PPP (pay per call) Articles by SEO Speedwagon

December 07, 2005

Pay Per Call - eStara, Ingenio

It's been a while since I've written about PPP or PPCall as some of my counterparts like to call it, so I thought I'd drop an update on what’s happenin' on the pay per call front.

*eStara has been making some moves lately with the latest being a Click-To-Call pilot project with sensis.com.au. It's also worth mentioning that eStara seems to be in bed with the Yahoo! UK/Ireland.

*Ingenio was mentioned again today on Search Engine Watch discussing a relationship between InfoSpace and Ingenio where Ingenio will be the Pay-Per-Call provider for the InfoSpace network of sites which consist of DogPile, WebCrawler, WebFetch, Switchboard, and MetaCrawler.

The eStara news is interesting but not nearly as interesting as the InfoSpace deal with Ingenio.

Didn't I just post about InfoSpace doing a pay per call deal with Jambo about a month ago? Is the Jambo deal with InfoSpace dead? Was it ever inked at all? Is InfoSpace using both Jambo and Ingenio to "test" which platform performs better than the other?? I didn't see this one coming at all.

Oh yeah, Google is testing pay per call as well these days! ;^)

More to come soon!!!

Pay Per Call - eStara, Ingenio
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November 11, 2005

Pay Per Call Reminds me of SEO back in the 90s

I remember back in the 1990s when companies all over where throwing around money like it was going out of style. Back then, SEO/SEM was still in its infancy and only a handful of attendees where at Search Engine Strategies conferences. It was in those days that companies where touting themselves as the next IPO winner, offering mad amounts of stock options, and millions upon millions of dollars were being thrown at "eyeballs."

Countless cold calls were made and I found it absolutely amazing how some of those marketers could justify millions of dollars being spent on "eyeballs" and for whatever reason couldn't justify spending a few thousands dollars over the course of a year on targeted search engine traffic. Those of you in sales from back in the day know exactly what I'm talking about here.

Today, SEO/SEM is the hottest thing around and continues to grow in popularity, almost daily it seems. The same marketers who couldn't justify the spend on search marketing back then are now trying to find ways to tap into other department budgets to find more dough to throw at the engines.

Pay Per Phone Call (PPP) reminds me of those days. Right now, a lot of people just don't get it or have a hard time understanding the technology and/or overall value of pay per call. It may be that, like SEO, it will take time for this vertical to mature and for advertisers to grasp and embrace this "new" (to some) marketing avenue before it can really take off. Time will tell.

If you keep asking yourself the question "what's next with search," perhaps you should take a look at pay per call.

Pay Per Call Reminds me of SEO back in the 90s
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November 02, 2005

Even more PPP (Pay Per Call) companies

In previous post a few weeks back, I discussed pay per call service providers Ingenio, eStara, & VoiceStar. Now its time to shed light on a few other players I've come across over the past few weeks.

thinkingVOICE - I first became aware of this company when the CEO, DC Cullinane, commented on my last "pay per call companies" post letting me know they're right up there with the Ingenios and VoiceStars of the world. ThinkingVOICE offers a ppp service called CallActivator that provides live voice call back on demand and can be applied to just about any form of online marketing activity.

CallSource - Founded in 1994, CallSource appears to be one of the older and possibly more seasoned companies in the pay per call market. Headquartered in Southern California, CallSource offers call tracking and reporting technologies along with performance analysis services, call center services, and training programs for increasing employee phone skills.

Jambo - Heres a company that just inked a deal with InfoSpace to be the ppp provider for the InfoSpace network of properties that also includes mobile applications. Jambo, which in swahili means "hello", was founded by the same guy that founded CallSource, John Melideo. Like several other pay per call service providers, Jambo offers ppp service with real time reporting and has offerings for any business with a telephone.

There is a heck of a lot more detail for all three of these companies as well as the previous three companies I discussed a few weeks back. I encourage any and all able marketing professionals to take a look at any of the six pay per call providers I've discussed in my posts. You won't be disappointed.

Even more PPP (Pay Per Call) companies
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October 28, 2005

InfoSpace embraces Pay Per Call Model

Pay Per Phone Call seems to be gaining in popularity these days. First there was Miva & AOL that opted-in to embrace pay per call on search. Then there was the acquisition of Skype by EBay. Now, the latest news on the PPP front is a deal between InfoSpace and Jambo where Jambo will be the PPP provider for search which will also include mobile applications.

