In a world of Whatsapp, Messenger, and Instagram, the way we communicate has changed.
And as a result, nowadays, people seem to prefer to ‘type’ rather than ‘talk’.
But for those who are still masters of the art of conversation (and sales), there are profits from selling over the phone.
And sales teams agree.
With Sales Insights Lab survey reporting: “42.1% of respondents still agree the phone is the most effective sales tool at their disposal.”
This suggests the pay-per-call marketing model is still a great opportunity for lead-gen marketers.
And as clients will pay a premium for leads in the form of calls and appointments…We’d have to agree.
(More on that later)
But as with all lead generation models, you can only be successful if you have a solid strategy in the first place.
In this post, you’ll discover everything there is about pay per call lead generation.
We will also share some valuable insights and our strategy to help you corner and industry using the pay per call lead gen.
What Is Pay Per Call Lead Generation?
Pay per call is a type of performance-based marketing in which businesses pay for inbound phone calls from potential customers.
Here is how it works…
1) As the marketer (Or publisher), you run campaigns featuring a company or client’s phone details about a service or offer.
These campaigns can be run as Ads, SMS, on a website, emails, or how you feel is best to reach potential customers.
2) They are tracked, so they know the phone inquiries have come from your specific campaign.
3) The potential customer makes a call to your client after seeing your campaign because they are eager to do business with them.
4) You get paid a commission. (Based on what you agreed with the client)
Making it a win-win for both you and your client.
You’ve got paid, and they’ve connected with a customer who’s eager to do business with them.
Pay Per Call – Google Ad Source: PayPerCallExposed
How Much Can You Charge for Pay-Per-Call Leads?
The average cost for pay per call leads varies greatly from industry to industry. In some niches selling leads can go for $30, while in others, you can charge much, much more.
It can depend on a few factors:
- Niche/Industry
- Service or Offer Cost – What is the value of what your promoting?
- Commission Goal – (Time of call, sale, or any other clients stipulations)
- Marketer competition – More people doing Pay Per Call will drive down prices
- Location – Down to economics, the USA will usually pay more than India for example
Check out our full guide on Lead Generation Pricing
Check these pay-per-call offers to see some examples of prices and industries from one of the popular pay per lead platforms OfferVault.
Use our calculator to find out how much to charge
Pay Per Call vs. Pay Per Lead
Pay per call and pay per lead models are very similar. The only difference between the two is how you acquire a lead from your ad campaigns.
Pay per lead is when you get a lead, usually by filling out a form or opting in for a lead magnet, so they enter your funnel.
Or by using a LeadsHook Decision tree below.
Pay per call is having a prospect see a phone number from your campaign and call the client or business direct.
However, technically, pay per call is a subset of pay per lead marketing as they are all entering a funnel it’s just using a different mechanism.
The Best Niches for Pay Per Call Marketing
There is no best niche in pay per call marketing.
Some are just more suitable than others, depending on your interests, experience, and other external factors like competition.
Here are a few examples of very profitable pay per lead niches:
- Personal Injury
- Home Insurance
- Hotel Booking
- Debt Settlement
- Motor Vehicle Accident
Our advice, choose the one you have experience in or that resonates with you the most.
However, If you’re new to this business model, just pick one and STICK WITH IT!
Once you become an expert in one niche, the skills you’ve learned are pretty easily transferable to others.
Choosing the Right Pay Per Call Network
There are two main ways to find or Pay For Call offers: Using a network or affiliate platform, or direct dealing directly with the business.
Pay Per Call Affiliate Programs (Or Networks)
Pay-per-call affiliate programs are a way you earn a profit by promoting pay per call offers.
The key thing here is that an affiliate (the person promoting an offer) gets a tracked phone number that he or she shares online. (Much like tracking clicks)
From there, a potential lead dials the number, and you make money with each conversion made.
(Please Note: A ‘conversion’ is what’s been dictated by the offer owner. – I.e Call, Time on Call, Completed Sale)
There are multiple affiliate networks you can choose from. Examples such as:
- ClickDealer
- Aragon Advertising
- Acceleration Partners
- Offervault
They all have their own pros and cons, so we advise you to do your research to see the one that suits you best.
Also, look for a network that thoroughly vets all its call sources, reviews and approves affiliate creatives, and screens calls for quality assurance.
(This screening process will help your conversion rates too.)
Also, ensure your network has established integrations with quality control vendors.
Especially those that focus on authentication of consent or run litigation scrubs from known predatory litigators.
You can use tools like TrustedForm to stay compliant.
It filters your potential leads and helps you stay out of trouble.
Direct Business Deals For Pay Per Call Campaigns
Although this may take a little more time and effort, it can pay off.
Because by making a deal with the business directly, you’re cutting out the ‘middle man’, you increase your profit margins as the network isn’t getting their cut.
