Yahoo Local Testing Pay Per Call Ads

[mandy]

Yahoo Local (US based) was running some Pay Per Call advertising which appeared to be served via Ingenio (which also serves Pay Per Call via AOL and Local.com).

One of the beautiful aspects of pay per call advertising is that small business owners who are not used to setting up web sites or traditional paid search campaigns can easily manage paid search via Ingenio as the merchant only pays for every incoming call, not each click.

full article: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=2477

article confirming story: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=2488

[jezebel]

I have a big local but what if you have a small local?   
Do local Internet ads work for small locals?

Ingenio's site explains PP-Call better than that blog http://paypercall.ingenio.com/Help/Faq.aspx#faq0

#  Q:  How does Pay Per Call differ from click-based advertising?
# A:  Pay Per Call differs from click-based advertising because it uses a phone call as the billable event, rather than a click. As a Pay Per Call advertiser, you pay only when your Pay Per Call ads generate a call to your business, whereas click-based advertisers pay for clicks to their website, which may or may not result in a phone lead. With Pay Per Call, the majority of businesses can participate - including the nearly 13.8 million small businesses that don't have eCommerce websites.
# Q:  Which calls are charged and which calls are not?
# A:  To ensure you get maximum value as a Pay Per Call advertiser, you are not charged in the following situations:

    * Repeat calls: Only the first call from a phone number will be charged within a 30-day period.
    * Short calls: You will not be charged because most likely the lead was not valuable.
    * Hang-ups: Calls where the caller hangs up the phone before you answer are not charged.
    * Unanswered calls: You will not be charged until sufficient time for the phone to be picked up elapses.

Other new phone call leads delivered to your ring-to number will be charged, so be ready to receive calls when your ad is live and use scheduling to automatically pause your ad when you are unavailable.