Pay-per-call is an ideal marketing tactic for businesses that want qualified calls from prospective customers. But if you’re unfamiliar with the pay-per-call space, creating your first campaign can be intimidating. We’re here to help make it easier for you. Here are four general steps you’ll need to complete to start a successful pay-per-call campaign in 2024.

1. Decide how you will receive calls

The first crucial step in starting a successful pay-per-call campaign is determining how your business will receive calls. Since your campaign may drive a large volume of calls to your business, it is imperative that you have the resources in place to answer them.

In a pay-per-call campaign, you only pay for calls that reach a predetermined duration requirement. Your pay-per-call provider will be spending their own advertising dollars to generate the calls they send to your business in hopes the calls will convert. When calls go to voicemail, they don’t get the opportunity to reach their duration and convert. If this happens too frequently, it can frustrate your provider who would prefer to send calls to an advertiser who answers and gives them a chance to convert. For this reason, many pay-per-call providers charge your agreed-upon price for calls that go to voicemail.

To ensure calls are being answered, many national brands that use pay-per-call campaigns route their calls to contact centers. However, depending on your business, sending calls to local stores or franchises may be the most effective. It’s helpful to talk with a pay-per-call specialist first to determine which option is best for you.

2. Decide how to structure your campaign

The second step towards pay-per-call success involves configuring your campaign to be the most successful for you. One of the most important decisions is deciding what kind of calls you want to receive. By setting the right campaign parameters, you are able to control what kinds of calls you receive and how much you spend to ensure your campaign works the best for you.

Key Campaign Parameters

• Bid Price: A bid price in pay-per-call is the price you’re willing to pay for a specific call duration. For example, you may bid a price of $25 per call that lasts at least 60 seconds. For each qualified call you receive that has a duration of 60 seconds or more, you will be billed $25. Your bid price will impact how well your campaign performs against other campaigns vying for similar calls, so it’s important to set a competitive bid to achieve success.
• Business and Target Market Details: Provide specific details related to your business and target market. This may include the hours you want to receive calls, your target business categories and services, and the geographic locations you want to target. Additionally, you may choose to provide approved ad copy for your pay-per-call provider. If you have any campaign restrictions (for example, call recording, negative keyword lists, custom IVR, etc.), you should bring them to the attention of your network as well.

You will also need to answer these questions before setting up a campaign with your provider:

• What is your budget?
• What are your goals?
• Will you require a dedupe period? (the process that providers use to ensure advertisers are not charged for multiple calls from the same caller in a set period of time.)
• Will you have an IVR menu?

Related: To help you answer these questions, download this free guide to pay-per-call below

3. Choose a pay-per-call provider

The third step is to partner with the right pay-per-call partner.

To increase your reach and the volume of calls you receive, it’s a good idea to work with a large pay-per-call network rather than manage a variety of affiliates and publishers directly. A pay-per-call network works with numerous call sources to create a large volume of qualified call traffic for their advertisers’ campaigns. Choosing a reliable network is critical to building a campaign that’s compliant, measurable, and successful.

Selecting the Right Provider

• Ensure that the publishers they work with are both qualified and transparent in how they source calls.
• Look for networks that generate calls in-house and provide detailed reports on billable calls, call duration, caller ID, call source, and more.
• The right network will use its knowledge of the pay-per-call space to offer key insights into your campaign’s performance and help you optimize your campaign.

Related: Top 10 Things to Look for in a Pay-Per-Call Network

4. Launch your campaign

Once you’ve worked with your pay-per-call network to configure your offer, it’s time to start your campaign. You’ll work with your pay-per-call network to launch your campaign, and they’ll provide you with a timeframe of when you can expect your first calls.

Post-Launch Optimization

• Monitor the performance of your campaign regularly.
• Use the reports provided by your network to identify areas for improvement.
• Adjust your bid price, campaign parameters, and restrictions based on performance data to optimize results.

Getting started with pay-per-call can be intimidating, but we have made the process as easy as possible for your company to succeed. To learn more about how pay-per-call can help scale your business, contact our Customer Success Team here: https://soleo.com/contact/