But that’s not all.
As a direct client, you can also build strong relationships with the business and have access to direct data to improve your targeting, which means more successful campaigns, leading to…you guessed it…
More Profits.
Another lesser-known benefit is you can target businesses based on their location, which can be a game changer as you are even further personalizing your Ads, and they can schedule an in-person appointment.
Which will greatly increase the chances of a conversion.
Compliance in Pay Per Call
The pay-per-call industry is regulated by laws and regulations that protect consumers’ privacy.
If you want to stay out of trouble, you should learn about these regulations.
To protect your brand from threats in the lead gen industry, it is important to understand when compliance issues are triggered.
Here are some of the most relevant laws and regulations in pay-per-call model:
- Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA): This law regulates telemarketing calls and prohibits unsolicited calls to consumers without their prior express consent. It also requires telemarketers to provide opt-out mechanisms for consumers who wish to stop receiving calls.
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR): This rule requires telemarketers to disclose certain information during calls, such as the identity of the seller, the purpose of the call, and the terms of any sale or promotion. It also prohibits false or misleading statements during calls.
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations: These regulations include rules on call blocking, caller ID spoofing, and the use of automatic telephone dialing systems (ATDS) and prerecorded messages.
- State laws: Many states have their own telemarketing and robocall regulations, which may impose additional requirements or restrictions on pay-per-call companies.
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS): This standard applies to companies that process credit card payments and requires them to implement certain security measures to protect consumer data.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regulations: These regulations apply to companies that offer financial products or services to consumers, including certain types of pay-per-call services.
Now, these are primarily for the US so please be aware of your own country’s regulations so you know how to safely operate without getting yourself into any legal hot water.
How to Start Pay Per Call Business
Now we’ve established Pay per call is a great marketing model that can be very profitable; in this section, you will learn exactly how to start a pay per call business model and what steps you need to take to make it successful.
#1: Research, Targeting & Positioning
The most important (and often overlooked) step of a successful pay per call campaign is to do your due diligence and take your time with research.
(This step can save you a lot of headaches in the future.)
If you don’t know your target audience, your ads won’t resonate, and chances are, no one will click your ad and make a phone call.
That’s why it’s a must to research your potential leads before jumping in at the deep end.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself when initially researching your audience:
- Who ‘generally’ is my target audience (Sex, Age, Demographic)
- What are their biggest pain points
- What mistakes are they making
- What keeps them up at night
- If they could click their fingers and solve their issue…What would that look like?
Forums like Reddit are a goldmine for this type of information, and you’ll also be able to see what type of language they are using the what language your audience uses.
After you know your audience, it’s time to create an ideal “caller” persona. You can do that with tools like Make My Persona from HubSpot. See the example below:
Source: HubSpot
You just fill in the basic information you’ve researched, and the result will look like the above.
All this information will give you ideas and hooks for your Ads, so they resonate.
And ultimately increase the chance of them calling your tracked client phone number.
WARNING: This type of research is NOT bulletproof.
Yes, if you get the targeting and the Ad from the start, the chance of having a winning campaign shoots up.
But it can be a struggle to get it right the first time.
A much more effective alternative is to run one test campaign and see which audience resonated the most with your first set of Ads.
This is a powerful strategy we use in LeadsHook – Reverse Market Research.
In a nutshell, it goes like this:
- Create a Decision Tree with your relevant segmentation questions (Age, location, Pain points, etc.)
- Send Test Traffic
- Use a Pivot Table to see who’s sticking. (Calling the pay per call offer)
Then Reverse.
Use the hard data to find out who your audience REALLY is.
Focus on them… Optimize your Ads, Hooks, and Angles…
And stop wasting time, money, and marketing resources on those who aren’t.
Reverse Market Research works on any vertical and is probably one of the most powerful but least-used features in LeadsHook.
And when put into action…
There’s a good chance you’ll discover audiences none of your competitors even know about, which means you’ll be the only one fishing in this big blue pond.
Read on to learn more about how to leverage Reverse Market Research to the fullest.
AD TIP #1 : In your Ads you want to position yourself as an expert and promote something higher than a phone call.
Basically, sell the benefit of your product – what potential leads desire.
That’s why it’ll help to make your ads benefit-oriented and focused on the end result.
Is this something that can only be supplied by your Ad?
Source: Cristian De Nardo
AD TIP #2: Don’t just go with one type of ad – Try different approaches, hooks, images, etc…
You can never know what works; you can only guess. And that’s why you must create multiple variations of your ad and run A/B testing with them.
Source: Optimizely
In essence, you divide the audience in groups and run multiple variations of your ad simultaneously.
You can then see what resonates with your audience more and drive better results.
Not sure where to start with Ads?
Our article about the strategic marketing edge will give you a full breakdown on how to come up with winning ideas for your next campaign, whatever the vertical.
