Ad Operations Online » Pay-per-Call Advertising

Atrinsic Interactive Launches Pay-Per-Call

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:00:42 +0000

Atrinsic’s New Call-Based Service, Powered by RingRevenue, is Focused on Delivering Even Greater Revenue for Publisher and Advertiser Clients

NEW YORK & SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Atrinsic Interactive, a full service agency and affiliate network, announced the launch of a new pay-per-call service powered by performance marketing leader, RingRevenue. The service is designed to drive more phone leads, high ROI and increased revenue for clients.

Atrinsic Interactive, which is a top 10 search marketing agency,* is providing the call-based campaigns as part of its suite of popular and highly effective marketing services which also include search, mobile, display, email and the Atrinsic Affiliate Network.

“With the rapid adoption of mobile, phone calls are becoming a bigger part of our clients’ businesses. To deliver on our goal of providing the highest client ROI, we needed a solution that would enable us to do a lot more than just track calls,” said Aaron Baker, Executive Vice President of Atrinsic Interactive. “RingRevenue’s platform, built for performance marketing, allows us to do just that. In addition to call tracking, it supports a broad base of advertiser and publisher needs, such as pay-per-call campaigns, search features to tie calls to keywords, real-time call analytics, and campaign syndication.”

Designed to drive greater conversions from consumers who prefer to complete their purchase by phone rather than online, the pay-per-call service also enables advertisers to define the filtering criteria for each call campaign. This call quality filtering means that Atrinsic clients only pay for calls that meet their specific criteria and that only the calls most likely to convert are connected to call center agents.

“Atrinsic Interactive is an exciting new partnership for RingRevenue. They are a top ten search agency, a top tier affiliate network, and their clients are among the industry’s most reputable brands,” said RingRevenue CEO Jason Spievak. “We look forward to working closely with the Atrinsic team to generate more qualified phone leads for their clients, as well as high ROI.”

Atrinsic Interactive is exhibiting at Search Marketing Expo East 2011, September 13-15 in New York. Stop by booth number 345 to learn more. To sign up as an advertiser or publisher and begin promoting call-based campaigns, click here: http://atrinsic.ringrevenue.com/signup

About Atrinsic Interactive

Atrinsic Interactive, a division of Atrinsic, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATRN), is a full service agency and affiliate network ranked by Advertising Age as one of the top 10 Search Marketing Agencies for 2010.* Offering clients a cross-platform approach, Atrinsic Interactive is dedicated to delivering customers to its clients in the most cost-efficient manner possible by bridging the gap between search and other online marketing channels. Atrinsic Interactive helps advertisers drive leads, acquire customers and build brands through an integrated suite of customer marketing solutions and technology, including SEM/SEO services, business intelligence, social media, the Atrinsic Affiliate Network, display advertising, email marketing, mobile marketing, creative services, and its proprietary brand protection technology, Brandlock.

About Atrinsic Affiliate Network

The Atrinsic Affiliate Network (AAN) is one of the industry’s most rapidly growing affiliate networks serving top tier clients. The network is dedicated to connecting advertisers with relevant and top-tier publishers and to providing publishers with profitable and effective advertiser relationships. Featuring Atrinsic Interactive’s proprietary brand protection technology (Brandlock), AAN minimizes cross-channel cannibalization from other online marketing channels and includes Atrinsic’s world-class business intelligence platform, designed to drive affiliate distribution and maximize marketing return on investment for clients.

About RingRevenue, Inc.

RingRevenue® improves every marketing campaign with better quality leads, higher conversions and increased ROI. By tapping the power of the phone, RingRevenue’s patent-pending call performance marketing platform captures and converts more high-value customers. RingRevenue’s comprehensive tracking and analytics consistently increase revenues from mobile, print and other “offline” media while also improving the performance of online campaigns such as search, email and display. RingRevenue powers many of the leading performance marketing networks and agencies. To learn more about RingRevenue or to request a demo, please visit ringrevenue.com or call 866-943-6426.

Marchex Expands Digital Call Advertising to Hundreds of Local Properties Through Deal with CityGrid Media

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:54:15 +0000

CityGrid Media’s leading local ad and content network, CityGrid® using Marchex to connect millions of consumers to advertisers through phone calls

SEATTLE – Today, Marchex, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCHX) announced continued momentum for its digital call advertising opportunity through a partnership with CityGrid®, a leading local content network that connects web and mobile publishers with local advertisers. This agreement will increase the breadth of Marchex’s Digital Call Marketplace through CityGrid’s extensive network of local web and mobile publishers, including Citysearch, Urbanspoon, Insider Pages and hundreds of other leading web and mobile properties.

