You may have missed Google’s quiet and brief announcement that starting in April, AdWords ads with phone numbers in the text will be disapproved. Advertisers who want to display phone numbers will have to use the call extensions feature instead. Google states in the announcement, “We are making this change to foster a safer, more consistent user experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.” As others have stated, what this change really does is allow Google to charge for mobile ad engagements as part of its transition to enhanced campaigns. With call extensions, advertise [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Features: General | Google: AdWords | Google: AdWords: Enhanced Campaigns | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Ads: Pay Per Call | Search Marketing: Mobile | Top News

“If we were going to build AdWords today, what would it look like?” That’s the question Google’s Nick Fox, VP of Product Management, and his team began asking last year. The result is AdWords enhanced campaigns, a major update announced today that is designed to simplify campaign management across multiple devices, and to increase adoption rates of mobile advertising among small and medium sized businesses. PPC managers have become accustomed to the time-consuming workarounds needed to target ads by device type and location by cloning campaigns and managing granular settings and bid [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: AdWords: Enhanced Campaigns | Search Ads: General | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Ads: Pay Per Call | Search Marketing: General | Search Marketing: Mobile | Top News

Earlier this summer Google gave an indication this was coming. Now Google is rolling out what it's calling "bid for calls," a pay per call (PPCall) offering on the PC. This is distinct from Click to Call, its successful mobile PPCall product. The program will launch in the US and UK at first and relies on the Call Metrics (Google Voice) infrastructure. AdWords advertisers must use Call Metrics and a Google Voice-generated call tracking number to participate. But rather than just paying $1 per completed call for call tracking, advertisers can now separately bid on calls. In the near f [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Features: General | Google: AdWords | Google: Outside US | Search Ads: Pay Per Call | Top News

Marchex announced this morning that it was buying Jingle Networks, operator of free directory assistance service 800-Free-411, for $62 million in cash and stock. Founded in 2004, Jingle Networks also has a pay-per-call mobile ad network. Jingle's 800-Free-411 competed with GOOG-411, which was closed down last year, and Microsoft's Bing-411, which is still operating. However Jingle was the leader in the "free directory assistance" segment. At one point I called free-DA "local-mobile search for the rest of us." That was before the dramatic growth of smartphones, which have continued to ero [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing 411 | Search Ads: Pay Per Call | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing | SEM Industry: Acquisitions

Local advertising provider Yext has spearheaded the launch of a Google-like "tags" product that receives distribution across a vast array of local sites including Yelp, Yahoo, Mapquest, Superpages, Topix, Patch, Citysearch and others. It's being characterized as an "anti-Google alliance." That's not exactly correct. As a practical matter it gives advertisers a way to run promotions across what is in effect a new local ad network, which in the aggregate constitutes a massive number of search queries and impressions. The program is the brainchild of Howard Lerman, Yext's CEO. In the wake of G [...]

Related Topics: 1 | Channel: SEM | Google: Maps & Local | Groupon | Search Ads: Pay Per Call | Top News

Quick: Are you a digital marketing pro? If so, complete this sentence: In the future, advertisers will combine online media with mobile ads to drive:____________. What did you put in the blank? Let me guess. Branding, combining rich online experiences with mobile mini-experiences? E-commerce, as more people surf the Web using both devices? Coupons and promotions, taking advantage of the new, mobile media? Let me try a radical idea out on you: In the future, advertisers will combine online media with mobile ads to drive... wait for it... Phone calls! Here’s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Local Search | Search Ads: Pay Per Call

Although it's been around for years, pay-per-call advertising may be finally hitting its stride. Greg Sterling, a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land, recently wrote: We've long known that calls are much more valuable than clicks to small businesses in particular, but also to many larger entities with call-center sales operations. However... it's taken PPCall much longer to get going than I originally anticipated. Sterling sees pay-per-call growth in traditional media and mobile. He also notes that pay-per-call programs are now increasingly being used in print Yellow Page dir [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: SEM | Search Ads: Pay Per Call

Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) technology allows advertisers to track the specific search engine, web page or keyword that generated an inbound phone call using tracking numbers. Advertisers are using DNI to measure the performance of their online advertising campaigns and the impact on call volume. At the most basic level, DNI seamlessly replaces select contact phone numbers on a web page with call tracking numbers, which allows advertisers to measure volume. Combined with pay per click programs, DNI can help complete the online advertising performance picture by clearly outlining the results [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: SEM | Search Ads: Pay Per Call

Search Engine Journal alerted us to an apparently renewed test of click-to-call at Google. Google had been testing click to call in 2005 and 2006 with an eye toward implementing pay-per-phone call. Rather than show local or 800 tracking numbers, Google was using a field that remembered users' telephone numbers (once entered) and connected calls. It also had been using the functionality on Google Maps. However, in roughly June or July of last year Google stopped accepting click-to-call advertisers and the ads stopped showing up. Simultaneously, click-to-call or call completion was terminated [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Search Ads: Pay Per Call

Voice services provider CallGenie announced the acquisition of mobile content provider and ad exchange PhoneSpots. The mostly stock transaction was valued at $5.75 million and provides a range of new client relationships and capabilities to Canada-based CallGenie. PhoneSpots has been around since 1999 and pioneered the "send to mobile" feature now in widespread use on local search sites. PhoneSpots originally partnered with European mobile operators to offer enhanced results (additional content and links) from directory assistance queries when users opted to receive them as text messages. Mo [...]

