Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Clicks More Valuable Than Calls?

I recently started advertising on Superpages.com and was shocked to find that the company is charging more for its premium pay per click placement than for pay per call. I'm really having trouble understanding under what scenario a network might justify
charging more for a click than a call, and I'm coming up empty.

Superpages wants to charge $2.50 PER CLICK for ads that appear among the first 8 in a category. For the same placement, the company is charging $2 for calls made through a number that Superpages sets up for advertisers.

A call to a company is a commitment of time and shows a much higher level of interest than a click, which is often done to browse the competition and see if there is a match between supplier and consumer. If you are picking up the phone, the odds of making a purchase are a magnitude higher than a click.

$2.50 per click just seems outrageous for a small business to pay. We know what the click through rates are on ads, and the odds that a link to a company's website will lead to a conversion are very slim. Pay per call customers can't put their website link within their ad, but that is not enough of a detriment to push people to pay per click. What am I missing?

Posted By Jason Dowdell at 03:44 PM
Permanent Link: Clicks More Valuable Than Calls? | Comments (1)

(1) Comments on Clicks More Valuable Than Calls?

You are missing the fact that the $2.50 bid per click is only that, a bid. This does not mean you will pay the full max bid of $2.50. The bid algorithm on Superpages.com is set up that soemone willing to pay $2 per call would not rank well against an ad willing to pay $2.50 per click.

Currently URLs are not attached to PFC ads because it would limit the effectiveness and trackability of the ads. If a consumer gets a tracking phone number from a PFC ad, but is then able to go to a website with a different phone number (Business Telephone Number) that could lead to confusion for the consumer and no calls to either the BTN or the tracking number. And a business would not want to publish the tracking number on their website for all to see, since they are charged each time that number is dialed

Also you must remember that Internet Yellow Pages users are searching an Online Yellow Pages, not searching for random topics on Google or Yahoo. Users are searching for specific businesses providing a specific service. Clicks to a business' website ARE quite valuable, and lead to a better conversion rate (online and offline) than many other forms of advertising.

Comments by Robert Kahns : Thursday, April 05, 2007 at 11:44 AM

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