Just Pick up the Phone!

Every lead for us ends in a phone call. It's always what we're driving towards. We need to speak to our customers. So Pay per Call is by far our most cost effective channel. The quality of these leads is way ahead of Pay per Click.

Pay per Call is an alternative channel that's growing rapidly. The Kelsey Group estimates the Pay per Call market will more than double for the next five years, with revenues topping 3.7 billion by 2010. That makes it a revenue producing opportunity that more and more online publishers are beginning to pay attention to. Ingenio really pioneered the idea of the search based pay per call market, and I had a chance to chat with Chief Marketing Officer Marc Barach on the phone.

"We seamlessly bridge the Internet and the Telephone." Barach says, "And for a lot of businesses, that's a perfect match." The pairing of old and new communication technologies does open four distinct opportunities for both Ingenio and advertisers.

Four Places for Pay per Call:

First of all, businesses that don't have a website. Pay per Call allows them to tap into search as a source of lead generation, yet field the lead in an effective way (conversion rates in some categories are eight times what are typical for Pay per Click ads). And for Ingenio and their competitors, that's a vast market. InfoUSA and the Kelsey Group estimate there's about 350,000 web based businesses, with another 4 million businesses with so called 'brochure-ware' sites. That leaves almost 10 million businesses with no website at all, many of them local businesses.

The second opportunity takes advantage of the nature of longer buying cycle. At certain points in that buying cycle, consumers appreciate different options in contacting vendors. Early in a high consideration purchase, consumers prefer to remain anonymous and quietly kick tires on websites. But at some point, they may search online with the intention of finding a way to contact a vendor, and in that case, a Pay per Call ad provides them with exactly the right message at the right time.

The third opportunity is moving lead generation off the desktop to a phone near you. Pay per Call adapts nicely to 411 directory assistance platforms and mobile use. Other potential expansion markets include pod casts, radio and TV.

The fourth opportunity is the one that John Thys at Radiator.com is taking advantage of. There are certain items or services that are needed suddenly, without advance warning. And by their nature, they require interactive contact with a knowledgeable service representative. This is prime yellow page territory, but increasingly, the bulkiness and geographic limitations of the printed directory are being supplanted by online versions. While Radiator.com acts like the local radiator wholesaler, they do business around the country. Pay per Call is the perfect match.

Calling All Search Engines!

While John still does Pay per Click because of the sheer volume of leads it produces, he loves the effectiveness of Pay per Call. "There's no comparison. Pay per Call's conversions and quality of lead blow Pay per Click away. If I could get Pay per Call leads from where I'm getting Pay per Click ones, I'd be in a much better place."

And that's the current challenge for Ingenio. As Thys says, "It's all about the networks." You need to get these compelling calls to action in front of a critical mass of motivated consumers. Currently, Ingenio's distribution network includes online yellow page directories and AOL. The AOL deal was a major turning point for Pay per Call, especially since AOL carved off the prime real estate of the search results page for Ingenio, right at the top of the listings. But Barach has his sites set on expanding that network substantially over the near future. He won't be alone. Google is quietly testing pay per call as well, and it would make tremendous sense to incorporate it in their local listings.

Pay per call has its feet firmly set in both the new and old worlds of marketing and that makes it very appealing for a large number of consumers and marketers. For consumers, it gives them a quick way to connect with a vendor and start an old fashioned dialogue. And for marketers and sales professionals, it gives them a sense of control. I can't count how many times I've heard the comment from a traditional sales person, "I just want them (the consumer) to call me. Once I get them on the phone, I can sell them." The balance of power on pay per click ads is far too much on the side of the consumer to make these sales professionals feel comfortable. With pay per call, the ball's back in their court.


Gord Hotchkiss
President and CEO
Enquiro Full Service Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Positioning by Searchengineposition
Blog: www.outofmygord.com

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