Sending traffic to a merchant site plastered with telephone numbers used to be a total waste of time.
I refused to promote those merchants, regardless of whether they had the best brand reputation in their niche market, i.e. think 1-800-flowers. Granted, that's a little too obvious, but you know what I mean. π
The telephone numbers ‘leaked' commissions when a person referred from your affiliate link, chose to order over the phone, rather than buy the product online.
The common term used to describe such commission loss is ‘leakage'.
As sales conversions are always much higher with direct customer contact, I couldn't blame merchants for posting their phone numbers.
But the potential for commission leakage is why I personally stopped promoting almost all consumer goods, except through my own drop-shipping arrangements with merchants.
Fortunately, merchants can now both speak to potential customers over the phone AND pay affiliates their commissions due for referrals by setting up Pay Per Call marketing campaigns.
How does Pay Per Call marketing work?
Suppose you have a site about home renovations.
- You apply to and join the iHomeExperts Heating and Air Conditioning Pay Per Call program (available on the CJ network), which targets homeowners who want a quote on the installation of a new whole-home heating or cooling system.
- The iHomeExperts Pay Per Call program is web-integrated, meaning that they replace their standard telephone number with your promo number when you direct traffic to their website. NOTE: where merchants are NOT web-integrated, you place your promo telephone number on your website (or in an ad or your business card, etc.)
- Your referral lands on their page, they phone your promo number and you earn $10.00 per call.
Granted, there are stipulations regarding call duration and quality.
- You earn $10.00 per call if the call duration is greater than 2 minutes and 12 seconds long and it must come from the United States.
- Too, calls are evaluated for quality, so if you consistently send callers who are not looking for a free quote, your commissions will be reversed.
- On the other hand, if the paid calls are legitimate and of good quality, your commissions will remain as posted and you may be eligible for bonuses and an increase in commission levels from iHomeExperts.
From my research, EPC's reported by merchants in the CJ Pay Per Call network are quite impressive. For example, iHomeExperts is currently showing EPC's of:
- $121.21 for their HVAC site (heating and cooling),
- $200.00 on roofing quotes, and ;
- a whopping $333.33 for quotes on vinyl siding.
Pretty nice, eh?
Per call commissions vary considerably, anywhere from $1 – $20 for Direct TV and up to $43 per call with Cura Debt. Likewise call duration and definitions of call quality vary from merchant to merchant.
How well does Pay Per Call marketing work?
Based on reports I've read recently, Pay Per Call marketing works well for those who work at it. π
Adam Viener reported on Revenews that he added a quarter million bucks to his income by driving phone calls. He made no bones about the fact that there was a learning curve involved and that it wasn't all roses, but in the end, the effort ADDED to his overall income.
Robert Duva, co-founder and CMO of RingRevenue, wrote the following in Feedfront magazine:
Top publishers are earning over $75K/month promoting pay-per-call campaigns. Calls are converting 10x better than clicks. Click-through rates improve 5-30% when phone numbers are included in the ads. Advertisers are earning 1.5 to 2x as much for converting calls as they do for online transactions.
I've only just started playing with Pay Per Call myself – since buying the
MMB program (Great course, HATE the name though) – so I have no results to report as of yet. But, like Adam, I know that Pay Per Call marketing will only add to my bottom line.
Quite frankly, although Pay Per Call is still very much in its infancy, it is the future of affiliate marketing. Over the next few years most merchants with affiliate programs will recognize its potential and start their own Pay Per Call campaigns.
Right now, merchants on most of the major affiliate networks offer pay per call marketing campaigns — including Linkshare, the Google Affiliate Network, Commission Junction, ShareaSale and others.
So, for affiliates, the time to get on board and learn how to make Pay Per Call work is definitely NOW.
To that end, I HIGHLY recommend the Mobile Money Bandit course.
Justin Elenburg, the MMB program developer, shows exactly how he managed to “supercharge” his mobile marketing systems to rake in an amazing six-figure income (and more than a $124,000 in a single month).
Moreover, the course was recently endorsed by one of the original Pay Per Call marketing experts — an early and successful adopter of the strategy and one of the guys who taught Justin the ropes.
