Google Kicks Off 2010 With "Click to Call" PPC Ads

Posted on January 5, 2010 in Mobile Marketing, Search Engine News

iphone and blackberryGoogle announced today that they are offering “Click to Call”  ads to be displayed on mobile phones. We have always been very bullish on mobile phone marketing. It looks like things are finally setting up for the US market.

The Scoop

Your location-specific business phone number will display alongside your destination url in ads that appear on high-end mobile devices. Users will be able to click on your phone number just as easily as they click to visit your website.

Questions & Answers (From Google):

How will phone numbers appear in my ads?

Based on the customer’s geographic location, the closest phone number and business address will appear as a fifth line of ad text when the ad appears on mobile devices with full HTML browsers (eg, iPhone, Android, Palm WebOS).

Where will I be able to see the results?

You’ll be able to view calls from your ads in your AdWords account. From your Campaign Summary page, to to the “click type” segment option under the “Filter and Views” dropdown.

How will I be charged for phone calls I get from my ad?

The cost of a click to call your business will be the same as the cost of a click to visit your website.

What actions should I take?

If you’d like your ads to show location-specific phone numbers when displayed on mobile devices, make sure that your campaign is targeting iPhones and other mobile devices with full HTML browsers, and that you have included phone numbers with your business addresses in the locations under your Campaign settings. If you would prefer your ads not show phone numbers, simply remove the location extensions from your ad campaigns or un-check mobile devices under the Campaign Settings tab.

What’s Next?

Let the campaign testing begin. Yahoo might have flunked at everything search, but they do have a very good mobile marketing platform that they use in Japan. Google’s success factor depends on wireless and data connectivity of phones, willingness of advertisers/owners to test out the new platform, and the tracking and reporting of these ads.

Ask any search engine marketer, and he will tell you how hard it is to convince clients to spend on PPC, let alone test out a new service. A few early adopters will decide the future of this service. We are looking forward to testing this out on our clients. Stay tuned for results in the coming months…