Pay Per Call The Next ‘Big Idea’ In Online Marketing
Pay per call marketing looks set to become the next “big idea” in online marketing, according to industry experts, with a potentially massive advertiser base of those companies currently without an online presence.
Speaking at yesterday’s Ad:Tech London conference, Stuart Veale of venture capitalist firm Beringea explained that 75% of businesses in Britain are currently without an online presence, and as such are unable to benefit from pay per click advertising models.
Pay per call circumvents this problem by providing internet users with a freephone number, which is paid for by advertisers. However, there are other advantages to the system besides sidestepping the need for a dedicated website.
Assuming advertisers are equipped to answer large call volumes, getting customers on the line can enable salespeople to convert prospects into sales, rather than relying solely on promotional material to convince customers. Having an immediate dialogue with customers also enables easier up-selling of more expensive or profitable products.
In addition, Veale claimed, phone calls are much harder to falsify than clicks. “The latest figures suggest as many as 20% of clicks are fraudulent,” he explained. “I know this is a real problem, from my own company’s bitter experience.”
However, there are unique problems associated with the pay per call model. As Veale told delegates yesterday: “Purchasing online can be slow, but waiting in a queue for a call centre can be infinitely worse. Advertisers must be prepared to deal with their calls.
“Pay per call advertisements are also more costly, so conversion rates are important.”
According to the venture capitalist, the likeliest companies to benefit from pay per call advertising are firms which rely on reservations and bookings, as well as those offering complex or tailor made products such as mortgages. “Customers would rather have a one to one conversation,” he said. “Booking over the phone is a much less infuriating process and customers are much less likely to drop out half way through.”
The future is likely to see a huge uptake in pay per call marketing, although pay per click also has a lot of mileage still left to run, Veale said. “The pay per click model is still in its infancy, there will be a rapid increase in the number of suppliers. It can only be a matter of time before Google and others get involved.”
One of the most exciting prospects for pay per call advertising is the increasingly rapid adoption of Voice over IP technology (VoIP). A convergence of the two technologies would enable potential customers to click on an advertisement and automatically make a call, a practice which has already been dubbed “click to call.”
Competition within the search marketing arena looks set to increase rapidly in coming months, with internet giant MSN announcing their entry into the sector earlier this week. The company’s new adCenter product debuted in Singapore last month, but only went into official use this week, with the company’s French operations the first to see its use, while America will roll out paid-for search results next month (see MSN To Compete With Google In Search Marketing).
Beringea: 020 7845 7820 www.beringea.com