In a world of ever expanding channels and devices, marketers have to be very strategic about where they invest their budgets. And one of the biggest measures of success for marketers is a healthy ROI.
Many brand advertisers are missing out on the performance placement opportunities that radio has to offer. Pay-per-inquiry radio advertising is one such opportunity for direct marketers because, typically, you only pay for the inquiries generated, regardless of the number of spots that air. It could also enable you to reach more radio markets than you would through traditional radio buys. Last year AdAge ranked pay-per-lead generation programs among its top B2B prospecting programs, but it can be just as effective for B2C.
Your program would get rolled out to a broad spectrum of radio stations, networks and syndicators of your choice in your desired geographical area. Depending on your objectives, sales leads can be generated through a variety of offers, from a free appointment or trial, to a free rate quote or request for more information.
You need two things to profit from pay-per-inquiry: relationships with media outlets and a desire to advertise across a wide geographical area. Also called cost per lead, pay per lead or pay for performance, it’s a direct response marketing model whereby advertisers receive free ad time and space but only pay for results. The catch: You lose control of where and when the ads will run.
In a nutshell, your job is to entice consumers to call a customer service center. Media outlets often have unused air space, so making use of this unsold advertising space benefits both you and the media outlet. Marketers cycle their offer to their media partners, which produce trackable, measurable results. Your client merely agrees to pay a set price for each qualifying call.
If you are preparing or have a budget for Pay-Per-Call marketing, this means you are taking investment into marketing strategy seriously. You have come to see that Pay-Per-Call is a great way to get people genuinely interested in your products or services to contact you. It’s a form of marketing that stirs action, and hopefully leads to conversion. Now, when it comes to running Pay-Per-Call, you can go directly to a network that already has an extensive range of affiliate partnerships. Partnering with another company to work as your Affiliate Manager is adding another step in the process and another point of payment.
A network offers you exposure and volume, for sure, and that’s what you want. However, while quantity is definitely a goal, so is quality. It is important that the calls that come in from your Pay-Per-Call campaigns and your marketing output elicits valuable responses, rather than mass response. With a high volume of calls, you may be paying for incoming calls that do not yield a high conversion rate. The priority of a network is to bring in the calls for you. The core difference between a network and an Affiliate Manager is that an Affiliate Manager prioritizes quality calls. A network fulfills call traffic, while an Affiliate Manager strategizes for call success rate.
Many advertisers base their performance reviews on call tracking systems that provide analytic information about incoming phone calls. There are various ways to implement a call tracking system. Typically, it generates information about incoming calls such as the number, time and geographical location. This drives sales by informing advertisers when and where to reach their most relevant audience.
Effective call tracking can improve sales.
Is Pay-per-Call Advertising Right for You?
A Pay-per-Call advertising program will have your company listed in print publications and get radio and TV air time at no upfront cost. You only pay when a prospect calls as a result of the ads, and the phone call lasts a certain amount of time. There is no upfront media buy here!
The first step is to determine if this type of advertising is a fit for your company. Pay-Per-Call is an asset to businesses that provide a service or product that can be used by a large majority of consumers or businesses. Also, this is a great marketing option if you accept inbound sales calls and are looking to increase brand awareness. Pay-Per-Call advertising can be an especially lucrative ad channel if you have a national presence.
On the surface, Pay-Per-Call Marketing sounds like it would be a fit for any business. If a business only has to pay for ad-generated calls without having to pay for the ads themselves, who wouldn’t want to sign up?
While this is true to some degree, let’s look at some of the factors that contribute to a successful Pay-Per-Call campaign.
First off, just like your other marketing efforts, it’s important to know the numbers in your business.
This is important because you need to know how much you are able to spend to acquire a lead. For example if you sell flowers nationwide, but are only profiting $50 per order, it would be very difficult to make any money if each qualified call costs you $20 – knowing that not every qualified call or lead will turn into a sale.
There needs to be a good understanding on what you can afford to Pay-Per-Call based on your conversion rates. This brings us to our next point:
In North America there are many franchise gyms (Steve Nash Fitness, Gold’s Gym) in every city. Some have a North American presence, while others may only have a local reach. Excluding the single mom and pop fitness centers, most franchise gyms have multiple locations to provide customers a convenient location to attend.
Franchise gyms typically convert the best once a customer has tried their service. Franchise gyms will often go as far as offering free trials to the gym, a free session with a personal trainer and discounted memberships to get customers through the door.
As it stands, most gyms who offer promos ask people to go online or to sign up. This leaves the onus on the customer to take action. Even if they did go online and get their free trial pass there is still a good chance that they never even use it.
So how can we get people to not only take the first step in signing up for the offer but actually come through the door? The answer is in Pay Per Call Marketing!