Performance marketing makes sense: it’s a low-risk, flexible advertising strategy where you only pay when a desired action occurs. Clicks are probably the most popular form of performance marketing, popularized by Google, Facebook, and other social media platforms. Today, affiliate links are more popular than ever, with an annual growth rate of more than 10% according to Forrester.

Despite their popularity, clicks might not be the best use of your performance marketing budget. Pay-per-call marketing, for example, generates qualified, inbound calls that are ready to convert. This form of performance marketing might be your answer to achieving a higher ROI than you see with clicks.

Learn more about Pay-per-call >

Difference between calls and clicks

Both call-based leads and click-based leads can be effective for your business, depending on your campaign goals. If you want to drive traffic to your website and raise awareness for your brand among your target consumer, buying clicks to a landing page is a good idea for you.

However, if your goal is to book more appointments or increase sales for your most profitable services, then buying high-intent calls is the better choice.

This table compares click-based leads to call-based leads to help you decide which performance marketing strategy is right for you.

Call-based leads convert into sales quicker and more frequently than click-based leads

With pay-per-call affiliate marketing, you can rely on experts who specialize in generating phone calls in your industry. They earn the consumer’s attention and trust and will connect the consumer to you when they’re ready to convert. You only pay for the calls that meet your requirements.

Pay-per-call features:

• Low risk – you only pay for the calls that meet your requirements.
• Low initial investment – you can start with a small budget and scale your campaign as needed.
• High ROAS – callers have a higher intent than leads from forms or clicks, and therefore are more likely to convert into sales, giving you a better bang for your buck.
• Predictable budget – you determine your call pacing and don’t spend more than you budget for.
• Easy-to-measure results –pay-per-call is a form of digital marketing, so tracking results and optimizing your campaign is simple.
• Convenient – calls are sent directly to your call centers; you don’t have to convert clicks into calls yourself.

Read more: How Pay-Per-Call Works >

The Pay-per-call Consumer Journey

Pay-per-call also provides a more complete consumer journey than clicks. With clicks, the burden of converting consumers into leads falls on you and your landing page. But with calls, consumers are typically ready to buy when they make the call.

Pay-per-call consumer journey

1. Consumer needs a service

2. Consumer searches for the service online to research service providers or book an appointment
– OR –
Consumer sees a potential solution to the service they need while browsing online or through an advertisement offline

3. Consumer calls the phone number advertised

4. Consumer is met by an automated front-end menu that will direct their call

5. Consumer presses the key that best describes their situation

6. Consumer is connected to the service provider’s business where their questions are answered and they can schedule service

Pay-per-click consumer journey

1. Consumer needs a service

2. Consumer searches for the service online to research service providers or book an appointment
– OR –
Consumer sees a potential solution to the service they need while browsing online or through an advertisement offline

3. Consumer clicks or visits the service provider’s website

How pay-per-call complements your brand’s lead gen efforts

Reach a Broader Consumer Base

Pay-per-call is a great way to get in front of consumers who are in the top or middle of the marketing funnel, so with a good pay-per-call campaign, your brand can talk to consumers that you might not reach otherwise.

Low-risk, low-investment advertising strategy

Pay-per-call does not require a large upfront investment. You can set up your campaign with a test budget of a few calls per day, and you will only pay for the calls that meet your requirements.

Flexibly manage your campaign to meet your goals

When you work with a pay-per-call provider, you set the parameters for qualified calls including target consumer profile, geography, hours, and duration, and you determine how many calls you want in an hour or day. Your provider will be able to scale your campaign to meet your demand as necessary.

Getting started with pay-per-call

If you are new to pay-per-call, we recommend partnering with a trusted pay-per-call network with experience generating quality calls in your industry. Your network will be able to help you set up, monitor, and optimize your first pay-per-call campaign. They’ll also be able to help you navigate the regulatory landscape of pay-per-call and find the best publishers with consistent call volume in your vertical.

If you’re still on the fence about pay-per-call, we’ve created the ultimate guide that covers all the basics: