AT&T acquired Pay Per Call network, Ingenio. Why does this matter?
Pay Per Call, where the online ad drives the consumer to call the client's toll free number, and requires the client to pay only when the call is sustained for a certain length of time:
1) Gives paid click marketing a run for it's money - often Pay Per Call leads are higher quality and clients like paying only if a call is received
From the article, " A selling point of performance-based models such as pay-per-call is that they generate higher-quality leads and better return on investment because marketers only pay when consumers take an action (beyond just a click)."
2) Yet another way that the "Phonebook" industry, or the old data experts are gaining ground in the internet marketing arena. AT&T likely saw where the Internet Marketing industry was going and decided it was a nice add on to their other growing performance based services, like 1-800-Yellowpages.
If you have not tested Pay Per Call against Paid Search, now is the time to try it. You may not get the volume you get with search but the quality and control of what you pay for is refreshing. Anyone out there tested it against search lately?
See the full article at http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=71295 (you need a MediaPost account to view - www.mediapost.com)