CityGrid Media will place Marchex’s national and local advertisers in relevant call advertising placements across its CityGrid® advertising network – to connect them to consumers through phone calls when these consumers are looking for relevant products or services. Through Marchex’s technology platform, advertisers pay for these live customer connections on a performance pricing model, Pay For Call (PFC), and then utilize call analytics to better understand the value of these calls.

“We’re excited to partner with Marchex and believe there is a great opportunity to create live connections between our local consumers and Marchex’s advertisers,” said Rob Angle, SVP at CityGrid Media. “Marchex’s digital call advertiser base is a great fit for our network and we believe we can show them a lot of value from our network of local publishing partners.”

“We see strong momentum for digital call advertising, among both national and local businesses, and are focused on partnering with mobile and web traffic leaders to continue to increase the breadth of our digital call marketplace,” said Pete Christothoulou, COO at Marchex. “CityGrid® is one of the most valuable and recognized local content networks and represents the type of partner we look for to help us drive live connections, new customers and more sales for our advertisers.”

Marchex has created a technology platform that creates, manages and optimizes digital call advertising campaigns to drive quality inbound phone calls from consumers to businesses. The platform includes many components, such as Pay For Call (PFC), mobile voice search and call analytics technologies.

The Marchex Digital Call Marketplace creates opportunities for live connections between advertisers and potential customers by targeting call-ready consumers through all digital media channels, including mobile, online and VOIP. Advertisers pay for these live connections on a performance basis, Pay For Call (PFC). The Marchex Digital Call Marketplace includes hundreds of thousands of advertisers seeking to drive quality inbound phone calls to their businesses from more than one hundred call media publishers spanning a broad range of media channels.

About CityGrid Media:

CityGrid Media is an online media company that connects web and mobile publishers with local businesses by linking them through CityGrid®, its local content and advertising network. CityGrid Media owns and operates leading local consumer properties including Citysearch, Insider Pages and Urbanspoon.

CityGrid Media is an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI).

About Marchex:

Marchex’s mission is to unlock local commerce globally by helping advertisers reach customers through the phone when they are ready to buy.

Our performance-based call advertising products, Marchex Call Connect and Marchex Call Analytics, are reinventing how businesses acquire and upsell new customers through phone calls. Our award-winning Small Business Solutions products empower businesses to efficiently monitor their online presence, communicate with their customers, and acquire new ones. Every day, our products support hundreds of thousands of advertisers and partners, ranging from global enterprises to local businesses.

For more information about Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX), please visit www.marchex.com.

Marchex Boosts Its Leadership Position in Call Advertising Market Through Acquisition of Mobile Voice Search Leader, Jingle Networks

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 03 May 2011 18:34:14 +0000

Acquisition extends Marchex’s market penetration with additional mobile partnerships where more immediate transactions occur

SEATTLE – Marchex, Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHX) announced the acquisition of Jingle Networks, adding an important and growing source of mobile distribution to its call advertising network. Marchex will pay up to $62.5 million in cash and stock for Jingle Networks, which is one of the leading providers of mobile voice search performance advertising and technology solutions in North America.

Jingle Networks’ core business is providing performance advertising solutions to mobile carriers and mobile network operators so that advertising agencies and businesses can leverage in-call advertising, including pay-for-call, to gain new customers over the phone or through the use of mobile applications. Over the last twelve months, Jingle Networks has added numerous mobile distribution partners and grown its mobile partner call volume by more than 200%.

With the addition of Jingle Networks, the Marchex Call Advertising Network will now have an annualized reach of more than 500 million phone calls across digital media, including mobile. This new call advertising network empowers both large and small businesses to reach customers when they are ready to buy. As the digital advertising market shifts to incorporate phone calls in a more significant way, the Marchex Call Advertising Network is best positioned to provide solutions to advertising agencies and businesses due to its open platform approach using all digital media platforms and supporting all partner types.

“Our product vision is to build the most effective and broadest-reaching call advertising network that connects millions of businesses to hundreds of millions of customers via the phone at the right time in the purchasing process,” said Russell C. Horowitz, CEO and Chairman of the Board at Marchex. “Jingle Networks accelerates our call advertising strategy by adding a key asset in mobile voice search, while also increasing the scale of our call advertising network through their relationships with many of the largest U.S. mobile carriers and leading mobile network providers.”

