Pay Per Call Advertising From Setup to First Leads

Calls That Convert: Setting Up Pay-Per-Call Advertising

In advertising, the name of the game has always been stretching ROI to its limits. However, now there’s a huge need to move from traditional to digital advertisement or at least combine the two, even for brick-and-mortar businesses.

Success now hinges on three words: creativity, determination, and a willingness to venture into uncharted territory. These attributes are key for generating leads, and it’s where pay-per-call advertising can make a huge difference, especially for call-reliant leads.

Not only can pay-per-call lead generation help establish new revenue streams and grow your bottom line, but it can unlock valuable consumer insights for your business, such as what consumers prefer what type of content, what elements trigger phone calls, and what hinders calls and conversions.

Read on to learn to set up a pay-per-call number, run a pay-per-cal campaign, and eventually establish a new revenue source for your business.

Briefly Exploring Pay-Per-Call Advertising

Pay-per-call marketing has an obvious advantage: businesses aren’t just paying for clicks or impressions – they’re paying for actual phone calls, which are significantly closer to actual sales than any other marketing touchpoint. 

Pay-per-call marketing thrives in industries where immediate human interaction makes the difference: home services, insurance, healthcare, legal advice, finance, etc. Likewise, a one-on-one phone conversation is a preferable communication channel for customers buying complex products like, for example, mortgage loans.

How do pay-per-call affiliate programs work?

Pay-per-call affiliate programs aren’t different from any other affiliate programs, except that affiliates generate phone calls rather than clicks. 

Here’s how a pay-per-call affiliate program works: 

1. You enroll in a program that resonates with your business model, get a unique call tracking number, and promote it across your channels.
2. A potential customer sees your click-to-call link or manually dials the number.
3. The call is forwarded to the buyer, and you get a commission if the call is qualified.

Now, the qualification parameters for calls are arguably the most overlooked nuance in pay-per-call affiliate marketing. With most affiliate programs, billable calls are calls that last around 120 seconds, which is a reasonable time to make sure that the call is relevant.

Generating Pay-Per-Call Leads Step-by-Step

Define Your Goals and KPIs

First, identify your marketing goals: get more leads, increase conversion rates, raise brand awareness, tap into new markets, etc. Depending on your goals, you can choose the most effective call metrics, such as the call’s source, duration, keywords, agent performance, conversion rate, average check, etc.

Choose a Matching Pay-Per-Call Network or Program

The top pay-per-call affiliate offers come with integrated tracking tools and dynamic number insertion (DNI), ensuring transparent and efficient campaign tracking. The more alignment with your network and program, the more conversions you can get.

Set Up a Pay Per Call Number

Create a unique, trackable phone number through a trusted provider and watch your campaign performance unfold. DNI will help you assign numbers to specific campaigns with full precision so you can track every caller individually.

Best Pay-Per-Call Lead Generation Practices

Leverage Google Call-Only Ads

Google call-only ads capture high-intent leads directly from search results, appearing only on devices capable of making calls. This ensures you connect with customers with a potential interest when using pay-per-call campaigns.

Google ad data stats suggest:

Optimize Call Routing and Attribution

Why leave it to chance when you can track which ads or keywords are fueling conversions?

Advanced call tracking software is the top instrument to ensure calls hit the right department at the right time. From the first ad display until the call converts and even further, the right software suite can unlock tons of insights on the caller and the agents who handled the call. With these insights, you can continuously improve your pay-per-call campaigns, squeezing the most out of every inbound and outbound call.

Likewise, call tracking and routing software can optimize your call distribution so every caller gets to the best-fitting sales or customer support rep, whether you’re generating calls for an internal department or an external advertiser.

First-Time vs. Returning Callers: Key Insights

Did you know that 80% of sales require at least five follow-ups, while 44% of salespeople give up after the first one? Whether a first-time call or a returning one, it is important to determine the current caller’s stage.

• First-time callers are new opportunities — provide detailed guidance to lead them toward a decision.
• Returning callers are often closer to a commitment — reinforce trust with quick, precise support.

Challenges and Solutions in Pay-Per-Call Advertising

Overlapping Campaigns

Solution: Use robust pay-per-call software to manage multiple pay-per-call campaigns simultaneously. Features like call-tracking metrics and DNI reduce overlap and improve attribution accuracy.

Low-Quality Leads

Solution: Choose reliable pay-per-call networks and use smart filters to sift out unqualified leads. This ensures that only the most promising prospects make it through.

How Much Pay-Per-Call Leads Cost, and Are They Worth It?

Whether insurance, legal services, home services, or healthcare, pay-per-call leads are among the most expensive in the industry, usually reaching the higher limits in the average per-lead price.

Here are a few pricing benchmarks:

• In the legal industry, you’re looking at a cost-per-lead that can soar between $50 to $300
• In the insurance niche, the average cost per lead is approximately $162
• In healthcare, cost-per-lead ranges from $20 to $150

But then again, with the right call tracking in place, you can maximize your marketing spend, spending every dollar on high-quality, well-targeted leads. 

At the end of the day, you’re buying leads to convert them, and phone calls provide higher conversion rates than any other leads out there. Just get the targeting right.