It's a referral service, that apparently tries to expand into many trades.
When I used Google Ads and Overture (Yahoo now), that Service Magic was bidding an enormous $3 per click for landscape contracting keywords.
It was apparently to be a bid to intimidate other landscapers from trying to out-bid them.
Other landscapers went no higher than 50 cents per click. And the way the system works, is that the highest bidder pays only 1 cent more than the next highest bidder.
So when someone clicks Service Magic, they only pay 51 cents per click, even if they bid $3 per click, because one cent over the second highest is at 51 cents.
So what one landscaper and I did, for landscaping and tree service, was to raise our bids up to $2.99 per click.
That means that Service Magic will get anihilated with a full $3 per click whammy when they get clicked on, because they can't drop their cost lower. One cent over $2.99 holds them at $3 per click.
On the other hand, the other landscaper and I could fall-back on that the third place bidder was still at about 25 cents per click. So when we got clicked on, our click dropped to one cent over the third place bidder, leaving us with 26 cents.
In essence, what we did was cause Service Magic to incur a 600% increase in advertising costs for sponsored ads dispayed and clicked on.
If multiple professions all do this same second slot increase simultaneously, it can cause an across the board 600% increase to a top bidder utilizing an intimidating bid.
If anyone tries this, you need to monitor weekly to make sure that the slot below you does not raise up much higher to do the same. A safety net is setting a daily expenditure limit.
When I used Overture, it told exactly what the first, second and third place bids were.
Google is a bit different. I think it shows where a certain bid will rank, rather than disclose all bids.
But for anyone using Overture or Google ads, I'd recommend - for your area keywords and trade keywords, consider bumping your bids up much higher if someone is using that trick that Service Magic was using.
