Too cheap to trust?

A geotechnical engineer asked for feedback on their Google Ads landing page.

They were offering a report to help people spot ground risks when considering land in the UK. Want to build a kindergarten? Before you buy the land, make sure that it wasn't used as a toxic waste dump during the war.

I'm a former civil engineer with some geotechnical experience, so this caught my eye.

The normal process would start with a Phase 1 desk study. If the desk study found concerns, you'd commission a field investigation. That might lead to expensive remediation works before you could build.

Each step costs money and time.

The engineer had developed an AI-based tool that'd spit out a preliminary risk assessment at the push of a button. It cost about $50.

If it found a problem, you might walk away instead of paying an engineer $1,000 for the Phase 1 desk study.

It's a brilliant idea, but his landing page wasn't convincing.

Imagine you're about to plonk down half a million to buy a building site. Unstable ground, flood risk or contamination could add hundreds of thousands, or more, to the construction cost.

Would a $50 instant AI report reassure you enough to keep going with the purchase process? Or would you wonder if you could trust it?

Our engineer knows what makes the price and speed possible. The person buying the land doesn't.

• Maybe the speed and price come from automating work others do by hand.
• Maybe it's because they specialise in one kind of problem and don't have to start from scratch every time.
• Maybe it's because they're only considering a few high-risk factors.

Whatever it is, they should explain how they can produce a reliable report in an instant for $50. Without an explanation, the speed and low price can make the service seem less trustworthy, especially if the customer is comparing it with a $1,000 desk study.

If my thinking resonates with you, I'd like to give you a copy of my book Profitable Google Ads. You can download it at https://pete-bowen.com/book.

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