Last week, AOL became the largest online service to offer the comparatively new pay-per-call format to search advertisers. Pay-per-call is rapidly gaining traction among search marketers, especially those targeting a local audience, and if you're not familiar with the format, it's worth a look.
The premise behind pay-per-call advertising is straightforward: Rather than presenting a sponsored link to click through to an advertiser's web site in response to a query, pay-per-call ads display a toll-free telephone number. The searcher can still click on the pay-per-call ad, but rather than visiting the advertiser's web site, the user sees a brief information page about the business.
The pay-per-call format solves a problem for the millions of businesses that don't have a web presence, but still want to be found by online searchers. It's especially effective for local businesses, since pay-per-call ads can be targeted for users in a specific location.
