Are You Ready for Pay-Per-Call?

[garyp]

What do you think?

Pay-Per-Call Readies Itself for Launch, but Will Advertisers Follow?
Media Post
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsID=263019

Search marketing firm Ingenio Inc. is set to roll out its new pay-per-call platform through distributor FindWhat.com in the coming weeks. Although industry insiders see big potential, many expect a bumpy road along the way.

Pay-per-call looks like an effective tool for local search advertisers, despite the need for awareness of the new platform among distributors. Search marketing firm Ingenio Inc. is one of the first technology enablers of the new platform, which will be launched by distributor FindWhat.com in the coming weeks.
<snip>
Pay-per-call is one possible option for these Web-shy advertisers. With pay-per-call, advertisers only pay publishers when their ad results in a phone call to their businesses. Ingenio measures this by granting each of its advertisers a customized 1-800 number which it tracks to determine the number of calls in order to accurately charge its advertisers.

[bestinrome]

I am always akeptical about new services and in this case I was right. After I have activated my account I had to wait a couple of weeks before my first call: well somebody was trying to buy a Sony digital camcorder, while my AD says that we sell lodging for tourists visiting Rome (Italy). I called FindWhat (they use the Ingenio Technology) and they made a refund. From that moment I received several calls, but NEVER for my products. It was a huge waste of time. After I suspended my account I received other calls (not debited) but customers where frustrated and me too. FindWhat, to be honest, has always made refunds, but there are 3 parts working for nothing. My company, the Customer and FindWhat. I discovered that those 1800 numbers change often so probably an old AD (with an old 1800 number) is related with our real phone number (where the call is diverted). I created a new name for Ingenio: Instupid.

[St0n3y]

Great feedback bestinrome. I had not thought about those potential problems. How many people will record the listed toll free number in the ad and NEVER get the real number? The ad stops running so someone else gets that number and now you have instant mess.

Think about the business(es) who had the number before you. You're getting their calls and they are losing potential repeat business.

[bestinrome]

Exactly! You got the point. In this experience I saw that my websites www.bestinrome.com and www.bestintravels.com received many listings present on search engines because Ingenio. I am working on another theory. Using Pay-Per-Click search engines such as Yahoo and Google is a huge waste of money. I am almost sure to have demonstrated this. I need another couple of weeks of testing.

[ChrisP]

bestinrome:

You ran into dispute resolution, a big problem with pay-per-call that hasn't really been focused on. Nice to hear that FindWhat made good on the refunds.

A company called eStara just announced they can easily provision fully trackable local numbers. (Full disclosure -- they are a client of mine). So you could have had a 336 number rather than 800. Since a 336 is far less likely to be re-used commercially than 800, probably would cut down on the mistaken calls.

Unlike Ingenio, they don't sell directly to the advertiser. They only want to be the technology solution, they don't want/demand to own the bidding engine and the billing relationship with advertisers like you.

If you're interested, they work with a company called Leads.com.

[bestinrome]

Dear Chris, thank you for your help. I will for sure see what they offer. If the telephone number remains fixed it is surely a big improvement.

Thnak you again. Angelo.

[ChrisP]

You bet, Angelo.

I've actually been trying to get SEW to look at the company and help spread the word. What do you think Mr. Moderator, can you help? ;)

[strategicrankings]

I am working on another theory. Using Pay-Per-Click search engines such as Yahoo and Google is a huge waste of money.

Half agree and half disagree.

I have helped many clients getting a lot of business, making a lot of sales just with PPC and some of them have websites that do not yet rank fairly in organic results.

But i do also have clients (and myself) that have not made a half dozen conversion after months of PPC campaigns.

IMO the target industry is among one of the major factors that affect the success of a well thought PPC campaign. Some industries convert well some don't. For example travel related businesses do convert well for a bunch of my clients.

[strategicrankings]

really don't see the relation with this thread.

[MoneyMan]

PPCall is a more direct line to a CPA model than PPC for most SME advertisers. I do believe this pay for performance model will occupy a space amongst the standards, but there are a number of items that will continue to hold up this adoption. Here are two of the biggest IMO:

- Average cost per call vs. average cost per click. Calls are around start from 4-8 dollars while clicks can be a cheap as .10. While there are obvious reasons for the differences, the sticker shock is still tough for many SMEs to swallow. For better or worse, in the SME advertising industry perception is much of reality. The funny thing is if most SMEs ever conducted true analytics tracking on their print YP spend they would see the avg. cost per call is about 30 dollars.

- Significant distribution. The distribution that is currently available is not enough to drive a market. And inventory providers are struggling with switching because the PPC model is very lucrative for most. Citysearch tried to monetize calls a few years ago and did a quick 180 when they started seeing the effect on the bottom line as compared to clicks.

In my mind the previous issue is the largest, because without a significant push by large inventory providers the model will not gain adoption.