“Given the unique assets of each company, we believe there are many opportunities to provide further value to our customers and partners with the strengthened call advertising network from Marchex,” said John Roswech, President of Jingle Networks. “We share Marchex’s vision and believe they have the strategy, assets and resources to deliver the most comprehensive call advertising solutions. We are excited to be part of the team.”

Driven by the rapid adoption of mobile and smart phones, mobile carriers and network operators are seeing a significant rise in the number of consumers leveraging voice search to find businesses. Voice search, however, can be costly for mobile carriers and network operators given the technology and other items necessary to operate the service. Through speech-to-text transcription and automation technologies, Jingle Networks’ reduces these costs while also increasing revenue through an ad-supported business model, including pay-for-call.

With the addition of Jingle Networks to its call advertising network, Marchex’s position in the market is as follows:

- Advertisers gain access to digital media across Marchex’s Call Advertising Network from exclusive and preferred relationships with more than one hundred channel sources including: four of the top five U.S. mobile carriers, the leading global VOIP provider (Skype), mobile network operators, and mobile application and directory providers.
- Advertiser breadth continues to grow significantly, spanning national and local advertisers across North America utilizing the Marchex Call Advertising Network to drive qualified calls to their business.
- Call analytics to track and measure the success of call advertising campaigns.
- Call advertising helps businesses acquire and up-sell new customers through phone calls, by reaching customers when they are ready to buy. Marchex provides unique phone numbers and analytics tools that are used by advertisers to place, measure and optimize campaigns across all digital media channels, which helps these businesses increase their sales. Call advertising and analytics technologies are more important than ever to track and measure the success of call advertising campaigns in order to help advertisers better optimize their call advertising strategies to increase impact, maximize spend and deliver better sales results for their business.

“We believe the evolution of the mobile market — the growth of smart phones and other consumer communication technologies such as VOIP — creates significant new growth opportunities in the digital advertising market,” said Pete Christothoulou, COO at Marchex. “While the ‘click’ was the monetization event in the desktop world, we believe that in today’s mobile world the monetization event best suited to connecting advertisers to customers is the call.”

Transaction Details and Financial Considerations:

Consideration:
Under the terms of the agreement, Marchex will pay up to $62.5 million in cash and Marchex common stock plus transaction costs. The consideration is comprised of:

(a) $16.7 million in cash, net of cash acquired, and $8 million of stock (valued based on 15-day trailing average) at closing, and

(b) on each of the 12 and 18 month anniversaries of the closing, Marchex will make payments of between $18 and $18.9 million in cash and/or stock at Marchex’s option.

In addition, following the closing, Marchex anticipates it will issue up to $3.5 million of restricted stock to certain employees of Jingle Networks subject to vesting for up to four years.

Jingle Networks Financial Summary:
Marchex believes Jingle Networks will generate more than $26 million in 2011 revenue, up more than 40% over 2010. For 2011, Marchex estimates $4 million in intercompany eliminations, which would result in more than $22 million in net revenue.

For the remainder of 2011, Marchex expects Jingle Networks to contribute:

- more than $16.2 million to its revenue, net of intercompany eliminations;
- more than $1.2 million in adjusted operating income before amortization;
- this implies more than $1.7 million in adjusted EBITDA based on estimated add-backs of approximately $0.5 million in additional depreciation and amortization to adjusted operating income before amortization.

Marchex Financial Guidance:
Marchex intends to update its 2011 business outlook upon the release of its first quarter earnings results in May 2011.

Call-Driven Revenue:
With the addition of Jingle, Marchex believes call-driven revenues will represent more than 75% of revenues on an annualized basis by the end of 2011.

Christothoulou adds, “Given their performance, we believe that calls represent one of the primary growth opportunities in digital advertising. The reason is that calls are at the end of the advertising and sales funnel, events that are closest to the transaction and most likely will translate into sales.”

About Marchex:

Marchex’s mission is to unlock local commerce globally by helping advertisers reach customers through the phone when they are ready to buy.

Our performance-based call advertising products, the Marchex Call Advertising Network and Marchex Call Analytics, are reinventing how businesses acquire and upsell new customers through phone calls. Our award-winning Small Business Marketing products empower businesses to efficiently monitor their online presence, communicate with their customers, and acquire new ones. Every day, our products support hundreds of thousands of advertisers and partners, ranging from global enterprises to local businesses.

