I have talked to hundreds of business owners in my job as an Yellow Page consultant with AT&T and they collectively tell me that they are not getting a good ROI with Pay Per Click. The industry seems poised to change to Pay Per Call which allows the business to only pay for leads that call them not click to their website. Several large accounts just signed up with http://www.MetroPayPerCAll.com and have pulled their Google advertising money. I think this will be the trend along with the decline of the Yellow Pages Industry which is why I am leaving it soon. Any thoughts and additional ideas on alternative marketing methods to Pay Per Click? ET
These are two different adv models. Pay per call is essentially pay per lead (one is phone call and one is form fill) compared to ppclick, which tends to sell more for cps.
For business owners and consumers seeking immediate gratification, paid-search providers bring a new option in advertising – and although the leads are Internet-generated, this one does not even require a Web site! Welcome to the burgeoning business of pay-per-call. Slowly introduced to the mass market within the past three years, pay-per-call functions on the same concept as pay-per-click: advertisers compete for positions and set budgets for participation. However, with pay-per-call, ads are connected to a telephone number rather than a Web site. The listing appears in the search results with only cursory information about the business. Each listing is displayed with a unique toll-free phone number that redirects to the advertiser's actual phone number. The consumer's next step is simple: call the business. When the number is dialed, the pay-per-call provider is notified electronically and receives a portion of the ad's bid amount. Advertisers can track their ad performance through monitoring and reporting data collected by the service provider and alter campaign strategies based on that information. Although its predecessor, pay-per-click, always will be a critical element of the paid-search industry, pay-per-call is a better fit for many entrepreneurs looking for an extra edge in local search. While major search engines have made significant advancements in connecting local consumers to local businesses, it still requires the maintenance of a Web site. Pay-per-click also cannot qualify click-throughs, so many advertisers end up paying big bucks for window-shopping consumers. Conversely, when consumers use a phone number and reach a live voice, the end result often is a sale. Pay-per-call can be especially important for small businesses or start-ups in highly competitive industries and well-saturated markets. For these professionals, service providers and consultants, benefit from Internet marketing only occurs when their limited budgets result in new appointments. Participation for the sake of name recognition and brand awareness often are not part of the strategy. Since the ad is linked to a phone number not a Web site, the pay-per-call model does place specific obligations on the business, namely ensuring a professional voice waits for that consumer at the other end of the phone. Instead of an Internet presence, the call must now be answered by someone with extensive knowledge of the business and solid interpersonal skills. And since these consumers typically do not prefer or trust leaving a message, the phone must be manned at all times or call hours clearly defined in the ad. Clearly, there are unique benefits to pay-per-call campaigns. There are also measurable responsibilities. Businesses are smart to remember participation in any paid-search campaign is best defined by experienced search-engine marketing firms that understand how various options can benefits specific industries.
This is an interesting post but, where are these companies - metropaypercall and upaypercall getting their traffic? The bottom line is that Google, Yahoo and MSN are the only tier 1 search engines and the majority of internet searches are done through those top three search engines. Are they advertising the businesses on those three search engines but, just having the customer pay per call and the company is paying for the traffic? It doesn't sound like it could work that well for those companies.
My thoughts exaclty, I honestly don't know much about metropaypercall or upaypercall, but I would imagine they are going to be running seo and or ppc campaigns to drive relevant searches to listings with tracked pay-per-call phone numbers. Still not a bad business plan and I'm sure they are already signing up customers, but they run the risk of Google deciding to do it themselves and undercut/bypass them. I would like to be able to implement this sort of thing with my bricks and mortar clients that don't 'get' the web and or have older potential client bases, meaning that a large percentage of them prefer to call when they find their website. This makes it hard for me to track the campaigns I'm running for them.
> they collectively tell me that they are not getting a good ROI with Pay Per Click. Having seen many, many campaigns started by clients, I'm not surprised. Most people go into PPC without a clue. Even yesterday with a new client, I couldn't believe what he was thinking and what he had done. I guess by now I shouldn't be surprised but this was, shall we say, unique. Given that, I think many businesses will be just as disappointed with pay-per-call if they do it themselves. I'll find out more about the mentioned companies as I'm sure I'll eventually be asked about this. But Google will probably get into it themselves.