Putting your phone # in your ad copy?

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brandomando

Joined: Jul 05, 2006

# Posts: 12

Posted: 12/22/2006 05:19 pm

I have noticed that a few PPC ads I have seen on Google have the advertisers phone # put directly into their ads copy.

Any thoughts on the effectiveness of this?

Waste of copy space?

Generating leads with out paying for clicks?

I am leaning towards believing that advertisers who do this are simply wasting their copy space but I thought I was ask the opinion of the forum.

Thanks! Merry X-Mas!

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flyingrose

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Joined: Oct 30, 2003

# Posts: 3361

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Posted: 12/23/2006 12:20 am

You'd really have to test it to see whether it was a good idea or not. The trick to that would be having a good way to measure results. You'd probably want to use a special phone number only used in the ads and keep track of the number of calls received to that number.

Allowing your site to pre-sell prospects seems like a better idea than having them call out of the blue. If you're using a toll free number what you save in clicks you'll more than pay for in additional phone time to explain what they didn't read on the site.

One quick way to gauge how numbers in ads affect results might be to compare the CTR on ads with the phone number to similar ads without one. Doing that plus using a unique phone number just for the ads would allow you to get a pretty good idea whether phone numbers in ads are cost effective or not.

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ultra2004

Joined: Jun 15, 2004

# Posts: 96

Posted: 01/08/2007 08:29 am

Hi Rose.

We have done this to great effect.

We used a Google only number and the operators were taught to ask where the customer got the information.

It does work quite well, but I suppose that it all depends on what your area of business you are in.

The telephone method is now equal in comparison to the online enquiry form, I think that it is possibly because people need quite a bit of technical information up front before making a decision about this service.

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Hampstead

Joined: Feb 20, 2001

# Posts: 1941

Posted: 01/08/2007 09:31 am

Skype now integrates with FireFox and turns phone numbers into clickable calling links.

It works well - I tend to call a lot.

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flyingrose

Moderator

Joined: Oct 30, 2003

# Posts: 3361

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Posted: 01/08/2007 08:15 pm

Hi Hampstead,

Could you elaborate on how that works for people who are not familiar with Skype and auto-dialing.

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Hampstead

Joined: Feb 20, 2001

# Posts: 1941

Posted: 01/09/2007 01:03 am

Yes, of course.

Skype is a popular VOIP software package that allows the user to make and receive telephone calls through their computer over their internet connection instead of the phone line. There are many plug ins available which will integrate Skype with Outlook and other Office applications. The useful plug-in I have just found is to integrate Skype with the FireFox browser. With this plug-in any phone numbers on a web page now turn into a button which when clicked will automatically call the number.

So, with particular relevance to this string, any AdWords ads with a phone number in them are automatically converted into a calling button which I am often inclined to use. Free clicks in AdWords! Google will surely put a stop to the use of phone numbers soon.

I like Skype so much that I recently bought the first notebook specifically designed to work Skype. It's great!

[ Message was edited by: Hampstead 01/10/2007 12:50 am ]

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