Did you know Google may have and may be currently writing letters of recommendation for third-party digital marketing agencies? I have confirmed the letter below was uploaded to an agencies web site and the Googler who signed it did actually work at Google between the April 2015 and November 2017. I just do not know if the Googler actually wrote it and signed it or if it was made up.
The letter is written that it comes from Google's stationary and makes the agency look like because of their special partnership with Google, I assume this is the normal Google Partner program, they are an amazing agency and you should hire them.
The letter reads:
Letter of Recommendation from GoogleMy name is REDACTED and I work on the Partner Agency Team at Google. I have been working with REDACTED (REDACTED.com) for a good while now because REDACTED was chosen as one of our VIP Partner Agencies based on client performance and potential. During my time here, I have worked with over 1,000 agencies so my recommendation of them does not come lightly.
We have seen REDACTED steadily set and hit aggressive Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with clients as well as boost performance through disciplined optimization, which is the key to a great agency.
Because of their partnership with us, REDACTED has access to insights and new products before anyone else, allowing them to stay ahead of the curve in digital marketing tactics.
At the end of the day, they do a really good job of understanding your business and using our products to reach your audience at the right time.
I am happy to go into more detail here, just wanted to give you a gist of what Google sees in REDACTED and what our partnership will provide.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions - you can reach me at my email: [email protected].
REDACTED REDACTED [email protected] Agency Business Development Manager Google
Here is the tweet with the letter - so it is on Twitter and public:
Wow I wonder how many agencies have this letter?
— David Mihm (@davidmihm) August 22, 2018
Gotta think that’s pretty compelling to an SMB…kinda surprised that Google would be doing it.https://t.co/a6VU5KybOt pic.twitter.com/q5ITvoFlNz
The agency responded on Twitter with something about privacy, but this letter had to be up on their site and shared with countless people for at least a year.
1/2 We are proud of our strong partnership with Google. This letter is 2 years old. It was written by our former Rep at Google. Every word of it is accurate. We asked permission to use it and later removed it from our site.
— Thrive Agency (@ThriveAgency) August 23, 2018
2/2 Unfortunately, it was not removed from our web server entirely and was indexed. That was our mistake. We have now removed it from our server and due to privacy, we’d appreciate if you’d remove it here as well.
— Thrive Agency (@ThriveAgency) August 23, 2018
Did any of you receive such a letter of recommendation from Google? This is the first I've ever seen of this in all my years covering search.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