Related Topics: Business Issues: Acquisitions & Investments | Channel: SEM | Search Ads: Pay Per Call | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

AT&T has announced that it acquired pay-per-call (PPCall) vendor and ad network Ingenio for an undisclosed amount. The press release suggests that the company was acquired primarily as a technology platform and perhaps secondarily for its distribution network. That network includes AOL, Microsoft (mobile), Jingle Networks (1-800-Free411), Medio Systems and JumpTap (mobile), Switchboard and go2 (mobile), among a few other sites. Ingenio was founded in 1999 and had revenues in 2006 of approximately $85 million, primarily from its legacy online advice business. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search Ads: Pay Per Call

Marchex announced this afternoon that it has acquired VoiceStar, which provides pay-per-phone-call (PPCall) and call tracking services to a range of companies online and their advertisers. The reported acquisition/investment price is $28 million. VoiceStar is expected to generate $1.5 million for the full year 2007 and double that in 2008. However Marchex sees a much bigger opportunity in integrating VoiceStar's technology and PPCall capabilities into its current advertising and search distribution platforms. I have more detail on my personal blog. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search Ads: Pay Per Call | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing

Pay per phone call (PPCall) probably qualifies as something of a disappointment to date. While there has been adoption by advertisers and some good results, revenues have not kept pace with early expectations (which, admittedly, I helped create). In mobile it's a natural business model and that may be the arena in which PPCall ultimately lives up to its potential. Despite this, PPCall remains a fascinating and promising marriage of performance-based advertising with a traditional medium (the phone). And it can go anywhere a phone number can go. Indeed, Idearc/SuperPages has been using PPCall [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search Ads: Pay Per Call | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing

Pay-per-call provider Ingenio has added white label mobile search vendor Medio Systems to its distribution network. In addition to a range of online destinations, Ingenio is working with a number of mobile search sites and providers: JumpTap, Live.com/MSFT, AOL, go2, UpSnap and 1-800-FREE411. Last week Medio put out this release, claiming the be the leader in North American mobile search. And Medio also just announced the launch of its own mobile ad network. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Ads: Pay Per Call | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

Jingle Networks' free directory assistance (DA) service 1-800-FREE411 is slated this week to launch a new "category search" option, where you call to get matches of businesses in an area that relate to a category of interest (such as movie theaters in Los Angeles, or a dentist in San Francisco). To date Jingle has offered a free, ad-supported alternative to consumer-paid 411 services, which has largely duplicated the "what city, what listing?" model of conventional DA -- albeit with ads. With the addition of category search, callers will now be able search with more flexibility by business ty [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Ads: Pay Per Call | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

To say there's a lot going on with mobile right now is to state something more than obvious. The carriers, the handset makers and the mobile content providers are in what amounts to a frenzy of competition and business development as they try and position themselves for what they see as the next really big opportunity: the mobile Internet. Two articles that simultaneously appeared in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) yesterday capture this mood and activity. The first article, "Companies Vie For Ad Dollars On Mobile Web," was a broad survey of the state of the mobile marketplac [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Ads: Pay Per Call | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Stats: comScore | Yahoo: Mobile & Go | Yahoo: User Interface

AT&T is launching an ad-supported directory assistance (DA) service through the phone number 1-800- YellowPages (1-800-935-5697). Right now it's available in three markets: Bakersfield, CA.; Oklahoma City, OK; and Columbus, Ohio. Described as a "controlled trial," it's not clear yet if the service will roll out nationally. However, I would assume so eventually. It reportedly will support both business-name queries, which currently constitute about 80% of DA call volumes and category search, which is critical for ad-supported models. There are four ad options: The Jingle (1-800-Free411) ins [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Ads: Pay Per Call | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

Ingenio today is announcing a relationship with "white label" mobile search vendor JumpTap: Ingenio Pay Per Call advertisements appear in response to consumer queries on devices that leverage JumpTap’s carrier-branded offering. Leading carriers, including Alltel, use JumpTap’s mobile search solution to drive revenue while providing a comprehensive mobile search experience for consumers. The Pay Per Call advertiser only pays when a consumer initiates a call to the business from their mobile phone, thus providing measurable advertising-driven results. JumpTap's value proposition to mobil [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Ads: Pay Per Call