Yahoo Testing Pay Per Call

[Webvisitor]

Today an Ingenio phone rep. told me Yahoo was testing their service. I called after seeing one of their pay per call ads on a local real estate search. I was not allowed to place a similar ad as they are in the testing phase.
Be ready for a phone listing above every local search in the near future IMO.

Hi all,

We have a pay-per-call system available which we are looking to sell. It is complete with source code. It provides about the same functionality as the other PPC solutions seen on the market and has a strong track record. Using this system you could provide the PPC service to businesses and advertisers.

Send me a PM or an email to follow up.

Best regards,
Michael

[Discovery]

I have been seeing the Pay Per Call ads running on Y! more frequently.
I have tested many call services, Miva, Google, all with lack luster results.

Am I missing something here or why in the world would I want to pay $5-$15 for a call from a poor quality IP connection? In Yahoo's case I can simply put my 800# in the ad without any negative impact on a CTR like Google would have. So what am I paying for here, the ability for my visitors to easily call me?

I clicked on a Y! phone ad and all I got was another page that displayed the ad listing with an 800# to call...no box to initiate the call. So what's the purpose? I still have to pick up my phone and dial. I'm not part of the beta program so I dont know the pricing model, but I'm sure it's more than PPC.

Do you feel that giving the user the ability to simply CLICK to call is going to inspire visitors to respond to these ads? Will they convert better? Will the ROI be greater? Will these calls result in tying up your sales team with unqualified calls? After all the visitor has only read 70 characters or less about what you are offering...

In addition, I hope the beta testers and first users of the phone system don't pay the full rate because every marketer and consumer who sees these ads for the first time will click and perhaps call just to see what the heck it is.

On the positive side if my business requires a phone call to close a deal and I am only charged for valid calls longer than say 30 seconds, this may be a good way to deter click fraud.

In what ways do you see Pay Per Call offering a real advantage over PPC?

I see more value for this as a website feature, not an ad to drive traffic, where you place a bit of code on your website and the visitor can click and contact you via phone via a Skype style service.

Discovery

[Phoneranger]

Sure their test is clunky. It's a test. But their problem is not really technical. Yahoo and Ingenio must find a business model that pays for a large marketing and billing infrastructure. That's why they make callers use a combination of SIP and a PSTN phone and also why they charge SEMs so much. But with Skype and SIP coming, it's going to be trivial for more and more consumers to simply pluck the PSTN number from a webpage, drop it in their softphone and call away...for free. Don't have a SIP phone or Skype-Out? Download a thin client (Estara has one and we're making one) and make a free VoIP call to the merchant's regular phone. With plug-ins like ours, (cis.phoneranger.com) you'll be able to get those Skype and SIP links right in your search results. Making a "free" call directly from search to any merchant with a webpage will be trivial. That will be Yahoo-Ingenio's big challenge.

[Discovery]

I think this comes down to pricing Phoneranger. I believe we're on the same page, but if Yahoo and others are going to charge $5-$15 per call then I would simply not use the pay per call ads but instead put a "quick click to call" feature on my landing page(s).

If the bigs offer the pay per call at a price point that is nearly the same as a PPC ad then it would be a matter of testing to determine which is a more effective method for your target audience.

My main concern with the call feature right in the ad would be that with such limited space to describe your services you would generate a lot of unqualified calls and this wastes your sales reps' time and costs the business money.

Discovery

[Phoneranger]

Discovery

Agree. We pay Google and Yahoo a lot for PPC Ads. Most clicks are duds which I doubt would be converted if they called us. We don't want the hassle especially at $5 per. On the other hand, we have SkypeMe links on our landing page. They work. Skype calls tend to convert and do calls to our PSTN number.

Click-to-call will work best for two audiences: 1) searchers who go to the landing page and learn enough to make an informed C2C seeking more info and 2) lazy searchers (like me) who know some thing about the company and just want a point of contact. Placing those (free) C2C links in organic search as CallinSearch does satisfies those folks.

PPCall is purely a method to utlilize so that the search engines, Online YP's, and others may generate a new source of revenue. At the end of the day they aggregate the consumers and prospects that every merchant and marketer wants to be in front of. So, setting the rules to access these users and monetizing the relationship is just a natural step, especially for a publicly traded company. A great deal of testing will occur and some will move more slowly than others, but ultimately a system will rise which will deliver a fair ROI for all parties. For pure web marketers, who have websites and online marketing skills may resist intially, but the target market for PPCall services is any business who has a phone. Over time, this new breed of online marketer may outnumber online marketers. Therefore, optimized landing pages, interactive ads, and good targeting is what will make this marketplace really work. As far as user experience, click to call, toll free, or local number provisioning is really no concern to the advertiser, they just want a qualified call. PPCall is not about serving a dumb ad and landing page with a trackable number! We have spent a great deal of time building a sophisticated ad targeting and serving system that will optimize performance in the marketplace. I believe that this is where the market needs to focus, distributing PPCall ads in a optimal method across a large network of sites.

In addition, I firmly believe that a few leads need to be driven for free, initially. Thats why we are offering the first three leads for free at thinkingvoice.com.

[Discovery]

I know for sure I have no fear of implementing new technology or methodology. What I fear are poor returns.

My goal is to size up what's going on with the whole IP phone/Click to call marketplace and see where I can make a profit. And I believe we agree, PPcall will find its place and will have a huge impact. However, it's kind of being forced into the ppc scheme of things and to me it's not a clean fit.

This may be a stretch, but it would be like using a "click to blog" with me here link in your ad, or in addition to your organic results.

Hey! this might be a part of the big SERP Sandwhich plot?

Discovery

[AussieWebmaster]

Seems this is being launched a little wider recently....

[AussieInCleveland]

Originally Posted by AussieWebmaster

Seems this is being launched a little wider recently....

I was talking to the Ingenio rep at adTech SF and the rep confirmed that Ingenio is talking to Yahoo. For those here who are curious as to how a PPPC (pay per phone call) model differs from a PPC (pay per click) one, consider a company that has only a call center, with no online buy option. Either the landing page of the PPC ad directs the customer to call or the PPPC ad shows the phone #. Either way a call must be placed.

The question now becomes one of economics as, effectively, the PPPC model places you further down the sales funnel viz:

Search -> Click -> Landing Page -> Call -> Inquire -> Buy (PPC MODEL)
Search -> ..............................-> Call -> Inquire -> Buy (PPPC MODEL)

To my mind, PPPC lands you further down the pipeline thus economics depend on cost-per-lead; phone calls will always be more expensive than clicks.

I will be most interested to see how PPPC pans out...

[Phoneranger]

...why should I pay Yahoo and/or Ingenio for the privelege?

Prediction: By May Day 2006 PPPC will be <.10 per minute. Not too much more than the termination costs. GOOG and YHOO may get paid for directing someone to a landing page with a PPPC link but the call itself will be as economically interesting as an email.

[AussieWebmaster]

The long run of Pay Per Call is IMO for local search. The small plumber who does not have a website or people to man the office can have the calls routed through to his cell phone. The local numbers may get a little competitive but they will find an acceptable level after the initial rush.