A lucrative bargain for the regional advertisers, Pay Per Call (PPC) offers you advertising through an innovative mix of broadband and voice media. All set to take on the world by the sheer virtue of its concept, major search engine players, including Google, Yahoo, MSN, eBay, Amazon and AOL, have already launched/ announced their own PPC programs, finally bringing it to limelight and awarding it deserving candidature for worldwide recognition. The prominent PPC service provider names in US and UK markets include Greenlight, MIVA, Touch Local, Callgen and Ingenio, among others.
Pay Per Call also functions through advertisements on search engines, just like Pay Per Click, except that Pay Per Call advertisers pay only for inbound calls generated through the keyword-based search listings. PPC service providers may sport minor variations in terms of exact procedure, but the underlying logic and concept remains identical. For example, while MIVA customers have to dial a toll free number to connect, Google offers call-back-style model. Pricing model also varies between companies, as Touch local offers static price for each call and sells number of calls on first come first serve basis, in contrast with the sector-based pricing model followed by others.
To elaborate citing a typical Touch Local scenario, you choose relevant keywords for your ads over the concerned search engine and its distribution partners. As any interested visitor finds and clicks your ad based on matching keyword search, a pop-up box requests the visitor for his/ her phone number and enables him/ her to be directly connected with you. At your end, you receive an incoming call with an introductory message notifying a PPC ad generated telephonic query. As visitor is connected, he/ she is automatically landed to a branded ad page hosted by Touch Local, enlisting your business vitals, including name, address, phone number and a brief description of products and services offered. You balance reduces with respect to the duration of call. At the end of the month, you get helpful detailed reports as regards the number of calls received, time of call, telephone number etc. You simply top up your funds as and when they run low
Pay Per Call is a highly suitable advertising model for small scale local businesses that can do better business by personal contact. The advertising model enables all kinds of local self-employed profiles take advantage of Internet reach in local markets, minus a website. It sounds all the more tempting considering customers prefer telephone queries for local shopping and call when are most likely to buy.
