Google is talking about how the click-to-call ads it introduced earlier this year are reducing acquisition costs for advertisers.  The company points to a case study from Esurance.

A little more than a month ago, Google introduced click-to-call phone numbers in local ads on smartphones.  Now, the popular program’s undergoing an expansion as Google’s made it easier for large companies to take advantage of the offering.

The best ad – from the perspective of both users and advertisers – is often something that will immediately let the two sides connect.  Google’s taken an intelligent step forward, then, by allowing businesses to include clickable phone numbers in their mobile ads.

This should save people who want to call companies a fair amount of time they might otherwise have to spend navigating a site.  It’ll also spare some smartphone owners the slight embarrassment of having to copy down a phone number on paper while using their multi-hundred dollar devices.

The click to call model used by Ingenio to connect people to businesses represents the foaming surf on the onrushing wave of CPA models for advertising.

About nine months ago, there was an announcement that a Google AdWords “Click-to-Call” test had been discontinued.  The message turned out to be a hoax, but a post that came out yesterday is, to all appearances, not.  And so the Google Click-to-Call feature in Google Maps is no more.

For a brief time yesterday, TechCrunch speculated that Google had removed its Click-to-Call function on Google Maps, due to prank calls. The post was later updated to confirm the function was still in place.

A terse statement posted to the Official Google blog announced the search advertising company will stop its efforts in the click-to-call area.