RingRevenue’s Call Performance Marketing Platform Increases Sales for Businesses in the Financial Services Industry

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 07:35:58 +0000

Progrexion Marketing’s pay-per-call affiliate program for Lexington Law seeing 630% growth in new sales and is generating upwards of 300 new calls per day

Santa Barbara, CA – Financial services marketers looking to increase their sales and improve their advertising ROI are turning to call performance marketing, according to RingRevenue, the leading technology provider powering the pay-per-call platforms for nearly all of the leading performance marketing networks including Commission Junction, LinkShare, the Google Affiliate Network, ShareASale and many others. Today the company announced the release of an industry white paper and case study aimed at helping financial services marketers understand how launching call performance marketing and pay-per-call campaigns within the affiliate industry translate directly to incremental sales and improvement in advertising ROI.

The case study reveals how Progrexion Marketing, the leading marketer of trusted credit repair products such as Lexington Law, leverages RingRevenue’s solution to partner with more than 1200 publishers who drive on average around 300-400 incremental calls per day. The success of their pay-per-call programs — managed through the leading performance marketing networks — has exceeded their expectations, with Progrexion seeing 630% growth in sales from their campaigns with an average month-over-month growth of 53%, since launching their program in July of 2010.

Travis Hopkins, Affiliate Manager for Progrexion Marketing had this to say, “The success of our pay-per-call program has been amazing and is continuing to grow. The new publishers that we’ve added to our program are driving a significant volume of high-quality calls that are converting for them 30-40% of the time and are now generating about 400 new clients per month for Lexington Law.”

RingRevenue is delivering similar results to other types of firms in the financial services industry. “In the past year, we have seen a substantial increase in the number and types of financial services firms launching call performance marketing programs. Financial products like home loan and mortgage refinance, credit repair, specialty loans, and the various insurance types such as home, life and auto are complex and consultative sales. Consumers don’t want to make big decisions on these types of purchases without talking with someone, which is why phone number based campaigns are so successful,” said RingRevenue CEO Jason Spievak. “Our platform gives advertisers access to more than 25,000 pay-per-call publishers and the tools they need to manage the quality of calls they receive at a price point they define.”

Key to any pay-per-call campaign is the quality of publishers promoting it. Publishers know that most consumers looking for financial services products don’t convert online. RingRevenue provides publishers with the tools they need to easily access, manage and optimize call-based campaigns. Publishers promoting call-based campaigns benefit from increased commissions and higher conversion rates. Jeremy Siders from Web Ink, one of the publishers in Progrexion’s pay-per-call program, has been very pleased with the results. “With pay-per-call we achieve much higher conversion rates than straight web. We consistently see conversion rates above 30% and with Progrexion’s program paying commissions on calls and on each completed sale we drive, we are able to directly tie a phone call that results in a sale to our own promotional efforts, allowing us to make better decisions and see a greater ROI on our own search marketing spend,” said Siders.

Traditionally, many financial services firms have partnered with performance marketing networks to drive online leads. “Financial Services is one of the top performing verticals that we specialize in,” said Russ Pechman VP Lead Generation at LinkShare. “Fully integrated campaigns that combine online lead generation with the ability to let consumers connect live through a phone call far outperform those that only provide consumers one option. This combination gives advertisers the opportunity to really impact their bottom line revenue with incremental sales.”

Marketers interested in learning more can download the white paper Financial Services Marketers Value Phone Calls: Why the Financial Services Industry is Turning to Call Performance Marketing here.

About RingRevenue

RingRevenue improves every marketing campaign with better quality leads, higher conversions and increased ROI. By tapping the power of the phone, RingRevenue’s patent-pending call performance marketing platform captures and converts more high-value customers.
RingRevenue’s comprehensive tracking and analytics consistently increase revenues from mobile, print and other “offline” media while also improving the performance of online campaigns such as search, email and display. RingRevenue powers many of the leading performance marketing networks and agencies. To learn more about RingRevenue or to request a demo, please visit ringrevenue.com or call 866-943-6426.

Commission Junction Proves There Are Many Ways To Drive Calls And Measure ROI

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:00:46 +0000

CJ PayPerCall Drives Millions in Commissions and Revenue for Advertisers and Publishers.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Commission Junction, a division of ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCLK), has brought online shoppers offers and deals from the internet’s largest retailers for more than 10 years. However, as prevalent as online buying is, most consumers still prefer to buy high-ticket, more consultative products and services offline. According to the August 2009 Harris Interactive Poll, 54% of online consumers want human interaction before making big-ticket purchases. The Commission Junction PayPerCall service is a solution that accommodates this cross channel buying behavior, when a customer browses online or offline but completes the sale over the phone.

