Google had three Resellers in India, who closed their operations one after another. Adwords Reseller Program was launched in India, in Nov'2006. CGS Infotech, Next Gen Publishing Ltd. & Infomedia were their three chosen partners to spread the program. CGS opted out of it in 2007, followed by Next Gen Publishing Ltd, and lastly Infomedia too opted out in Dec'2008. Now, India has no authorized adwords resellers, but Google is seeking fresh new partners.
Google generally chooses its partners from Yellow Pages Industry. From this point of view, Next gen and Infomedia were the best fit. Indian Yellow Pages industry is led by Infomedia, followed by many minor players. Adwords Authorized Reseller is the highest kind of affiliation which google offers for the Adwords Program. Benefits they get, include:
- Assistance in Training. They receive direct training from Google Employees.
- Assistance in Sales. They receive Sales Leads & Sales Assistance from Google.
- Assistance in Account Management. Google provides assistance in managing account.
- Revenue Share in Budget Consumption. Google also pays back, the part of consumed budget of the managed accounts.
However, there are some conditions attached to the above privileges:
Above benefits are valid only for New Account Generation. They are not allowed to manage pre existing accounts.
- They have to strictly not approach the Businesses listed in negative list, supposedly on which Google itself is working.
- They have to generate sales within the area for which they have received right to sell.
- They have to charge a minimum of 20% of budgeted amount as management fees.
- All the employees of the reseller associated with the program need to be qualified Google advertising professionals, meeting all the requirements of GAP.
- From some of the sources, it has been learnt, they have relaxed the last condition, and sales people may not be the GAP qualified.
All the above privileges seem too good, if you don't drill down deeper into the conditions imposed. The first condition of new account generation means the person should never have created an adwords account. Many times during sales demonstration and follow ups, people themeselves might create accounts, which won't be treated as a new account. Too harsh on sales people who educates the prospect about adwords and then learns the account cannot be treated as new!
The second condition of negative list by google which consists of premium business establishments is rather ironical. They are not the existing customers of Google, but they may be Resellers customers. Most of the resellers have very long history of customer services and it is easier for them to approach these people than what it is for Google. It becomes too harsh on them when they learn some of the business partners with whom they are having so many business transactions cannot avail their adwords services even if they want to.
Third condition though not as harsh is a bit restrictive, if you have area of operations larger than what you have been assigned. Not a big problem though.
The next condition of imposing mandatory 20% of budgeted amount as minimum management fees, creates panic among resellers. They are very vulnerable to losing these accounts to some agencies which charges less, and even Google which charges nothing. It raises the question, what google wants? Do they want resellers should generate sale and then pass it on to others!
The last condition, though sounds good, means high training cost to be borne by Resellers. It becomes unjustifiable when you learn that the possibility of retaining the customers acquired through so much toil is so bleak, given other conditions.
Google too does not shy away from prompting the big advertisers to skip the management fees by directly availing Google Support services. A too harsh reality, which, also includes the risk of exporting your entire clientele to Google
Recommended:
No comments :
Post a Comment