Now, you have your optimized Ads ready…
#2: Turn On The Juicy Traffic
You could have the best campaign and Ads in the world, but if no one sees it, you won’t generate any calls.
The next step is to choose your marketing channel.
These are the channels or platforms you will promote your pay per call offer on.
The main channels are:
- Social Media Posts
- Pay Per Lead Advertising – Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok
- SEO & Content Marketing
- JV Deals
- Email Marketing
But it’s important to remember…
There is no overriding ‘best’ channel to choose.
It actually depends on what suits your target audience, market, or vertical best…
(Not the other way round.)
For instance, if your target audience is mostly on social media, you should go with that.
The other thing to consider is competition.
Chances are, your audience hangs out in multiple channels as your competitors. Try to find the least competitive channels that work and advertise there.
That way, you increase your chances of your Ad getting noticed.
#3: Capture Leads
Creating a pay per call ad with a great headline and lead clicking is not enough.
To increase the chance of them calling your client, they should be directed somewhere to build trust first.
Landing Pages
Landing pages are created to provide additional information about the business, its products, benefits, and services so they push up the chances of the lead making that call.
Source: Disruptive
Here are a few components every high-converting landing page should include:
- Strong headline
- A clear unique selling proposition
- Compelling benefits
- Plenty of social proof
Also, make sure a landing page has a clear call to action and a phone number or contact form to make as easy as possible for potential customers to get in touch.
But it doesn’t stop there…
But if you are looking to push this to the next level, you should also collect data you can use to optimize future campaigns before you give
And the easiest way to capture this info is by using Decision trees.
And that’s where LeadsHook comes in.
LeadsHook allows you to create decision trees to further qualify your leads.
You’ll also provide more than just a phone number…
You’ll provide actual ‘value’ (Report, Real Time Calculation, Bespoke Lead Magnet)
This greatly enhances the chances of them picking up the phone and making that call.
(And you getting that commission)
Don’t worry if the Decision Tree above scares you – It’s based on a simple drag-and-drop canvas.
Or you can use any of the pre-made templates provided or lead capture forms. And not to mention full training and support is available.
#4: Stack Offers for Maximal Revenue Potential
This is where you can really step it up a gear.
If you’ve been in the Pay Per Call business for a little while, you’ve probably had multiple pay per call offers at the same time but as separate campaigns.
But if you want to make the most out of every lead…
You can stack offers on top of each other, (E.g. Home, Car, Medical Insurance) and compound your profits.
Or if the lead isn’t suitable for your initial offer, send them to another pay per call offer that is to recoup traffic costs.
This is all possible with LeadsHook.
Check out this article on affiliate offers and how you can use LeadsHook to compound your profits from each lead.
#5: Use Pay Per Call Services & Software
The technical setup for pay per call marketing involves several components. Here is a quick run down of the software that is used.
Tracked Phone Numbers
Unique tracking phone numbers are set up to track the performance of each ad campaign. Every time you sign up for a pay per call offer, you get a phone number.
This unique number is used to track the performance of your ad campaigns and the leads you generate for the business you are promoting.
Call Tracking Software
Call tracking software is used to track and monitor the calls received from your unique tracking number.
It features a dashboard with detailed insights about the call, such as:
- Call duration
- The source of call
- The outcome
This can show you and the business owner how your leads are converting and whether to make changes in your pay per call lead generation strategy.
Source: PPCBasic
Here are some of the most industry-standard software solutions to use:
- Invoca
- CallRail Call Tracking
- CallTrackingMetrics
You can pick whichever suits you – they are basically the same.
Landing Pages
Landing pages are created to provide additional information surrounding your offer.
They provide more information about the business, its products, benefits, and services they offer to its target audience.
Integration with CRM
Usually, a type of Customer relationship management (CRM) software is integrated with the call tracking software to store the information and details about leads you generated.
Source: Monday
Combining all of these elements is what makes pay per call marketing a seamless experience and can effectively track and measure your performance.
Allowing you to optimize your ads and maximize the return on investment.
Conclusion
Like all pay per lead marketing models, pay per call can be very profitable…If done well.
To be a success it certainly helps to have a good foundation in marketing as a whole, or you have the motivation to learn and solve problems when they arise. (And the WILL arise)
If you have that, you’ve won half the battle…The other half is to understand the market you are working with.
This is where LeadsHook shines.
You can provide individualized leads magnets and provide real value to your prospects.
In turn, with this newfound trust, they’ll be much more likely to call your clients, so you get your hard-earned commission.
All while you’ll be collecting valuable first-person data you can use to optimize future campaigns so you achieve even fatter margins.
And that’s just scratching the surface of what Leadshook can do.
Take advantage of our 14-day Free Trial to get started with your pay-per-call business or any pay per lead business right now.
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