Google Jan. 28 took its AdWords click-to-call ad program
out of beta, offering advertisers a potentially lucrative new way to connect
with their target audiences through high-end smartphones with HTML Web
browsers.
Click-to-call ads let advertisers add local business
numbers alongside their destination URLs in mobile search ads. When users of smartphones,
such as Apple's iPhone or Google's Nexus One, search for a local business from
their mobile phone and stumble upon ads that have these numbers, they may
simply click the number to call the business.
To help better connect searchers with the right business,
click-to-call ads and their corresponding phone numbers are based on users'
locations using Google Maps' My Location feature.
This is vital because it
helps Google weed out local business results where there are multiple locations.
For example, thanks to the cellular triangulation technology used in My Location, a person in
New York City searching for a TGI Friday's restaurant will get a result and ad
from a franchise in New York City instead of in Boston.
Advertisers can gauge the results of their ads by tracking how many
calls they receive. Google explained its rationale for offering such
ads, and
how searches made on mobile devices differ from those on computers, in
a blog
post:
"When
people search for goods or services using their mobile phones, they often
prefer to call a store rather than visit that store's Website. Whether they're
placing a direct order, making a reservation or inquiring about services, the
ability for prospective customers to easily call your business is a key
distinguishing feature of searches made on mobile phones versus computers."
BroadPoint
AmTech analyst Benjamin Schachter said in a research note advertisers pay the
same cost-per-click for a call as they would for a "click-through" to
the destination URL.
Schachter added that a meaningful percentage of
mobile queries are for phone numbers or local information, making a phone
number associated with an ad a highly relevant component on a search engine results
page. Schachter wrote:
"Given
this relevance, we would expect high 'call-through rates' compared
with click-through on a mobile text link (after all, the primary purpose of
phones is to make calls). If widely adopted by advertisers (they can opt out),
this new model could drive increased monetization of mobile searches and
accelerate the timeline for mobile search to make a meaningful financial
contribution for Google."
Indeed, Paul Feng, Google's group product manager for mobile
ads, told Search Engine Land just the "presence
of a local phone number improved the performance of ads" in some of the
early trials. Feng said that some advertisers in Google's beta tests
had seen improved click-through-rates of 30 percent versus comparable ads on
the PC.
One downside is that advertisers may prove to be
unwilling to pay for these phone calls because finding a phone number has been
considered an organic result, Schachter said. Advertisers may prefer not to pay
for any resulting calls by opting out of having the phone number in a sponsored
link.
Nevertheless, click-to-call ads underscore Google's
continued dedication to making money from the mobile Web and it's plausible to
believe Google will offer additional ways to leverage mobile ads, such as through GPS and
other location-based mechanisms, in the future.
Those interested in seeing how click-to-call ads
work should see this video here, along with instructions for how to implement
click-to-call ads.
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