San Francisco,CA,June 26, 2012–As pay per call becomes a mainstream local mobile advertising model and will be a topic of conversation at BIA/Kelsey’s Mobile Local Media Conference tomorrow in San Francisco, Telmetrics, the leading provider of advertising call measurement solutions, is encouraging advertising providers to use call analytics and pay per call best practices to optimize the number of quality billable calls delivered to advertisers. From filtering increasing telemarketing calls – Telmetrics has seen a 35 percent increase in telemarketer activity in the past year – to factoring in the advertiser’s business model, specific nuances help qualify true quality, billable calls.
“Many advertising providers are leaving money on the table by uniformly defining what qualifies as a billable call across categories and discounting valuable calls by not following pay per call best practices,” said Bill Dinan, president, Telmetrics. “As advertisers recognize the value of calls and are willing to pay for high quality leads, it is critical that providers offer sound pay per call programs that are built on a foundation of trusted quality indicators.”
Following are Telmetrics’ top pay per call recommendations for optimizing quality billable calls:
1) Eliminate telemarketer calls – Telmetrics’ Telemarketer Call Block blocks an average of 22 percent of total calls to advertisers for telemarketing activity and blocks as high as 41 percent of calls in some categories. As these calls can dilute the number of high quality calls and waste administrative time and effort required to negotiate charges when the calls appear on reports and invoices, it is crucial to effectively filter out telemarketing calls before they reach the advertiser.
2) Use category specific benchmarks – One of the biggest mistakes advertising providers make in pay per call is using identical call durations across categories. Call durations are a reliable indicator of call quality, but what call durations indicate a viable lead depends on the type of business, e.g., quality call durations for pizza delivery vs. a dentist are very different. Also, the value of repeat callers varies among different business types. Advertising providers should review the category-specific sales processes to determine call lengths that are lead worthy and get advertiser buy-in to avoid subjectivity around lead quality.
3) Don’t discount basic info calls – Calls for basic information such as directions or store hours are viable leads for advertisers as they represent an opportunity to start a dialogue and encourage consumers to visit the establishment or answer more specific questions about availability or inventory.
4) Recognize existing customers’ new sales opportunity – Calls from existing customers can certainly be high quality calls. They may not have otherwise called the business if they didn’t click on the ad and access the call tracking number. This is an opportunity to make a new sale or suggest an upsell.
5) Consider local IVR drop off rates – While some advertisers use an integrated voice response (IVR) system to avoid telemarketers, an average of 13-16 percent of callers to local businesses drop the call once they hear an automated recording as they don’t generally associate automated recordings with local establishments. As this is not a deterrent for most telemarketers, local advertisers need to weigh the pros and cons of losing these potential leads.
Telmetrics’ call measurement solutions track the lead generation quality of local search advertising and pay per call programs for the leading brands in local search. This includes both publishers and agencies that serve millions of SMBs and national franchise locations across North America and Europe. Using call tracking numbers to measure the ad-driven calls across all media channels reveals what type of caller activity and leads an ad program delivers and can be used to optimize the program for higher quality lead generation.
About Telmetrics, Inc.
For more than 20 years, Telmetrics has been the Call Measurement industry leader. Telmetrics’ call tracking solutions, which are available in North America and across Europe, enable marketers to evaluate consumer phone response to ads by providing valuable ad feedback and consumer call intelligence. With greater visibility into advertising performance across all media channels—digital, mobile, print and more—media publishers, agencies and advertisers can optimize the media mix for higher quality lead generation, resulting in increased revenues and a more complete picture of ROI across converging media. For more information, visit Telmetrics.com.
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