Pay-Per-Call Advertising: Your Best Source of Qualified Leads

Oleksandr Rohovnin

10 minutes read

It’s no secret that phone calls are powerful: compared to web ads that only convert around 3% of users, phone calls can convert up to 50% of callers. Pay-per-call advertising has a low entry threshold and enables you to predict ROI based on previous campaigns and historical data. 

No less importantly, it benefits every party involved: brokers, affiliate networks, call centres, pay-per-call networks, and end clients themselves. However, this win-win is only achievable if you’ve managed to set up your pay-per-call marketing campaign properly.

Without any further ado, let’s dig into pay-per-call advertising and how to generate and convert more leads who come from your pay-per-call ads.

What Is Pay-Per-Call Advertising?

Pay-per-call advertising is a marketing model in which merchants purchase phone calls from affiliates and publishers directly or – much more often – through a pay-per-call network.

Here’s how pay-per-call advertising works:

The only variable in this equation is a pay-per-call network. However, although pay-per-call affiliate marketing networks charge for their services, the benefits of such partnerships usually outweigh the costs since you get access to a large pool of partners, robust security, pay-per-call tracking software, and impartial dispute resolution if required.

Here’s what pay-per-call marketing comes down to for advertisers and affiliates:

How Pay-Per-Call Advertising Benefits Affiliates

How Pay-Per-Call Advertising Benefits Advertisers

Pro tip: Advertisers and affiliates usually aren’t aware of each other’s customer acquisition costs on a pay-per-call platform, which gives an affiliate network room for manoeuvre. Affiliates can leverage free pay-per-call advertising channels to minimise spending while selling their leads at a high price, whereas advertisers try to minimise the cost per call.

Where Do You Get Leads for Pay-Per-Call Marketing?

The rule of thumb is that marketers who use multiple traffic sources come on top because they can diversify their traffic flows and risks:

• Affiliates can create Google pay-per-call advertising campaigns using email marketing, in-app promos, and other digital marketing strategies that suit a chosen programme. They can even promote the link on social media through techniques such as pay-per-call Facebook ads.
• Advertisers can develop detailed campaign guidelines, including preferred promotional methods and traffic sources. 

Speaking of possible affiliate program limitations, as a publisher, you should carefully review the affiliate agreement to ensure your promotion methods and traffic channels are allowed. Some advertisers may restrict social media traffic (such as TikTok or Facebook pay-per-call ads) or traffic from non-compliant affiliates.

Ready to take your marketing efforts to the next level? Select your subscription plan now, or book a demo to learn more about Phonexa’s inbound call management platform.

Crafting a Pay-Per-Call Advertising Campaign in 5 Steps

Whether you’re an affiliate or advertiser, there’s plenty of work to be done before you can launch a pay-per-call ads campaign. You need to determine your target audience, choose pay-per-call service providers, optimise your traffic, and ensure you can effectively analyse your leads with the tracking software you choose.

Let’s take a look at how you can create a pay-per-call ads campaign in 5 simple steps:

Step 1 – Determine Your Target Audience

You need to be aware of the actual needs of your callers to create engaging advertising for pay-per-call affiliate campaigns. Qualified leads are highly likely to convert, while reaching unqualified and cold leads may take forever.

Start by thoroughly segmenting your customer base into as many categories as possible. Later, adjust campaigns over time to reflect market changes and the insights you gather from your affiliate network or call-tracking software.

Let’s examine a potential real-life example:

Imagine that you are launching a pay-per-call ads campaign for a kitchen renovation business to find out that most callers are simply interested in general information about home improvement. They don’t want to renovate their kitchen, as they are just curious readers.

Situations like this can happen when you miscalculate the demographics or misinterpret client interaction patterns.

To resolve this, reassess your campaign data. You may need to refocus on high-value callers actively searching for kitchen remodelling contractors. Typically, pay-per-call services have tracking tools that help you data in detail to modify future promotional activities. 

Step 2 – Choose the Right Pay-Per-Call Tracking Software

The difference between successful and failed pay-per-call advertising campaigns lies in your ability to track and analyse users’ actions. Use robust tracking software to collect as much data as possible. From the initial ad impression to the end of the call, there is a wealth of actionable data to explore and use to your advantage in your pay-per-call lead generation.

Phonexa offers the exclusive Call Logic product to uncover valuable caller insights: 

Comprehensive call intelligence systems like Call Logic improve the caller’s experience while capturing all relevant data within legal boundaries. You get a fully compliant system that directs callers to the most suitable buyer – whether internal or external – and works coordinates with other marketing channels within Phonexa’s all-in-one performance marketing software suite.

Step 3 – Craft Compelling Pay-Per-Call Ads

When it comes to pay-per-call ads, you’ve got endless options. From Bing and Google pay-per-call ads (AdWords) to social media platforms, a pay-per-call promotion has many ways to connect to potential customers online.

