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Difference Between Pay-Per-Call and Click-Based Advertising
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At its simplest, PPC uses a click as a billable event – customers click on a link and you get charged when they do – while pay-per-call uses a phone call as the billable event. Otherwise, however the two marketing techniques are very similar. In both cases, a provider charges a company in exchange for every new lead sent towards the business. With pay-per-call, advertisers are only charged when a customer clicks on an ad online and calls the business. With PPC, an advertiser is only charged when someone clicks to the desired website.
Different target audiences
PPC and pay-per-call have different audiences. In general, PPC is often geared towards those who buy online and are comfortable doing business online. With pay-per-call, even customers who want to find local businesses to visit and those customers who need telephone assistance can become paying customers. Many marketers feel that pay-per-call is more flexible, since it can appeal even to those customers who are not completely comfortable with ecommerce. Any customer who feels comfortable talking with a live person by telephone can buy via pay-per-call.
Different conversion rates
Most marketers agree that pay-per-call conversion rates are higher. Part of it may be that there is no risk to anonymously clicking a link online. Anyone can do so – after all, it only takes a fraction of a second. However, customers generally only call a company when they are close to doing business. So, partly it is a chicken-and-egg question – are conversion rates on pay-per-call better because the technology attracts more qualified leads, or does the technology create more qualified leads because customers are talking to sales people and getting a very personalized, targeted marketing message? Whatever the case, most advertisers find that pay-per-call yields more sales. As long as you have a good product and good sales team, you should be able to notice a considerable increase in sales with pay-per-call.
Different focus
With PPC, the focus is your website. With pay-per-call, the focus is your sales team. With PPC, it is your web site that does the selling and you need to make sure that your web site is as convincing as possible. For the estimated 13.8 small businesses who do not have an eCommerce site, pay-per-call may be a better solution, as it allows companies to focus on an existing sales team. You don’t need a web site to take part in pay-per-call – all you need are sales team members to take calls once they start coming in.
Different risks
With PPC, there is always the risk of click fraud, which drives down the value of the marketing and increases advertising costs. With pay-per-call, there is no risk of click fraud. It is easy to track success by glancing at the number of calls coming in. Plus, fewer people are willing to actually call a business in order to defraud them, for some reason. With pay-per-call, companies are often able to report more genuine leads and less fraud. Many providers will even not charge for callbacks, short calls, hang-ups and the like, so that you don't have to pay for someone’s silly joke.
At its simplest, PPC uses a click as a billable event – customers click on a link and you get charged when they do – while pay-per-call uses a phone call as the billable event. Otherwise, however the two marketing techniques are very similar. In both cases, a provider charges a company in exchange for every new lead sent towards the business. With pay-per-call, advertisers are only charged when a customer clicks on an ad online and calls the business. With PPC, an advertiser is only charged when someone clicks to the desired website.
Different target audiences
PPC and pay-per-call have different audiences. In general, PPC is often geared towards those who buy online and are comfortable doing business online. With pay-per-call, even customers who want to find local businesses to visit and those customers who need telephone assistance can become paying customers. Many marketers feel that pay-per-call is more flexible, since it can appeal even to those customers who are not completely comfortable with ecommerce. Any customer who feels comfortable talking with a live person by telephone can buy via pay-per-call.
Different conversion rates
Most marketers agree that pay-per-call conversion rates are higher. Part of it may be that there is no risk to anonymously clicking a link online. Anyone can do so – after all, it only takes a fraction of a second. However, customers generally only call a company when they are close to doing business. So, partly it is a chicken-and-egg question – are conversion rates on pay-per-call better because the technology attracts more qualified leads, or does the technology create more qualified leads because customers are talking to sales people and getting a very personalized, targeted marketing message? Whatever the case, most advertisers find that pay-per-call yields more sales. As long as you have a good product and good sales team, you should be able to notice a considerable increase in sales with pay-per-call.
Different focus
With PPC, the focus is your website. With pay-per-call, the focus is your sales team. With PPC, it is your web site that does the selling and you need to make sure that your web site is as convincing as possible. For the estimated 13.8 small businesses who do not have an eCommerce site, pay-per-call may be a better solution, as it allows companies to focus on an existing sales team. You don’t need a web site to take part in pay-per-call – all you need are sales team members to take calls once they start coming in.
Different risks
With PPC, there is always the risk of click fraud, which drives down the value of the marketing and increases advertising costs. With pay-per-call, there is no risk of click fraud. It is easy to track success by glancing at the number of calls coming in. Plus, fewer people are willing to actually call a business in order to defraud them, for some reason. With pay-per-call, companies are often able to report more genuine leads and less fraud. Many providers will even not charge for callbacks, short calls, hang-ups and the like, so that you don't have to pay for someone’s silly joke. |
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