Pay-Per-Call Will Revolutionize Online Advertising
If you're not familiar with Pay-Per-Call (PPCall), it's just like Pay-Per-Click (PPClick), except the advertiser pays when someone calls his business rather than clicks an ad that leads to his web site.
How Call Measurement Works
Here's a brief call measurement primer. The directory publisher provides a unique phone number for an advertiser. This number doesn't appear anywhere outside of the publisher's directory, so calls to this number will accurately measure the directory's effectiveness. Calls to the metered number route through a call measurement service (CMS) that records details such as how many times the phone rang before it was answered, how long the call lasted, and what time the call was placed. The CMS is often able to track the phone number where the call originated, the owner of the phone and the phone's address. Some CMS combine this data with demographic information to provide an insight into the neighborhood.
The caller is unaware that the number is routed or metered.
Simple is Good
The thing that really excites me about PPCall from a business perspective is that people "get it." It's pretty easy to explain the basic concept to an advertiser. The business owners I talk with are comfortable discussing PPCall. Often, when we talk about PPClick, I can tell they become uneasy and zone out. They understand the concept of only paying when someone calls.
Distribution Model
Another compelling aspect of PPCall is that the company selling the service to the advertiser can negotiate distribution deals with multiple online directories, portals, and search engines. The sales agent isn't restricted to monetizing his own traffic. Google has effectively shown that distributing PPClick advertising content can be quite lucrative.
Finally, advertisers profit. The ability to generate measurable leads is an extremely valuable business asset.
This is a win-win for everyone involved.
That's why I think that PPCall will be the biggest thing to hit online advertising since search marketing.