But it’s important to remember that success doesn’t happen overnight. Each success story is the result of careful planning and testing and smooth execution. For instance, what works for B2B might not be the best fit for retail. Viral and fun TikTok posts that work with Zoomers are highly unlikely to show the same results with Gen X or boomers.

Step 4 – Optimise Your Traffic Sources for Conversions

Here’s how you can make them accept the call:

• Make your content easy to follow: Properly structure the content, demonstrating the benefits of your product. Take a closer look at your CTAs; they should seamlessly fit into content while being memorable and highly contextualised.
• Appeal to the caller’s emotions: Any purchase is an emotional decision. So don’t be afraid to explain how the product or service will change the caller’s life. To some extent, you can use tricks like FOMO, loss aversion, and reciprocity to nudge them toward a sale.

Step 5 – Track and Analyse Your Pay-Per-Call Campaigns

Once you’ve launched your pay-per-call lead gen campaign, ensure you have the right tools to analyze it inside out. For instance, you may discover that you need to improve ad channel effectiveness, modify agent responses to eliminate bottlenecks, change call timing, etc.

From the empirical evidence, Wednesday is the most effective day for business calls, while the most productive time for calls is between 16:00 and 17:00. On a similar note, it’s a good strategy to wait a little while before calling again – this gives the customer space to decide if they still want to engage, leading to more thoughtful responses later.

Here are some vital metrics used in pay-per-call advertising:

The great thing about live calls is that you’re always engaging with leads at the height of their interest. With Phonexa, you can also make sure all inbound calls are tracked, recorded, and analyzed deeply so you can get the most value out of every conversation.

Pay-Per-Call Marketing Toolkit To Generate Leads and Sales

Real-Time Bidding Software

As a publisher, your goal with pay-per-call ads is to sell your calls to the most relevant or highest-bidding advertiser. Real-time bidding software simplifies this process.

➥ Real-time bidding software, based on ping tree technology, guides callers to the optimal buyer based on various factors, such as call duration, bid, demographics, etc. As a result, pay-per-call publishers can sell their leads at the highest price.

Real-time bidding is a standout feature for most pay-per-call networks. The distribution process typically takes less than a second, without significantly impacting experience. In the long run, these pay-per-call ads enable the best match for the affiliate, the advertiser, and the caller.

Pay-Per-Call Networks

Pay-per-call networks not only handle call distribution and tracking but also connect you to a network of partners that would otherwise be out of reach for individual advertisers or affiliates. In addition to providing pay-per-call affiliate software, these networks can extend your global reach, save you tons of time, and lower your financial risks.

Here’s how a pay-per-call network works:

Programmatic Advertising

Ever wondered why two people browsing the same website at the same moment from the same location might see completely different pay-per-call ads? This is usually because the website uses programmatic ads.

Here’s how programmatic advertising works:

• Advertisers and affiliates leverage a demand-side platform (DSP) to set targeting criteria, such as demographics, interests, location, and bids. Publishers provide ad space, and when a user matches both parties’ criteria, a real-time auction selects the winning ad, which is displayed instantly to the user.

These split-second auctions ensure fully automated pay-per-call advertising processes and wide-reaching campaign capabilities. For advertisers, programmatic advertising offers transparency on ad performance and placement, enabling precise ROI forecasting.

Interactive Voice Response

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology guides callers through their journey before connecting them to the appropriate sales agent (e.g., press “1” to connect to a sales agent, press “2” for customer support).

While forwarding all paid calls to the sales department may seem intuitive, you may get better results if you decide to pre-qualify callers and redirect some to customer support representatives instead. Pay-per-call networks and providers also use IVR to direct callers to the most suitable advertisers (e.g., press “1” for a nearby shop, press “2” for a global chain).

How To Grow Your Pay-Per-Call Profits

Supercharge Your Pay-Per-Call Advertising Campaigns With Phonexa

Phonexa is one of the few pay-per-call service providers that does it all, from tracking and analysing to automating all processes while synchronising call and web lead acquisitions. Thanks to tools like LMS Sync, Call Logic, and six other performance marketing solutions working in real-time, your web and call marketing campaigns will be fully covered.

The future of pay-per-call advertising and lead acquisition is at your fingertips:

Here are the eight proprietary solutions you get at a single price (online price calculator):

Build your plan now, or take a product tour to see how Phonexa can transform your pay-per-call campaigns.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is pay-per-call marketing?

It is a performance-based advertising model in which advertisers pay affiliates or networks to generate phone calls from potential customers. Affiliates use various predetermined criteria to show pay-per-call ads only to interested users. The advertiser pays only when a call meets predefined conditions.

What is a pay-per-call number?

It’s a unique phone number used in performance-based marketing. In this model, advertisers pay for each call generated by ads. By using unique numbers in pay-per-call ads, merchants can track campaign performance, linking numbers to specific affiliates.

Who are pay-per-call leads?

These are potential customers who call a business after engaging with marketing efforts. These high-intent leads are generated through pay-per-call advertising campaigns and are valuable for businesses that want to connect with customers directly.