PayPerCall provides marketers a simple way to use unique, trackable, phone numbers in all forms of media to attribute calls to various channels such as mobile, television, print, search, display, coupons, email and blogs. Marketers have several tools at their disposal to manage the return on investment of their campaigns such as payout based on time of day, IVR routing, originating phone numbers, and SMS opt-ins.

One of the benefits of PayPerCall is that it gives consumers the option to call for a consultation while giving advertisers an opportunity for an upsell. Given that calls convert on average 20-50% of the time, companies can stop thinking of call centers as being cost centers, but as potential revenue drivers.

“We have found that there is a whole new segment of publishers who are very adept at driving calls. Our PayPerCall program has introduced us to new publishers that we were previously not working with,” said Jarrett Embry, Director of Affiliate Marketing at Gen3. “In fact, about 70% of publishers participating in our PayPerCall program are not duplicative of our affiliate partners. Due to the nature of a call – we have seen significantly higher conversion rates on PayPerCall campaigns than with our online campaigns. Callers are more ready to buy, whereas online shoppers are often just browsing.”

Publishers specializing in mobile and offline are also seeing success with PayPerCall. Mobile Posse is one such company who, through driving high quality calls to advertisers, is earning significant income. “Our mobile campaigns through CJ’s PayPerCall program have been very effective,” said Jon Jackson, CEO for Mobile Posse. “Our engagement rates are consistently in the double digits often averaging well above 15%. Consequently, our conversion rates are very high, which translates to more revenue for our advertising partners.”

“During the past 12 months, CJ has focused heavily on building out a broad publisher base that knows how to drive quality calls for advertisers,” said Kerri Pollard, General Manager of Commission Junction. “We believe PayPerCall has the ability to help marketers drive a significant amount of incremental revenue given the higher conversion rate of calls. We are looking forward to helping our customers earn more by expanding their cross channel marketing initiatives on a performance basis.”

Advertisers looking to convert more consumer calls or publishers wanting to help drive calls, click here to sign up for PayPerCall. For more information, give us a call at 800-761-1072.

About Commission Junction

Commission Junction (www.cj.com) provides advanced performance marketing solutions that help marketers increase online leads and sales. By facilitating strategic relationships between advertisers and publishers, Commission Junction leverages its proven expertise in affiliate marketing to drive measurable results for clients.

About ValueClick, Inc.

ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCLK) is one of the world’s largest online marketing services companies, offering comprehensive and scalable solutions to deliver cost-effective customer acquisition for advertisers and robust revenue streams for publishers. ValueClick’s performance-based solutions allow customers to reach their potential through multiple online marketing channels, including affiliate and search marketing, display advertising, lead generation, ad serving and e-mail technology, and comparison shopping. ValueClick brands include Commission Junction, ValueClick Media, Mediaplex, Smarter.com, Coupon Mountain and Investopedia. For more information, visit www.valueclick.com.

Marchex White Paper Highlights the Importance of Call Tracking and Analytics in Helping Digital Marketers Maximize Search Marketing Efforts

Otilia Otlacan — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:49:42 +0000

SEATTLE – Marchex, Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHX) announced the publication of a new white paper, “The Re-Evolution of the Phone Call: Three Reasons Why Call Tracking Matters to Online Advertisers and Digital Agencies.”

In an advertising landscape where the cost effectiveness of search marketing is being challenged by ever increasing bid prices, and phone calls are emerging as an efficient and potent method of performance-based advertising, this white paper focuses on the following three reasons why call tracking and analytics is such an essential component of a digital marketer’s toolkit:

1. Without call tracking and analytics, it is impossible to manage search bids accurately.

2. Call tracking and analytics transforms an advertiser’s efforts to boost conversion rates.

3. Call tracking and analytics is cost effective and easy to implement.

“Most advertisers and agencies are finding their budgets under greater scrutiny than ever, and regularly dedicate significant resources in an attempt to boost conversion rates even a point or two,” said Leigh McMillan, Senior Vice President of Marchex Call Analytics. “Increasingly, digital marketers are realizing that by adding call tracking and analytics into the mix they are able to capture offline results from online campaigns, helping them understand the full impact of their advertising programs, and ultimately improve their Return-on-Investment.”

The “Re-Evolution of the Phone Call: Three Reasons Why Call Tracking Matters to Online Advertisers and Digital Agencies” whitepaper is available to view and download here.

