Greenlight on Pay Per Call

We all have a phone. In fact most of us have a least three – home, work and mobile and we use them every single day of our lives. Pay-per-call, launched in the US just over six months ago, is finally combining the convenience and mass penetration of the phone together with the phenomenal search capabilities of the Internet. What's more is that it is now open to companies that do not have a website and have traditionally only been able to advertise online through services such as Yell and other directory listings.

Pay-per-call works by producing advertisements that are similar to those that appear on search networks such as Google or Yahoo!, however retailers rather than paying when a prospective customer clicks through from an advertisement, pay when they receive a phone call. When the customer clicks on the pay-per-call advertisement he sees a browser window that includes text requesting he phone the retailer on a given number.

Pay per Call (Who are the players?)
Greenlight are currently running Pay per Call ads in the US and UK for clients. In the UK companies that currently have live inventory are MIVA (formerly Espotting/FindWhat), and Callgen.

Recently, Kelkoo have launched Pay per Call across their UK properties, the service is already available on Yahoo Cars and will also be introduced into other e-commerce properties such as shopping and Travel. While, Kelkoo owners Yahoo are using Ingenio to trial Pay Per Call for use on their Pay per Click network Overture.

Google have recently announced that they are beta testing Click to Call, which they are showing intermittently on Google.com within the current adwords listings, the only visible difference being a small telephone icon appearing ot the right of the listing. See attached factsheet for more info and screenshots of Google Click to Call.

Pricing
Pricing is currently sector based, and the minimum call charges on MIVA are 2 pounds per call, while Callgen are 1. Current pricing is working on a model of current average CPC x 10, this however has been capped at 25 pounds as competitive sectors such as Mortgages could have been paying up to 40 pounds per call. Travel campaigns from the outset will be looking at a cost per call of around 5/6 pounds.

More here.

Google tests Pay Per Call

Google is carrying out a pilot in the US of a new search service pay-per-call which sees online advertisers effectively call interested users back, writes Kevin May.

Users will click on an advertiser's sponsored link and then be offered the chance to enter their own telephone number, before the advertiser is contacted and a call made back to the user.

Miva, the online performance marketing company, has a similar service, but questioned what it sees as a potentially lengthy process in order to make contact with the advertiser.

Miva said this week that it welcomed the addition of another new pay-per-call service to the market, as an "awareness raising" exercise for the model for consumers, but it believed the Google system would provide too many barriers to the user.

Seb Bishop, director and chief marketing officer for Miva, said: "The web is all about instant gratification and we question how effectively a call-back-style model meets this demand", Media Week reports.

Yahoo to launch Pay Per Call

The service is already available in Yahoo! Cars and will be introduced into Yahoo!’s other e-commerce properties, Shopping and Travel following an initial introductory period beginning in early August on its shopping comparison portal Kelkoo.

Pay-Per-Call is billed as an alternative to traditional pay-per-click search advertising.

The advertiser is only required to pay for the adverts that result in phone calls, in much the same way pay-per-click advertising only charges for visitors sent to a website.

Users who have selected the retailer and offer, which best fits their needs, will be able to contact the advertiser directly by phone to make a purchase.

The pay-per-call option will facilitate the development of personal customer communications and bespoke customer services through the internet. The service will also introduce additional cross-selling opportunities via telesales. In this way, the Pay-Per-Call model hopes to encourage more advertisers to take advantage of its e-commerce advertising opportunities.

More here.

What is Pay per Call?

Your company is promoted on-line under search terms relevant to your business through search engines and other distribution partners. When a user searches for one of your key-phrases, say "car insurance" they find your ad, in much the same was as Pay Per Click.

When the user clicks on your ad, instead of being redirected to your website, they get a 'Click to Call' pop up box that allows them to enter their telephone number and be directly connected to you.

As you are connected you are notified of the inbound Call and are free to do business with your potential customer.

When the call comes through the Pay Per Call fee is deducted from you account. You only pay for calls generated through the Pay Per Call system.

You will be provided you with detailed monthly reports on how many calls you've received, time of call, telephone number etc. When your account balance runs low you simply top-up your funds again.

Will this be the new Pay Per Click?