Local service companies such as attorneys, dentists and credit and debt counseling firms are primed to embrace pay per call advertising platforms next year.
Pay-per-call models in general are poised to experience explosive growth in 2010, according to Telmetrics. If 2009's activity is any guide, it will be local campaigns driving adoption next year - the number of local search pay-per-call advertising programs the company monitors tripled from January 2009 to June 2009, writes MarketingCharts.
This is a sign, the firm said, that the recession is causing advertisers with reduced budgets to better track conversions and pay more attention to how traditional media are delivering results.
In an earlier report, Telmetrics found that attorneys, dentists and credit and debt counseling companies had demonstrated the highest growth of pay per call adoption.
According to Telmetrics the top pay-per call-trends for 2010:
1. Agencies buy ads and bill per call: With a growing variety of media options available, advertisers will continue to challenge agency media plans and demand more pay-for-performance ad models. In 2010, agencies will buy ads via subscription and will bill back to customers on a pay-per-call basis.
2. Online media continue to adopt pay per call: Recognizing that calls are a cross-media metric and a metric that small advertisers quickly understand, digital players will continue to add pay per call to complement existing pay-per-click campaigns.
3. Quality of calls closely evaluated: As pay-per-call moves from infancy to mainstream, advertisers will want a more clear definition of call quality. Publishers and agencies will have to carefully consider what defines a billable call and will evaluate a call duration by media type and category while looking at repeat callers over variable time intervals. Also, there will be a continued emphasis on call recording for assessing leads.
4. No shift to pay-per-conversion: Pay-per-conversion - in which advertisers only pay for advertising if a sale is completed - will not take off this year, Telmetrics said. While calls make it easier to track conversions, the model presents too much risk for publishers and agencies as it relies on advertisers to convert calls to sales after the lead has been delivered.
Vendors Step In
Eyeing this space, vendors are rolling out pay per call ad products. AT&T Interactive has updated its YELLOWPAGES.COM iPhone app called YPmobile. The latest version has new features including Video Profiles and Pay Per Call Ads.
Following a pilot program, ShareASale.com opened its ShareASale Pay-Per-Call Center to its network of 2,500 merchants last month.
RingRevenue provided the platform for the ShareASale Center. It has also partnered with LinkTrust to offer similar services to merchants and other networks.
