Don't forget about click-to-call: the most underrated vertical for social media traffic

Pay-per-call is often overlooked by performance marketers when choosing a vertical to monetize the traffic in. It is particularly puzzling when it gets disregarded by people looking for offers to run on mobile traffic. There are a couple of common reasons why media buyers and publishers choose to take this option off the table in the planning phase of their next campaign. Let’s start things off by dispelling the main misconceptions standing behind these reasons.

Myth: Nobody is buying pay-per-call leads anymore

Fact: Global market forecasts beg to differ. The industry is projected to grow at a 5.6% compound annual growth rate for the next 5 years, raising its market cap from $339.4b to $497b in 2027. Industries like home improvement, financial services, solar panels, education, and many more are looking for leads, and passing on potential customers from performance marketing is not a part of anyone’s growth plans. All of the key markets from the US to China are projecting growth for the next 5-year period. If you think there is not a sizable share of media buying revenues in those numbers, you would be wrong.

Myth: Pay-per-call campaigns are difficult to optimize

Fact: A lot of performance marketers check out as soon as they see a tracking number instead of a tracking link, thinking there will be less data available to base their decisions on, and the available data will be hard to optimize around. The truth is, most advertisers provide detailed feedback on the metrics of the traffic they receive, and the amount of optimization fuel that results easily rivals that of any other advertising model. Plus, getting any amount of tracking numbers for split testing is not a problem in 2022.

Myth: Having to dial a number instead of clicking a link kills CR

Fact: There may be some truth to that when it comes to desktop traffic, but click-to-call links on mobile eliminate the need to dial the number. This removes the slowdown in the funnel that users often bounce on and brings the flow closer to that of any other online ad campaign. Google made clear how effective click-to-call is a long time ago.

With the main pay-per-call myths taken care of, it’s time to discuss the particular traffic and niche combo that doesn’t get nearly as much attention as its performance warrants. Namely, running pay-per-call leadgen on mobile social traffic. It is widely known that most of the traffic that goes to pay-per-call offers is search, and it is no wonder, with all the strides Google has made to accommodate this type of funnel on their platform. However, for all the discussions about ways to monetize TikTok traffic, its ad platform’s click-to-call functionality is rarely ever mentioned. The same can be said about Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest, leaving Facebook the only social media platform where pay-per-call leadgen’s potential gets explored and realized. There are several perks to promoting this niche that mobile marketers are missing out on.

High Intent Leads

Getting to an operator on the line shows a lot more interest in the promoted product or service than taking a second to click a link. That is the closest your ad’s CTR will be to the campaign’s CR. The only thing standing between the initial click and getting connected to an operator is pressing the call button on the phone, so you will need to warm users up for that with your ad creatives. Other than that, no abandoned carts and re-engagement strategies; if your creatives work – they work.

Clean and Compliant

Dealing with account bans and declined creatives when promoting gray verticals is a huge time sink. There is much less to worry about when dealing with pay-per-call leadgen. The ban rate is minuscule compared to other verticals, and even if it happens, you have much better chances to get your account back through appeals. There is much less pressure on you to balance your creatives between compliant and converting when you run niches like home improvement, insurance, and legal. That saves a lot of time, money, and stress.

Operator Assistance

It’s always good to have one more person working on converting your leads, especially when your commission depends on the package the user ends up ordering. 60% of people prefer to contact their local business by calling them on the phone and having a trained salesperson closing deals on the tail end of your campaign helps out the CR quite a lot.

Long-term Profitability

In a lot of other verticals, offers and the businesses they promote often come and go, leaving marketers scrambling for alternatives. That is not the case with pay-per-call leadgen. Once you find a goldmine, you will have plenty of time to take full advantage of it until the user base dries up. You can set up year-long campaigns in niches like insurance or keep things exciting by rotating seasonal campaigns for big paydays. Either way, in this vertical, income streams can be established for years.

Stable Output

After getting a campaign into the green, it will not take much to keep it there. Testing takes a while and can get expensive sometimes, but when you find your target audience and get a sense of the type of ads that work for it, it will be a question of minor banner adjustments and managing traffic costs. Otherwise, you get to enjoy a stable ROI for extended periods.

Running pay-per-call leadgen is a marathon rather than a sprint, and once you hit your pace, the payoff is great. Running pay-per-call leadgen on a platform like Facebook, however, is a marathon with the same payoff but way less competition. ClickDealer knows every shortcut on the way to the finish line, with access to exclusives in every leadgen niche, extensive reporting capabilities, and dedicated managers specializing in pay-per-call campaigns specifically. If that sounds interesting to you, we advise you to get an account or just shoot us a message and enter the race at your earliest convenience, because people have already begun gathering on the starting line.