Google is rolling out bid-per-call in AdWords to US and UK advertisers over the next few weeks. This means advertisers have the ability to bid for phone calls, as well as for clicks, when they run search ads on computers and tablets.
“Let’s say your business sees phone calls as a valuable lead source,” says product manager Surojit Chatterjee. “You’re willing to pay up to $5 for a phone call and up to $1 for a click from a prospective customer who searched for ‘caribbean cruise’ on Google search.”
“Today, a combination of your ad’s Quality Score and max cost-per-click (CPC) bid determine your Ad Rank, which influences your ad’s position,” Chatterjee adds. “But with bid-per-call, your bid for phone calls and phone call Quality Score can directly factor into your Ad Rank, too. Higher ranked ads are more likely to be seen and can therefore generate more phone calls (and clicks, too).”
Advertisers will find an option to use a Google forwarding number when they set up call extensions, so Google can measure when a call to their business actually happens.
Advertisers who use bid-per-call will get summaries of completed calls, phone-through rate (PTR), and phone call cost, via the Ad Group and Campaign tabs. They’ll also get details for each call (name, duration, area code, and ad group that drove the call) via the Dimensions tab.
More info on bid-to-call is available here.
