Wondering how pay per call is promoted? Check out these types of promotion being utilized to drive calls.
Search
Search engine marketing is by far the best place to start in pay per call marketing. It’s a scalable traffic source that allows publishers to mitigate risk as they learn the ins and outs of pay per call marketing. Google Adwords and Bing are the most popular search engines to advertiser pay per call. To succeed with pay per call search marketing it’s best to focus on mobile sources and utilize ad extensions that allow users to click directly on the ad to connect to the call center.
Display
Publishers are utilizing networks like Jumptap and Google’s content network to drive mobile click to call users from display ads. Display is a much bigger play, bigger volume and a bigger financial commitment. Many publishers start with mobile search and later graduate to mobile display, since there’s a ton more traffic there. With display campaigns it’s more important to get the granular details of the campaign sources and devices, so it’s more important to use RingPools and deeper tracking integration.
Apps
Got an app? It makes sense to monetize your app with mobile click to call ads. Publishers are using their Apps, or ads within apps, to drive calls. There are a higher number of “butt dials” or unqualified callers, but since pay per call offers convert on a duration it can be quite effective. We can also improve the quality of the calls that actually go through to the advertiser with an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and filter callers based on how qualified they are.
Read More: The Top 5 Techniques to Generate Customers with Mobile Apps
In-Call
Have you ever been on hold? Of course you have. Well, this is another way that publishers are driving traffic to pay per call. You could be on hold waiting for a call center to answer your call and they’ll play an ad – “Do you have more the $10,000 worth of debt? If so, press 1 now to get help and get out of debt!” and pressing 1 takes you off of hold and connects you to the offer. In-call can also be used as a survey or to help monetize a free chat line.
As print newspaper popularity begins to fade the cost of advertising within them begins to go down, making it more viable for pay per call publishers to purchase ad space on print newspapers. Also, since pay per call uses tracking phone numbers, it’s pretty easy to print off a quick flyer with your tracking number. You can then deliver those print flyers via mail, door to door, on windshields in a parking lot, etc. Print advertising is a good option for pay per call and if you can think of a cost effective way to deliver printed ads to a number of potential callers, it could work for pay per call advertising.
Radio/TV
Yes, radio and TV could be potential traffic sources for pay per call advertising. Most typical publishers wouldn’t be able to afford, or have the knowledge, for radio and TV advertising. But, there are some options for publishers to utilize radio and TV ad space to drive calls on a performance basis. There are online radio sources that could be utilized to drive calls, and we can help to generate 800 numbers for tracking and help to create or develop your audio and/or visual ads.
Call Center
Although many advertisers are sensitive to call center traffic and many avoid this traffic source, it is a promotion method that some publishers and advertisers are utilizing effectively. Pay per call ads can be used as an up-sell, in-call on hold ad, or as a lead verification process and hand off to the advertiser. The reason advertisers are cautious with this traffic is because they want to know how their offer is being promoted, they may not want anyone else speaking with their customers and they don’t want their call center to be tied up with unqualified or poor quality callers.
SMS
Some publishers do utilize SMS marketing techniques. Currently we do NOT allow SMS marketing on our network. Many advertisers do not want publishers sending SMS ads to their list of users, especially when those users are not opted-in to receive messages. As regulations change, so may this form of traffic. Another way of promoting through SMS is to send a text message to users through an IVR. These users are more qualified and opted-in to receive a text message, when they indicate by pressing a number on their phone. Any ads delivered directly to a users phone should be pretty effective, but they need to follow the proper rules and regulations.
At this time email is not a big driver of pay per call offers, but it should be! Many users are opening their email on their mobile phone, so a click to call number makes a lot of sense. One issue with pay per call for email is that the call center’s are not always open when the user checks their email, so the number would need to be removed during those times, or the advertiser could call the user back. Email marketers can use phone numbers to increase credibility and help monetize users that won’t fill out forms on a mobile phone.
Read More: Optimizing Email Marketing Campaigns for Mobile
Offline/Other
There are some very unique ways of promoting pay per call offers and publishers have come up with some really unique ways of promoting campaigns. From digital billboards to handing out flyers, there are so many unique and different ways that pay per call tracking phone numbers can be promoted and it’s not possible to name every promotion type available. Use your imagination! 🙂