Check out MMB program today — You have nothing to lose, as it comes with a 100% money-back guarantee. π
Arun says
Many thanks for this informative article, i as affiliate manager of Pay per call network (Keypoint-Media.com) find it hard to convince new publishers to join our network as there is a lot of confusion regarding payouts .But we have the best tracking mechanism and good pay rates for our publishers.
Your article helps many publishers in removing these type of doubts .
James says
I’ve done some Pay Per Call sites for CJ and LinkShare merchants, but found it difficult to track when I was using Pay Per Click traffic to promote the site. When I was testing it about a year ago, there was no way to know what keyword phrase led to the sale.
I should mention that all the merchants I was promoting required me to place the phone number on my own site.
Hans Schulz says
Hey Ros,thanks for cutting me some slack,got the course and am marketing it.Did a keyword search and wow this PPC is going to be huge.After i got your book, and am still going back to it,Affiliate Marketing is the only way for me,finally the light came on.You’re super cool.Thanks from still rainy Victoria.
Christina says
Dear Bob, good on you!! You can do it!! π Look on the bright side, at least you found out what happened while you are still young enough to fix the problem and to make money again. It would have been bad if you found out that the money was gone when you were like 99, or 101. I Have been stufying marketing and internet marketing for 11 years, and pay per call is the best thing I have ever seen!! So God is helping you, he handed you the perfect opportunity at the perfect time. We are getting in on pay per call mobile marketing while it is at the ground floor level and is just taking off big time. We sure are lucky! AND another advantage that you have over most people is that you already had lots of money at one stage, so getting the money back will be easier for you than for most people. because you already have the correct mindset, which is an abundance mentality. Lots of people struggle with the idea of themselves having a lot of money, and they have to do courses first on how to fix their mindset. You already have the millionaire mindset, which puts you way ahead of the pack. Good luck, you can do it!! π
Winston Laymon says
My brother suggested I might like this blog. He was totally right. This put up truly made my day. You can not believe just how so much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!
Luis says
I enjoyed the article as many here. I am always learning new ways to make money online. This concept sounds new as you mentioned in your article and I intend to add it as another strategy to make money online. Thanks Rosalind
Christina says
If any course that I buy goes too fast, I just pause it (the training video) and digest what Ive seen, and then press play again.
Hans Schulz says
All good comments,you are bang on Bill and Carl the up sell stuff stinks,but i for one will give it a chance and comment further when i get it. For now i’ll take the free stuff and learn.Keep me in the loop please Carl.All the best friend!
bob orow says
Thank you Christina–you don’t know how much I appreciated your input. I guess down inside I know what you said is true. It is just getting that fight revved up again. I’m still having a hard time believing my whole retirement could have been stolen that easily. Well I need to make up for alot of lost money I better get started—lol
Christina says
Hi Bob, how are you going? π I wrote you a reply, it is a few posts below, on this same page π Good luck with everything, you can do it for sure!! π
Carl Curtis says
Rosaland, Thank you for letting me know about MMB, I joined but it is not what the bandit says it is, first he said $77 and when I joined he then said if you give me $197 then I will coach you, I turned it down and went on into course but he went so fast that no one could ever understand how to do it unless you have been doing it for a long time. I have found that this is no differant then any of the others. It appears that the only person making money is the one selling the course. Thanks Carl
seofirst says
Awesome points disclosed about pay per call marketing. Thanks for sharing information.
BIll says
It looks like a great course. I am concerned about the up-sells starting at 297.00 and being able to afford campaigns.
rose says
would this work in the uk????
RebeccaH says
I saw the promo video and it did not offer much in the way of explaining how this MMB opportunity is executed. I don’t like marketing video that spends much of the running time blaring emotionalism and very little about the delivery of the service and how money is made. I would be less skeptical if Rosalind herself actually bought and made money with this opportunity. I don’t feel comfortable with someone selling koolaid they didn’t drink themselves. That is why I go to the Warrior Forum and look for reviews and buy from people who can provide real testimonials.
