Friday, September 26, 2008

Kimkins Google Ads

There has been a lot of Kimkins Google Ads the last couple of weeks. Now, I know practically nothing about the cost for Google AdWords but it seems that:

The advertiser pay per click, i.e. every time someone clicks on the ad, the account is charged.

The cost for a click varies. It starts at 1 cent, but can be much higher depending on how popular the AdWord is (the word in a google search that will make your ad show up). The actual cost is determined by bidding.

It looks as if Kimmer is just using "Kimkins" as an Adword and the estimated cost is around 75 cents per click. Estimated number of clicks is 7 - 8 per day. I have no idea if this is per ad or per account. Heidi presently has about 25 different ads showing up. Assuming it is per account, the cost adds up to $4 - 6 per day, or $120 - $180 per month.

The question is why Heidi bothers to spend money on these ads. Kimkins is continuing its demise. I don't see that anything can save this business by now. Surely anybody googling kimkins will see all the negative blogs that show up and not just blindly click on the google ad.

Now, if she used an AdWord like "turbo weight loss" or something similar, she wouldn't need to compete with the anti-kimkins blogs. But I'm sure the bidding on those generic terms make the cost per click very high.

While the AdWord used seems to be only "Kimkins" she is using other terms in the actual ad to catch new customers. For example: "Gastric Band Diet", "Insulin Resistant Diet", "Low Glycemic Index Diet", "Master Cleanse Low Carb", "Low Carb Diabetic Diet", "Postpartum Weight Loss", "Quick diet for new moms", "Gastric Band Alternative", "Fast Detox Weight Loss".

Who would have known that a starvation diet could have so many names?

She is also trying to capitalize on the weight loss "success" stories on Kimkins. Out of the 25 ads, 15 of them are using the name of one or another poster girl. Deb is most popular, but also Pat (or Pattie), Del (or Delaney) and Lynne are featured. We might soon see Jan that Medusa wrote about earlier today.

If it were me, I would be embarrassed to lend my name to Heidi. But it's clear why Heidi doesn't use herself for the ads. Who would sign up for a diet where the founder herself can not lose weight?

1 comment:

Medusa said...

Great post, Mariasol, and thanks for the link ;^)

To think that Kimkins members continue to support Heidi Diaz and her deadly diet after all that has been disclosed about her (i.e. that she's never lost weight on her "diet," that she remains morbidly obese, and that she used fake "after" pictures stolen from Russian bride sites) and the caloric and low-fat starvation levels she's been flogging on her spurious "diet" truly boggles the mind.

I truly hope none of her "poster girls" suffer the terrible health problems that Christin, Deni, and hundreds, if not thousands, of others have, including eating disorders...but I fear they will.