Marchex, through its Call Analytics product, strives to help businesses achieve the highest ROI for their advertising dollars. Special call-tracking phone numbers and detailed reporting help Marchex’s advertisers easily identify campaign performance, while features such as Call Mining and Keyword-level Tracking provide granular insight into specific call and keyword performance. For more information about Marchex Call Analytics, visit www.marchex.com/callanalytics or call 1.800.914.7872.

About Marchex:

Marchex’s mission is to unlock local commerce globally by helping advertisers reach customers wherever they may be – in mobile, offline and online channels, including on our own local and category websites.

Our performance-based call advertising products, the Marchex Pay-For-Call Exchange and Marchex Call Analytics, are reinventing how businesses acquire new customers through the phone. Our award-winning Small Business Marketing products empower local businesses to efficiently monitor their online presence, communicate with their customers, and acquire new ones. Every day, our products support tens of thousands of advertisers and partners, ranging from global enterprises to local businesses.

For more information about Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX), please visit www.marchex.com.

Marchex Call Analytics Launches Keyword-Level Tracking; Enables Marketers to Capture Calls Tied to Search Terms

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:25:51 +0000

SEATTLE – Marchex Inc., (NASDAQ:MCHX) announced the introduction of keyword-level tracking to its Call Analytics product. Marchex’s proprietary technology enables search marketers and agencies to accurately track calls down to a specific keyword without using a unique call tracking line for every search term. The benefits to search marketers include:

- eliminating search terms that don’t ultimately generate phone calls;
- increasing focus, and bid strategies, on search terms that do drive calls; and
- lowering costs given the solution does not require a one-to-one relationship between search terms and dedicated call tracking numbers.

“Search is a very effective channel for generating calls to our clients, but to optimize the campaigns and capture the full Return-on-Investment, we need visibility into the keywords that are driving calls,” said Joe Soltis VP of Paid Search and Email Marketing for Fathom SEO. “Marchex’s solution gives the detail and accuracy we need without the cost and management headache of having a call tracking number assigned to every keyword.”

“Before today, search marketers had to use a unique tracking number for each keyword or settle for potentially inaccurate data to get a sense of which keywords were most effective at driving quality calls,” said Leigh McMillan, Senior Vice-President of Marchex Call Analytics. “Now they have an affordable product that brings both precision and scalability to campaigns that may have thousands of keywords.”

Keyword-level Tracking, which is available immediately, is the latest in a series of new innovations for Marchex Call Analytics, which includes the recently launched Clean Call, a telemarketing spam call blocker and Call Mining, a speech analytics technology that enables advertisers to analyze and discover new ways to optimize their cross-channel marketing spend, based on actual customer conversations. For more information on all of Marchex’s Call Tracking and Analytics products, please click here or call 1-800-914-7872.

About Marchex:

For more information about Marchex (NASDAQ:MCHX), please visit www.marchex.com.

Yield Software and Marchex Announce Integration for Search Engine Marketers

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 06:15:47 +0000

Yield Web Marketing Suite and Marchex Call Analytics Enable Advertisers to Optimize for Telephone Conversions

SAN MATEO, Calif. – Yield Software, a leading provider of next-generation online marketing technology, announced that it has integrated its flagship Yield Web Marketing Suite for Advertisers and for Agencies with Marchex Call Analytics (NASDAQ:MCHX). Advertisers and digital media agencies can now track and optimize sales and conversions from search engine pay-per-click (PPC) ads that result in a telephone call as opposed to an online transaction.

“For many online advertisers, a call to a telephone number is the conversion event inspired by their search engine ad,” said Matt Malden, founder and CEO of Yield Software. “By integrating with Marchex, the leader in call analytics, advertisers or their agencies managing campaigns in the Yield Web Marketing Suite are now able to effectively track and evaluate the efficacy of their PPC ads with a call conversion event.”

Advertisers increasingly find search engine marketing is effective at identifying and targeting users at the peak of their product interest. In many product and service categories, and for most businesses, a phone call is the best way to answer questions or complete transactions.

While PPC advertising has been historically associated with the ability to effectively track ROI on campaigns, those who’ve relied on telephone calls as the conversion event have often been frustrated at the inability to attribute those calls to the advertising source. The Yield Software–Marchex integration eliminates this ROI tracking gap for online advertising.

“As specialists in search and directional marketing for small and mid-size businesses, a disproportionate number of our clients rely on calls as their conversion event for PPC advertising,” said Michael Cody, Vice President of Directory Assistants Inc., a Yield Software client using the Yield Web Marketing Suite for Agencies. “Now we’re able to effectively manage PPC campaigns across Google, Yahoo! and Bing search engines on behalf of our clients while accurately attributing each conversion – no matter how those might occur – to the right campaign source.”