It really doesn't surprise me at all that pay per call is gaining traction at a break neck speed. Lets face it, PPC and Natural SEO require advertisers to have a web presence where as pay per phone call is an open advertising platform for any and all businesses regardless of a web presence.

It’s things like pay per call that make this industry (SEO/SEM) so exciting. I am looking forward to seeing ppp continue to grow and can’t help but think to myself “what’s next?�

InfoSpace embraces Pay Per Call Model
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October 05, 2005

Pay Per Call Companies

So who are the players in the pay per phone call (PPP) advertising space? It’s time to spread the word on three major players in this market.

Ingenio - Ingenio has been around since the day the company co-founder, Scott Faber, took a cab ride in New York City and watched the cabbie have an animated cell phone conversation. It was then that Scott had the idea of marrying internet search and direct contact via telephone. Pay per call was conceived and Ingenio was born. Currently, Ingenio has clients such as Miva, AOL, and SmartPages.com using their pay per call services.

VoiceStar – Yet another big player in the pay per call marketplace. VoiceStar, like Ingenio, was founded in 1999. Their main offerings include Interactive Voice Response (IVR) & pay per phone call marketing solutions. VoiceStar’s client base includes business owners, agencies, network owners, and publishers, but doesn’t disclose any specific brands as clients on their website or in any press releases I've read.

eStara – Here’s a company that not only does pay per call, but also offers voice cards, classroom conferencing and many other cool applications. The company was founded in 2000 and has since brought on clients such as Verizon SuperPages, Amazon’s A9, HSBC, Gerber, and many other big brands as well.

I hope to have even more pay per call service providers posted in the future. I’ll keep diggin’ and report back with more ppp companies as they surface.

Pay Per Call Companies
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September 21, 2005

Pay Per Phone Call Advertising

It’s time to dish out some numbers and information about the PPP (Pay Per Phone Call) advertising service.

According to the Kelsey Group, PPP could reach up to $4 billion in 2009. That sure is a lot of bling bling that will make service providers and advertisers alike dance and sing.

Last year, Ingenio reported $70 million in revenue and in some cases, advertisers were paying anywhere from just a few bucks up to $40 per phone call!

As it stands today, PPP pricing can be either a fixed dollar amount rate per call or an auction based system like that found with a traditional AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing PPC campaign. No word yet if PPP companies will choose one model over the other or perhaps leverage both. I personally like the flat rate simply because ROI analysis would be ever so simplified and makes budgeting less of a headache.

The PPP model is an emerging service that will quickly become a primary online marketing tactic. The reason this service is so HOT and will continue to gain market share is because its easier to understand and quantify and isn't limited to certain businesses. As a matter of fact, Pay Per Phone Call can be leveraged by businesses that don't even have a website! One can obviously see the potential advantage with PPP Vs. PPC, but of course, I'm a huge fan of both.

Sorry I don't have more information to share at this time, but I plan on keeping a VERY close eye on pay per phone call advertising and reporting my findings back to the blogosphere as I come across fresh information.

Viva La PPP!!!

Pay Per Phone Call Advertising
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September 14, 2005

Pay-Per-Call Frenzy

It appears the SEO industry is entering a new era of search engine marketing with Pay-Per-Call advertising. Pay Per Call is a performance-based system that charges advertisers on a per-call basis as opposed to Pay Per Click which charges advertisers a per-click fee. This new form of SEM could and most likely will be HUGE!

Several months ago, FindWhat was the first search engine to enter the Pay-Per-Call arena and since then, AOL jumped on board. Both companies currently utilize Ingenio’s ingenious pay-per-call model and it seems to be working well for both the search engines and advertisers.

Other search engines wanting to embrace Pay-Per-Call are Google and MSN. Rumor has it that Google and MSN are gearing up their technologies to add Pay-Per-Call to their arsenal for advertisers, but no beta or launch dates have been published or forecasted.

I don’t understand why one of these engines didn’t just buy Skype while they had the opportunity. By not moving quickly, they have lost acquisition potential for this top-tier Pay-Per-Call service company as eBay recently purchased Skype for $2.6 billion dollars.

I have a feeling eBay is going to take Pay-Per-Call beyond search advertising and create even more performance-based advertising potential in areas we can’t even imagine just yet. Time will tell.

There is no acronym available for this new SEM model, so I think I’ll call it PPP (pay-per-phone-call).

I will follow up on this new advertising platform as time progresses and look forward to seeing this new SEM model flourish in the months and years to come.

Pay-Per-Call Frenzy
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