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Google Throws AdWords Hat Into Call-Tracking Ring

Written on
Nov 4, 2010 
Author
Gavin Dunaway  |
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Google Throws AdWords Hat Into Call-Tracking Ring

phones_smallADOTAS – In Spring when Brent Turner, executive vice president of call advertising products for Marchex, told me a revolution was brewing the pay-for-call world, I was a bit skeptical, but since then I’ve covered so many companies with various products in this realm that I’m fully on board: pay-for-call has got the mojo going. And now the arena has won that ultimate seal of online advertising approval — Google is invading the space with AdWords Call Metrics.

Big G is effectively employing its Google Voice technology to boost paid search ads through call tracking via local and toll-free VoIP phone numbers. Expanding from private beta, Call Metrics “automatically includes a unique phone number in your ads to measure the calls that you receive from AdWords,” wrote Surojit Chatterjee, senior product manager for AdWords. With mobile devices, advertisers can buy calls exclusively via Click to Call, a feature not available yet for PCs.

Let’s go to Century Interactive’s Stephen Cravens on the playing field for more analysis:

“Google Call Metrics, we’ll call it, represents a shot across the bow to all other search-based advertising platforms in what it can deliver to clients. It also appears like it will be an effective price discrimination tactic to reward those advertisers who bid for the top ranking….

“Google Call Metrics won’t be magic bullet for direct-response advertisers, however, it does further entrench AdWords as the premium search advertising network for now.

“Does this put Google in conflict with its resellers (ad agencies)? While it does steal some all-in-one platform thunder that agencies like to claim as their value add, Google Call Metrics is still limited enough to where agencies and call tracking providers like [Century Interactive] still have tremendous value to add to our clients.

“For starters, Google Call Metrics tracks just one digital advertising channel, AdWords. For clients wanting to track phone responses from Bing, Facebook, email marketing, display ads, as well as physical world advertising (which they do), an open platform is necessary.

“Plus, for service businesses where upselling, ‘closing,’ or consultation takes place, Google’s VOIP phone lines are not reliable enough. Imagine trying to sell a time-share in Aspen and having to ask the prospective customer three times what floorplan he likes because of echoes and call drops.

“Finally, businesses want the call records, which Google will not provide. Our clients like to be able to see their phone calls as easily as they do their Outlook Inbox. Just click on a row and see all the vital stats plus the call recording. These vital stats are key because the phone number is the unique identifier that synchronizes with the CRM, which allows the company to calculate end-to-end ROI….”

Thanks for that, Steve. There you have it folks — it seems Call Metrics at this point is a nice add-on for paid search campaigns, but no real threat to current pay-for-call operators. Even if Big G records and analyzes calls, it will still be limited by just one ad stream: AdWords.





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