Pay-Per-Call’s Role in Improving Marketing ROI

Call-generation company Soleo in conjunction with Street Fight Insights released a white paper today about pay-per-call and how it improves marketing ROI by deploying advertising budgets more effectively. The paper, “Pay-Per-Call’s Role in Improving Marketing ROI” covers insights into creating an effective pay-per-call campaign; sourcing and deploying effective research and analytics; and using data to better manage a campaign once launched, as well as how to evaluate potential solutions providers.

A pay-per-call solution takes a mobile search, analyzes the consumer’s needs, then matches them to the most relevant results. Such a campaign is most effective when it employs a robust taxonomy for filtering calls that improves search. Soleo recommends collecting as much data about advertisers as possible in order to minimize mismatches and provide only the most relevant results to searchers looking for services. An ad for a day spa, for example, could be associated with categories such as European facials, Swedish massage, deep-tissue massage, organic products, laser hair removal, Botox, make-up lessons — the list could go on. It’s like creating a map: The deeper and more detailed the category levels, the better the ad matches.

Soleo warns that getting this wrong could waste company dollars and damage the relationship with the consumer. For example, if a caller searches for auto insurance but is presented with an agency for homeowners insurance or health insurance, it isn’t going to result in a useful connection for the caller and could cost advertisers for a mismatched lead (not to mention a brand hit). Similarly, location data is as important as service descriptions. A search for a plumber in Brooklyn should not return an ad for a plumber in Queens, even if both services list an address of “New York, N.Y.”

The categorization comes in part from the business, but very often gets passed along to Soleo by ad partners.

“The most effective pay-per-call campaigns are those where our ad partners share their category terms and identify what type of ad they’ll be returning for those categories,” says Rob Deming, vice president of product management, Soleo Communications.

With mobile phone penetration pegged to reach 70% this year — with nearly two-fifths of those users on smartphones — pay-per-call demand is poised to increase. Recent research shows that $64.6 billion is spent annually across media on local ads to generate calls to businesses, and call volume through mobile search is projected to explode — from about 30 billion calls per year in 2013 to 73 billion by 2018, according to research from BIA Kelsey. In addition, a September 2013 Google report showed that nearly two out of five consumers say they always or frequently call a business when looking to make a purchase or transaction.

For more insights into insights and strategies into pay-per-call campaigns, download “Pay-Per-Call’s Role in Improving Marketing ROI.”