Using built-in reporting tools and analyses in the Yield Web Marketing Suite, both advertisers and agencies now have greater visibility into the impact of their marketing initiatives and can ensure they effectively leverage search engine marketing as a key component of their marketing mix.

The integration is available as part of the Yield Web Marketing Suite for Advertisers and the Yield Web Marketing Suite for Agencies. For more information, email sales@yieldsoftware.com.

About Yield Software

Yield Software (www.yieldsoftware.com) delivers next-generation online marketing technology. Its flagship product, the Yield Web Marketing Suite, is a fully automated, totally integrated search marketing system that optimizes paid search, natural search rankings and landing pages.

Click and Call Advertising with Skype Supported by Marchex Now Available

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:15:40 +0000

Skype and Marchex Work Together to Help Advertisers Acquire Customers Through Skype Calls

LUXEMBOURG & SEATTLE – Skype announced it has expanded its pay-for-call offerings for advertisers. Click & Call Advertising with Skype supported by Marchex, is an advertising program which provides an efficient and measureable way to acquire new customers by using Skype to drive inbound calls. Skype is launching this offering for the first time in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe through a partnership with Marchex Inc. (NASDAQ:MCHX), a leading call advertising company, which will help manage, operate and sell Click & Call Advertising with Skype.

Today, millions of business phone numbers are listed throughout the Web, including within websites or blogs, directory listings, search results and online banner ads. Participating advertisers can have their phone numbers highlighted with a blue “Free Call” button anywhere online their numbers are displayed. When the button is clicked, the Skype software launches and the call is connected – at no cost to the caller.

Advertisers pay for qualified inbound calls via Skype on a pay-for-call basis. Call volumes are tracked by Marchex so advertisers can monitor the results of their campaign and also view detailed call analytics. Click & Call Advertising with Skype supported by Marchex relies on a user having Skype software installed on their PC and Skype’s browser plug-in which is downloaded automatically in Skype for Windows 4.0 or later. Click & Call Advertising is currently not available on Mac or mobile versions of Skype software.

“Working together with Marchex, our objective for Click & Call Advertising with Skype supported by Marchex is to deliver a performance advertising tool that turns the Web surfing behavior of Skype users into calls to advertisers,” said Andy Sims, Skype’s director of advertising. “Businesses will now have the opportunity to acquire potential new customers by using Skype in a highly efficient and measureable way. The experience is also beneficial for Skype users because it’s fast, convenient and the calls are free.”

“We believe advertisers have a strong demand for generating inbound phone calls and Skype is a promising customer acquisition channel that offers a large base of users who are typically familiar with making calls from a PC,” said Pete Christothoulou, Chief Operating Officer at Marchex. “Today, we are seeing a shift in the way consumers find phone numbers, the way they place calls and how those calls are paid for. As a result, coupling Skype’s reach with Marchex’s call advertising technology, sales team and service, we believe we can offer a high quality solution to large and small advertisers.”

Click & Call Advertising with Skype supported by Marchex commences with an initial group of customers, including agencies like Razorfish, national advertisers like DISH Network and Extra Space Storage, and channel partners like PRIMEDIA. The program is available to all advertisers, agencies and marketing services providers, including companies that have a large number of local and/or national business advertising customers, such as Yellow Pages companies, Certified Marketing Representatives (CMRs), independent local advertising services providers, direct marketing providers and newspapers.

“Within the digital and interactive advertising space, call-based advertising is becoming one of the fastest growing opportunities for us,” said Clark Kokich, Chairman, Razorfish. “As a leading ad agency, our clients rely on us to identify and execute against the most effective and efficient performance-based programs available — as such, we feel now is a great time to engage in call advertising.”

“We continuously strive to provide our advertisers with the latest, high-value lead generation tools and services available on the market today. Click & Call with Skype supported by Marchex not only strengthens our advertising offerings, but also provides consumers easy ‘click-to-call’ access,” said Tracy Dodd, Director, Interactive Media, Consumer Source Inc., a PRIMEDIA company. “We are currently offering this innovative service to our Apartment Guide advertisers and consumers and see this as a win-win across the board.”

How it Works:

There are five steps to the program:

1. Advertisers agree to pay a fixed amount per call, along with a budget. Rates are determined based on advertiser categories.

2. Users with Skype software installed on their PC and Skype’s browser plug-in enabled see participating advertiser phone numbers graphically highlighted as a blue “Free Call” button across the entire web.