Hans Schulz says
Hey Ros,you are cool,and i’m glad you are back.We are not too far appart,we live in Victoria,BC.
my wife Lyn and i have found this 90 day Chllenge (not MLM) we know how you hate mlm’s
give it a shot http://www.mygreatweight.com or http://hansi.myvi.net C’mon take the Challenge eh!
And by the way i’ll pay your way in..LOL Hans and Lyn in wet Victoria
Mike Seaton says
Very useful article Rosalind.
Being heavily involved in .tel (see http://Telnic.org) I have put a link on the .tel forum as many .tel owners (the extension runs seamlessly on desktops/laptops and all forms of mobile devices) are looking for such mobile monetisation.
The .tel forum link to your article can be found at http://telnic.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2561
Earl Brown says
Rosalind – good clear article. We’re a Pay Per Call leads agency and have been delivering live transfers for 10 years. Trust Ring Revenue – good solid operation with innovative programming and lots of good options. Real experts in the PPCall industry.
Earl Brown, CEO
ValueLeads PPCall
kurazacki says
Hi Ros~ Love your articles~im kinda interested on this marketing~sure this explained well~i might wanna joining in~
Brian says
ihomeexperts.com – Aren’t they just a broker to local contractors?
Went to ihomeexperts.com and was shocked to find no About, no disclaimer, no disclosure, no terms, only a privacy policy! Unless I’m missing something, isn’t this a clear violation of FTC guidelines and just begging for FTC scrutiny?
Brian says
Thanks Ros. Do you know if there is any software that would allow a local merchant to run their own pay-per-call program? That could be a game changer for them.
Kathy says
Hi Ros
This article is very interesting, I am also enrolled in MMB, (thanks to you)
I’ve had trouble signing up for certain
Affiliate networks. I’m determined to keep on applying though and learning. I was trying to get this accomplished quickly, it wasn’t too realistic though. Everything takes time.
Those payouts are great man. I’m checking it out for sure. I did a trend search the other day. mobile is hot hot hot. mostly for men and women in the 24 to 35 range. As the list got closer to my age, holy(expletive) it’s like we all fell off the planet. Lol
Thanks again Ros, you really helped me out
Check out ringrevenue if you have time, I’m interested in what you think
bob orow says
Rosalind I love the article, my concern is that I am 64 years old have lost 2,000,000 dollars of my retirement do to the investment fraud by Madoff
I’m starting over. I trust your company I like the concept of Affiliate Marketing. I am concerned as to how long will this stay a lucrative business?
I have built a successful home Improvement company over 40 yrs but now I need to be in a more lucrative business.
AM I TO LATE OR TOO OLD
Christina says
Hi Bob, you are never too old to do affiliate marketing!! In fact, you are at a perfect age because you have got time to sit down and study it and do it, instead of having to go to work every day and waste 8 hours a day at a job and try to squash study into your evening after work, you have lots of time to learn and do this stuff. Affiliate marketing will ALWAYS be around, becauise human beings will always need stuff, and companies will always want help to make more sales.
If you don’t do affiliate marketing, you will be 74 in ten years. If you DO do affiliate marketing, you will still be 74 in ten years. So you should do it!! π
Brad says
Bob, I am very sorry to hear about your retirement. While my losses don’t compare in magnitude, I lost thousands in a home sale, and have seen my investment accounts drop or maintain the same levels as when I set them up over 10 years ago. Like you, I have been looking for additional sources of income to ensure that I can provide for my family now and into the future. I’ve found that the answer is in residual income, not investment income. While I am building an affiliate marketing business and definitely believe you should continue pursue it, I have have another program that every person that is reading this right now, regardless of your education, finances, age, or charming good looks can build a residual income in a short period of time. The program I am using only requires a $70 monthly investment. Iβve been working it for 2 months and have seen my monthly residual income grow each month. Now I have a long way to go to get where I want to be but it is happening, maybe slowly, but I am headed in the right direction. My friend has surpassed $7000 monthly in his first 6 months. It is incredibly simple if you will just follow the program. You can check it out here http://transformationincome.com or contact me directly. Good luck! Brad