well, 15 years ago, doesn’t mean that you’re up to snuff. So that’s something for somebody to consider. Second thing is qualifications and I know you offer online marketing, training, so you will be with me here, in that there isn’t much in the way of meaningful Google Ads qualifications. 

Kenneth Mackay  26:37  

Google itself, has tests that you can sit, you know, I’ve stopped them, just because I thought we’d better. I’m not convinced that they completely address the, the useful application of Google Ads, it concentrates more on the technical aspects, you know, which buttons to push, which boxes to tick. So that’s the second thing. And the third thing, a good way of getting business is through referrals and recommendation. The challenge there is very often people refer and recommend people before they’ve actually discovered themselves that the people that are referring and recommended, weren’t actually that good. So I’ve got three negatives, there are three realisms. One is just because somebody’s been doing it a while, as I have doesn’t mean they’re any good. The qualifications, rather than a few multiple choice tests, so that you can cheat down if you wish so what? Personal recommendations are a strange one, I mean, we get quite a few referrals and recommendations from people who actually turned us down. They went elsewhere and they then refer us to other people and the conversation goes, we spoke to them, spoke to other people, who seemed much more uplifting, had a much better sales pitch and it didn’t work out well. So go and speak to the bald speccy guy. That’s our thing with consistency, results, and better results, we mean actual money in the bank for our clients, you know, positive returns on their investment, and I stress the word positive, you know, any idiot can spend your money and bankrupt you know, that’s, that’s, that’s a massive effect, but it’s not one that you want. So, you’ve got to be very careful when you are speaking to somebody about Google Ads, or frankly, most, if not all of online marketing. I like to think that we can have a good commercial conversation with with business owners, and business decision makers, we can talk about the things that are relevant to them, as opposed to the shiny new objects that we may be able to offer. It goes with the shirt and tie. It’s a professional, nuanced analysis of what’s possible, relative to what their commercial aspirations are. Ss you mentioned, we’ve been doing this a long time, and people don’t say bad things about Just you know, it’s it’s we’ve we’ve been consistent across across the almost two decades now, which is a scary thought. That’s that’s why I think I’m qualified. We can take the science, we can take the mathematics, we can take the statistics, we can take the technology, and we can apply it in a way that works for the client.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?