3. Users who see the blue “Free Call” button respond by placing calls to the advertiser by clicking on the “Free Call” icon.

4. Advertisers pay only for completed phone calls.

5. Consistent with its privacy practices, Skype is not sharing personally identifiable information about its users with the advertiser or Marchex. Only standard call metrics are provided.

A video demonstration of the new service is available for viewing here.

Advertisers wishing to participate in Click & Call Advertising with Skype supported by Marchex, should visit www.skype.com/go/clickandcall, www.marchex.com/skype or call 206-331-3435.

About Skype:

Skype is software that enables the world’s conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Everyday, people everywhere also use Skype to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles. Download Skype to your computer or mobile phone at skype.com.

Access to a broadband Internet connection is required. Skype is not a replacement for traditional telephone services and cannot be used for emergency calling.

Skype, associated trademarks and logos and the “S” symbol are trademarks of Skype Limited.

About Marchex:

Marchex White Paper Highlights Call-Based Advertising as the Next Generation of Digital Marketing

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 06:00:30 +0000

SEATTLE – Marchex, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCHX) announced the availability of a new white paper for advertisers and agencies, “The Re-Evolution of the Phone Call: Eight Reasons to Focus on Call Advertising.”

The white paper highlights eight changes in the digital marketing landscape that are rapidly laying the groundwork for call-based advertising products to emerge as a critical and efficient marketing opportunity for advertisers:

1. Advertisers, weary of increasing search and online lead prices, are reconsidering calls as a lead form.
2. Mobile search will provide advertisers a new, efficient channel for driving calls.
3. Opportunities to drive calls via online and mobile directories will multiply.
4. Paid directory assistance will transition to ad-supported and drive calls to advertisers.
5. PC-based call providers will launch massive, ad-supported models to boost adoption.
6. Phone numbers will re-emerge in online ad copy due to pressure from local advertisers.
7. Carriers will continue their transition to ad-supported models.
8. As calls become more central to the marketing mix, contact “lists” will emerge.

“Many businesses rely largely or solely on voice contact with customers to make sales or to cultivate relationships,” explains Brent Turner, Executive Vice President of Call Advertising Products for Marchex. “Therefore every year these businesses unleash massive advertising spends across a variety of media sources explicitly to drive calls from potential customers. Historically most of this money has gone into traditional channels like print, radio or television. However, we are seeing digital marketers move increasing amounts of their budgets into channels like VoIP and mobile that drive phone calls much more efficiently.”

Marchex’s Pay-for-Call Exchange (http://www.marchex.com/payforcall) has provided significant ROI for its customers, including an average call conversion for many ranging from 20 percent to 30 percent, with some advertisers seeing as high at 50 percent.

In addition to its growing roster of advertiser customers, Marchex has built a large publisher network consisting of over 50 relationships spanning online, mobile and offline channels.

The “Eight Reasons to Focus on Call Advertising” white paper is available to view and download at: http://www.marchex.com/whitepaper.

About Marchex:

Our performance-based call advertising products, Marchex Pay-For-Call and Marchex Call Analytics, are reinventing how businesses acquire new customers through the phone. Our award-winning Small Business Marketing products empower local businesses to efficiently monitor their online presence, communicate with their customers, and acquire new ones. Every day, our products support tens of thousands of advertisers and partners, ranging from global enterprises to local businesses.

For more information about Marchex, please visit www.marchex.com.

Ad Operations Online » Pay-per-Call Advertising

Atrinsic Interactive Launches Pay-Per-Call

Related articles:

Marchex Expands Digital Call Advertising to Hundreds of Local Properties Through Deal with CityGrid Media

Related articles:

Marchex Boosts Its Leadership Position in Call Advertising Market Through Acquisition of Mobile Voice Search Leader, Jingle Networks

Related articles:

RingRevenue’s Call Performance Marketing Platform Increases Sales for Businesses in the Financial Services Industry

Related articles:

Commission Junction Proves There Are Many Ways To Drive Calls And Measure ROI

Related articles:

Marchex White Paper Highlights the Importance of Call Tracking and Analytics in Helping Digital Marketers Maximize Search Marketing Efforts

Related articles:

Marchex Call Analytics Launches Keyword-Level Tracking; Enables Marketers to Capture Calls Tied to Search Terms

Related articles:

Yield Software and Marchex Announce Integration for Search Engine Marketers

Related articles:

Click and Call Advertising with Skype Supported by Marchex Now Available

Related articles:

Marchex White Paper Highlights Call-Based Advertising as the Next Generation of Digital Marketing

Related articles: