Right now, there are millions of customers looking to speak to a business before buying a product. So they pick up the phone. But how can you get to those buyers? Pay per call advertising.
Pay per call is the bridge between online and offline advertising. Some examples include:
- TV commercials
- Click to call
- Abandoned phone calls
- Warm transfers
Customers may discover an advertiser through a TV commercial or mobile PPC ad. And with the rise of mobile, pay per call advertising is more important than ever.
Mobile users aren’t interested in filling out forms. They’d rather go straight to the source using a ‘click to call’ ad extensions. This is when you’re searching for something and see a ‘call now’ button for the first result. They let users call a business with one click, straight from the search results.
Another popular method uses abandoned phone numbers. Have you ever called a business to find the number was no longer in service? Abandoned phone numbers are everywhere, and a potential opportunity for advertisers.
An advertiser can attach their phone number to that call. The caller would be transferred from any kind of abandoned call to another business. The advertiser gets a warm lead, and the caller gets to talk to an actual business.
Pay per call methods can be valuable to your company’s success. Here’s why pay per call is worth the money:
Leads Are Deeper Into The Sales Funnel
The user searches for a term – say, “Plumber” – because they have an issue they’re looking to solve. Unless they’re really proactive, they already have a need for one. These users are past the awareness and interest stage and are an active prospect. They want someone on the phone, now, to come out, quote a price, and fix the problem.
To put it shortly: calls convert.
It Grabs Attention
Think about the last time you were home sick from work and watching TV. Now, do you remember any commercials for a law firm or medical provider? The commercial may have asked “if you or a family member has ever been in an automobile accident.” People calling these businesses become direct and exclusive calls for the advertisers.
It’s Easily Measurable
With pay per call companies can use a separate phone number for each campaign. This lets the advertiser track metrics and listen to call recordings.
Sometimes, tracking and reporting is provided through the pay per call provider. Some even offer the reporting in real-time. Since all data is stored in the back end, this eliminates the need for a bunch of different phone numbers to track.
From all this data, advertisers can closely analyze all calls. Inferences made from these stats help advertisers improve the campaigns.
Leads Will Be High-Quality
With pay per call, advertisers only pay when the phone rings. And, in most cases, there’s a minimum call duration. For example, only paying for calls longer than one minute. This ensures that each call is a quality call and not a mistake. Call quality is generally higher the longer the minimum duration is.
Some services even allow for a buffer to help qualify the call. For example, a company may have an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. These direct callers to “click 1 for sales, 2 for support,” etc. If the campaign is set up to drive sales, someone clicking ‘2’ is likely a current customer, and thus, not a qualified lead.
You Can Learn From Call Recordings
Listening to call recordings is a great way to learn from your ads. They’ll tell advertisers two key things:
- What’s working? Pull up a call and listen to the transaction. Were you connected with a lead looking for your service or product? If so, pay per call is doing its job. If not, you can figure out what needs to change. For example, maybe you need to switch up what times the ad runs.
- Where do you need to improve? Sure, we all like to believe that every call’s handled with care and dedication. But, sometimes there’s a breakdown in communication between leads and who’s picking up the phone. Take Comcast, for example. A call between an agitated customer and an overzealous employee led to some unsavory press. But, without this recording, Comcast wouldn’t learn the error of their ways, and we would be a tad less amused today.
Listening to campaign recordings will help identify why some leads convert better than others. And they’ll provide insight to close more leads in the future.
It’s Cost Effective
Some people think pay per call is so expensive, it’s just easier to use pay per click. Sure, pay per call campaigns can be expensive, but they’re also effective when optimized.
Pricing varies on the call duration, category, industry, and advertiser competition. One of the most active verticals is “Rehab/Rehabilitation Facilities.” A rehabilitation facility may pay $100 per call. But campaign is very targeted and the caller is already far into the funnel.
It might take 15 calls before they close one deal, resulting in $16,000 in revenue. So, their pay per call ROI may look like this:
$100 per call x 15 leads = $1,500 investment
1 new customer = $16,000
Net: $14,500
While the cost per call might be higher than pay per click advertising, it’s guaranteed. Each lead’s an active prospect, so conversion rates are higher.
The same facility may also use pay per click advertising, paying $1.70 for each click. For every 100 clicks, they might generate one call. To generate the same 15 calls enjoyed with pay per call advertising, they must generate 1,500 clicks.
$1.70 per click x 100 clicks = $170.00
1 lead= $170.00
15 leads x $170.00 = $2,550.00 investment
1 new customer = $16,000
Net: $13,450.00
See? It’s actually cheaper in the long run.
When generating leads, pay per call may not always be able to stand alone. Using it to complement something like pay per click, however, can be just what your advertising needs. But adding it into your advertising mix will bring you high quality leads that are ready to close.
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: Why You Need Pay Per Call In Your Advertising Arsenal
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