Monday, May 19, 2014

Dial Up Your Business with Higher Value Phone Calls

In a constantly connected world, people rely on their mobile devices to engage with businesses on the go, at any time and from anywhere. From research to purchase, AdWords mobile click-to-call ads allow advertisers to connect with customers online in a relevant and meaningful way. In fact, over 40 million calls are made directly to businesses from Google ads each month and that number is growing.

In November 2013, we introduced calls as conversions in the US, UK, France and Germany. In recent weeks, calls as conversions launched in Spain and Australia; and we plan to expand to more countries in the coming year.

Introducing new call conversion settings

For many businesses, not all phone calls are valued the same. In the coming weeks, we’re launching new, flexible controls for mobile click-to-call ads to help drive the calls that are most valuable to your business.
  • Value different calls, differently. Assign conversion values to different call conversion types to understand which keywords and ads are generating more valuable phone calls. For example, a local bank might assign more value to a 10-minute call about opening a new savings account than a 30-second call enquiring about branch hours.
  • Maximize value, not just volume. Using Target ROAS, a flexible bid strategy, you can automatically maximize call conversion value across campaigns with auction-time bid adjustments that factor in signals like device, location and time of day. From our previous example, the local bank can now drive more phone calls that result in higher value conversions, like phone calls for new savings accounts during branch hours.
  • Manage your call conversions. Align your call conversions with your business needs by customizing call conversion names, categories and conversion windows. The local bank can now report on phone calls for “Savings Accounts” and “Branch Hours” as different conversions right within AdWords.

These new call conversion settings are available in countries where Google forwarding numbers are available*. You can learn more about these new call conversion settings here.
Join us for a click-to-call Hangout On Air

Mobile click-to-call data is transforming businesses. In a newly published white paper, Marchex, a mobile advertising technology company, found that 20-30% of car rental calls resulted in a booking and that 15-22% of calls for hotels resulted in a reservation. For more insights and a live discussion on click-to-call best practices, please join us on June 10th at 10 am PST for a Hangout On Air. You can join the hangout here.

Please stay on the line…

Mobile devices inspire people to call businesses now more than ever before. As advertisers refine their mobile strategies to capture this growing opportunity, Google continues to innovate. In the next few months, we’ll introduce more, powerful tools to help you to understand better how phone calls are impacting your business.

Posted by Anurag Agrawal, Product Manager, Calls

* US, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Australia